PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES, PUBLICATIONS AND PAPERS
“The Parental Gaze and the Infant’s Experience of Early Meaningfulness: Imagining and Creating the Self” (2008)
Paper under consideration at the International Journal of Psychoanalysis. This paper proposes that the task of making sense of experience, and of formulating experience in a coherent articulation, is strongly reminiscent of the earliest imprimatur of the parental gaze that falls on the nascent self. This first gaze is one in which the infant is originally viewed as an area of unknown experience for his parents, and the object of his parents’ quest for meaning. The imprimatur of this gaze contains the parental struggle to make meaning of the infant, giving the infant significance, including firmness and conviction with respect to the relative aspects of who he is to them. The infant, enlivened by this creative work, memorializes this original experience of creativity—which is the experience of being made meaningful—memorializes this experience by initiating his own complimentary creative work of imagining himself as the object of his parents’ gaze. Self experience—the experience of the self—is coincident with this creative activity. Without it, one is unable to forge meaning from experience, leading to a blurring of distinctions between meaningfulness and meaninglessness, and to a further blurring of what is real and what is not.
“The Longing For Meaningfulness: Mutual Creative Engagement in the Clinical Setting” (2008)
Paper accepted for presentation at the International Federation of Psychoanalytic Education Conference, Fall, 2008, Boston. This paper proposes that the longing for meaningfulness is ongoing and evolving, and is generated in a relational context. The longing for meaningfulness raises the challenge of creativity, which can be overwhelming and lead to despair and a resort to meaninglessness. This paper explores the way mutual engagement in making meaning and in creativity can be fruitful in helping the patient (or student) begin to formulate experience into a coherent articulation and to enter the arena of discourse.
“Blackberry Dependence and the Failure of Symbolic Thinking: The Quest to Abolish Separateness” (2008)
Paper accepted for presentation at Colloquium on Technology in Psychoanalytic Practice, Fall 2008, Suffolk Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.
“On Entitlement” (2008)
Presentation was part of the 2008 Educational Seminar Series produced by Pathways Women’s Health, a multidisciplined women’s health and community center in Manhasset, N.Y.
“On Grief and Mourning” (2007)
Presentation was part of the 2007 Educational Seminar Series produced by Pathways Women’s Health, a multidisciplined women’s health and community center in Manhasset, N.Y.
Professional and Teaching Experience
SUFFOLK INSTITUTE FOR PSYCHOANALYSIS AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
Faculty
Teach psychoanalytic theory and clinical case writing to post-doctorate psychoanalytic candidates in a four-year certificate granting program that serves as one of three psychoanalytic training programs on Long Island for students who have completed doctoral programs in social work and psychology. Conduct weekly seminar featuring clinical material, theory and process. Engage in ongoing evaluation and assessment of students’ clinical work and oversee integration into case material and written case presentation.
Chair, BodyBody Committee
Developed first of BodyBody Colloquium Series dedicated to exploring aspects of body experience in psychoanalysis and culture.
PROFESSIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE
National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis, Executive Committee on Federal Legislation, 2008 – 2012.
Open Door Parent and Child Caring Center, Executive Vice President 2007 – 2009
Douglaston and Little Neck Historical Society, Chair, Research and Archives Committee 2006 – 2011
Education and Credentials
Certified Psychoanalyst, The National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis
Licensed Psychoanalyst, New York State
Completed psychoanalytic training and candidacy at The Training Institute for The National Psychoanalytic Association for Psychoanalysis
Master of Arts
State University of New York at Binghamton
Bachelor of Arts
State University of New York at Binghamton
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