COLLOQUIUM
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2022
Conflict and Negative Countertransference: When is it therapeutic to express anger?
KAREN MARODA with IRWIN HIRSCH as discussant
Navigating the world of countertransference emotions remains a controversial and challenging clinical concept. It cannot surprise us that we are particularly averse to expressing negative emotions to our clients, given both the potential for being hurtful, but also the current cultural bias against revealing negative feelings and anger. To some extent we must unlearn how we were taught to deal with negative feelings towards others to be effective clinicians. Further, this presentation focuses on the potential additional resistance to acknowledging countertransference anger and hatred that emanates from our early roles as caregivers and peacekeepers in our families of origin. Increasing awareness of our own fears of what will happen if we express anger can help us to overcome these obstacles and become more skilled at both managing our negative emotions internally and expressing them constructively to clients. This presentation will begin with an overview of the place of conflict in analytic theory, integrate that with our personal biases against disclosing anger, and illustrate the pivotal role of conflict and anger in the therapeutic process.
Karen J. Maroda, Ph.D., ABBP, is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Medical College of Wisconsin and in private practice in Milwaukee, WI. She is board certified in psychoanalysis by the American Board of Professional Psychology, and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis. The author of four books, The Power of Countertransference, Seduction, Surrender and Transformation, Psychodynamic Techniques, and The Analyst’s Vulnerability, as well as numerous journal articles and book reviews. She also sits on the editorial boards of Psychoanalytic Psychology and Contemporary Psychoanalysis. She gives lectures and workshops both nationally and internationally.
Irwin Hirsch, PhD is faculty, supervisor, and former director of the Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis; distinguished visiting faculty, William Alanson White Institute; adjunct clinical professor of psychology and supervisor, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis; and faculty and supervisor, the National Training Program, the National Institute of the Psychotherapies. He’s authored over 90 psychoanalytic articles and book chapters and six books, including: the 2008 Goethe Award winning, Coasting in the Countertransference; The Interpersonal Tradition; The Interpersonal Perspective in Psychoanalysis,1960’s-1990’s, co-edited with Donnel Stern; Further Developments in Interpersonal Psychoanalysis, 1980s-2010s, co-edited with Donnel Stern; |