Indiana Society for Psychoanalytic Thought

TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA, POTENTIAL SPACE AND CLINICAL PROCESS
By Dr. Elgan Baker

Monday, May 10, 2010
7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Program Description

This workshop will review Winnicott's significant contribution regarding transitional objects and their role in development and discuss how this construct has been expanded to examine a range of dynamic and structural phenomena which occur in the space between inner and outer, self and other and real and imagined. The central function of these phenomena for boundary formation and identity cohesion and for the construction of subjective reality will be considered. These ideas will then be discussed in relation to the psychoanalytic process and the therapeutic action of interpretation and transference particularly in relation to structural pathology. Several clinical examples will be presented to illustrate these ideas.

Learning Objectives: After attending this workshop participants will be able to:

1) Explain three ways that transitional objects are developmentally significant.
2) Describe three ways that transitional phenomena facilitate the development and cohesion of identity.
3) Describe three ways transitional phenomena have been expanded to examine the nature of treatment as potential space and how these ideas help to redefine various conceptualizations of therapeutic action in psychoanalytic treatment.

About the Presenter

Dr. Elgan L. Baker is co-founder and President of Meridian Psychological Associates, PC. and Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Baker is a Clinical Diplomate (ABPH) and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. He has also been awarded a diplomate in Forensic Psychology (ABPS) and in Psychoanalysis as a founding fellow of the American College of Advanced Practice Psychologists. His clinical work has focused on the intensive treatment and psychoanalysis of adults. He has received numerous national and international awards for his clinical and theoretical contributions to psychotherapy, hypnosis, and hypnoanalysis, and lectures regularly on these topics throughout North America and Europe. Dr. Baker has been elected to offices in numerous professional organizations including the Central Indiana Psychological Association, the Indiana Psychological Association, the American Psychological Association and the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, He has published more than 100 professional articles, books and book chapters.

Areas of Special Interest include: Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy, Treatment of Borderline and Narcissistic Disorders, Eating Disorders, and Forensic Consultation and Evaluation.