The Essential Other: Generativity, Resilience, and Narrative

featuring panels on Schools, Emotional Resilience and LGBT teens

SATURDAY  SEPTEMBER 21, 2013

a conference honoring the life and work of Bertram Cohler, Ph.D.

at Francis W. Parker School, 330 West Webster, Chicago, IL 60614

Sponsored by Section II of Division 39 of the American Psychological Association,

Francis W. Parker School and the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis and DePaul University

Bert Cohler was a child and adolescent psychoanalyst highly respected for his compassion and innovation. He was an internationally recognized expert on human development based on his research studies of parenthood, aging and the function of life stories. As a professor at the University of Chicago he was hugely generative, launching many researchers on their careers as well as introducing thousands of undergraduates to psychoanalytic thought. Among the many books and papers that Dr. Cohler contributed to psychoanalytic scholarship was The Essential Other, a book co-written with Robert Galatzer-Levy that contributed to a developmental psychology of the self. In addition, Bert was a founding member of Section II, the child and adolescent section of Division 39, the psychoanalytic division of the American Psychological Association. This conference will be devoted to an appreciation of Bert’s many accomplishments, including his “essential” contributions to psychoanalytic notions of such concepts as generativity, resilience and narrative. One of Dr. Cohler’s areas of particular concern was the lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered children and adolescents, and so there will be a panel devoted to this work. In addition, there will be a panel devoted to a consideration of the role of schools in facilitating psychological development as well as a panel dedicated to an examination of psychological resilience. Dr. Robert Galatzer-Levy will give a keynote address in which he re-examines their ground-breaking book from the perspective of the past 20 years.

Conference Chair: Christine C. Kieffer, Ph.D., ABPP (CCKPHD@aol.com)

Planning Committee: Daniel B. Frank, Ph.D., Robert Galatzer-Levy, M.D., Molly Romer Witten, Ph.D., Andrew Suth, Ph.D., Marshall Kordon, Psy.D., Thomas Barrett, Ph.D.

OUTLINE OF PROGRAM

8:15-8:45                    Registration and Coffee

8:45-9:00                    Welcome –Christine C. Kieffer, Ph.D. & Daniel B. Frank, Ph.D.

9-9:45                         Plenary          Robert M. Galatzer-Levy, M.D.

9:45-10:00                  Break

10-11:15                     Panel on Schools - Christine C. Kieffer, Ph.D., Daniel B. Frank, Ph.D.,

                                                Marshall Kordon, Psy.D.,  Michel LaCocque, M.A.

11:15-11:30                Break

11:30-12:45                Panel on Resilience Molly Romer Witten, Ph.D., Barbara Bowman,

Isaac Galatzer-Levy, Ph.D.

12:45-1:45                  Lunch

1:45-3                         Panel on GLBT - Andrew Suth, Ph.D., Bruce Koff, LCSW,

David deBoer, Ph.D., Amanda Klonsky, M.A.

3-3:15                         Break

3:15-4:00                    Reflections on Essential Others and comments on the day 

4:00                             Reception

PRESENTERS

Barbara Bowman the Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Development at Erikson Institute is one of the Institute’s founders and served as its president from 1994-2001. Her specialty areas are early education, cultural diversity, and education of at-risk children. She has over 50 publications, including articles, book chapters, and edited volumes. She is a frequent consultant on early care and education and a speakers at conferences and at universities in the United States and abroad. Bowman has served on numerous professional boards, including the Family Resource Coalition and the National Association for the Education of Young Children, of which she was President (1980-82). She has been on a variety of professional committees, including editorial boards, panels for the National Research Council (she chaired the committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy), and appointed boards (Illinois Early Learning Council). Currently, she is on the boards of trustees for the Great Books Foundation and Erikson Institute. Honors include honorary doctorates (Bank Street College, Roosevelt University, Dominican University, Governor’s State University, Lewis University, and Wheelock College), the McGraw Hill Prize in Education, the Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice, the Chicago Historical Society Jane Addams Award, and a Golden Apple award for Community Service.

David deBoer, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, is Associate Director of the Wellness Center at Loyola University, Chicago. He also is in private practice in Chicago where he provides individual and couples treatment with adults and adolescents.

Daniel B. Frank, Ph.D. is Principal of the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago, and the Executive Editor of Schools: Studies in Education, an international journal published by the University of Chicago Press that is dedicated to understanding the subjective experience of school life. Dan is a member of the School Liaison Committee of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and is the recent past-Executive Director of the International society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations. He speaks and writes about leadership in organizations and the psychology of school culture. Dan has been a lecturer in Psychiatry at the University of Chicago and formerly taught in the Teacher Education Program at the Institute for Psychoanalysis in Chicago. Dan is a graduate of the University of Chicago, Amherst College and the Francis W. Parker School.

Isaac Galatzer-Levy, Ph.D.is a member of the research faculty at the NYU School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and is a Primary Investigator in the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Veterans Initiative Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury Research. Dr. Galatzer-Levy is also on the adjunct faculty of Columbia University’s Department of Clinical and Counseling Psychology. He completed his doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Columbia University in 2010 under the mentorship of George A. Bonanno and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in biological psychiatry and posttraumatic stress at the NYU School of Medicine and holds a current position at the Center for Health Informatics and Bioinformatics also at NYU. Dr. Galatzer-Levy’s research focuses on the application of advanced data modeling methods to identify and predict common patterns of adaptation following significant stressful and potentially traumatic life events.

Robert M. Galatzer-Levy, M.D. is training and supervising analyst and supervisor in Child/Adolescent psychoanalysis on the faculty at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis where he teaches and supervises. He is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience ath the University of Chicago Dr. Galatzer-Levy’s private practice in Chicago focuses on psychoanalysis and psychotherapy for children, adolescents and adults as well as forensic matters. He is the author of over 120 papers and five books. He is presently writing a book, From Forty Years of Chaos, applying principles of non-linear dynamic systems theory to psychoanalysis. He and Bert Cohler were close collaborators for a quarter of a century.

Christine C. Kieffer, Ph.D., ABPP -   Conference Chair            Dr. Kieffer is a child/adolescent and adult psychoanalyst as well as a clinical psychologist. She serves on the faculties of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis where she teaches and supervises. She also teaches and supervises child psychiatry fellows, residents and post-docs at Rush University Medical School and Medical Center in the Depts. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science. Dr. Kieffer has published numerous papers, has co-edited 3 books and has an upcoming book on therapeutic action, Mutuality, Recognition and the Self that will be published by Karnac in early 2014. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JAPA), Psychoanalytic Inquiry and the International Journal of Self Psychology. Dr. Kieffer has a private practice in which she provides individual psychoanalysis and psychotherapy with children, adolescents and adults, and also provides couples/family therapy in Chicago and Winnetka.

Amanda Klonsky, M.A. is a clinical social worker who attended the University of Chicago. She is Program Director at Free Write Jail Arts and Literary Program.

Bruce Koff, LCSW is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Live Oak, a psychotherapy group practice in Chicago, where he devotes his time to promoting the well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer-identified people. He formerly was the Executive Director of the Center on Halsted, and also served as the Clinical Director of the Evelyn Hooker Center for Gay and Lesbian Mental Health, a program of the University of Chicago, Department of Psychiatry. He is also adjunct faculty at the Jane Addams School of Social Work at the University of Illinois, Argosy University and lecturer at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. He is the co-author of Something to Tell You: The Road Families Travel When a Child is Gay, published by Columbia University Press (2000.)

Marshall Kordon, Psy.D. is a clinical psychologist in private practice with over 20 years of clinical experience in working with adults, children and adolescents and families in inpatient, outpatient and residential settings. Dr. Kordon is a child, adolescent and adult psychoanalyst. He is a graduate of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis where he is a faculty member.

Michel LaCocque, M.A. is a middle school counselor at the University of Chicago Laboratory School where he has worked for 26 years. He has a special interest in learning and clinical work and also has a private practice.

Andrew Suth, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at Illinois School of Professional Psychology, and a member of the core faculty at the Institute for Clinical Social Work. Andy earned his doctorate in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago. He later taught in that department and served as the assistant director of the mental health track. Andy had the honor of having Bert Cohler as a dissertation chair, advisor, mentor and friend. Andy has been teaching psychoanalytically and psychodynamically oriented topics for 11 years, including courses in Mourning and Loss, History and Systems of Psychology and Projective Personality Assessment. In addition to teaching in the Psychoanalytic Concentration at ISPP, he is the past coordinator of the Neuropsychology Concentration. Andy previously served as a national co-chair for APA’s Division 39 (Psychoanalyis) 2010 annual conference in Chicago entitled, “Wild Analysis: Then and Now”. He maintains a private practice in both psychotherapy and assessment in Chicago.

Molly Romer Witten, Ph.D. has a private practice in adult and child psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, with a specialty in infant mental health and issues of development and relating. In addition to her private practive, Dr. Witten holds an adjunct faculty position in the Infant Mental Health Certificate Program at the Erikson Institute. She is faculty at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. Dr. Witten is the Director of the Parent-Child Workshops, a relationally-based preschool, parent-child play group in Chicago. She has published in the areas of diagnosis and treatment of depression in infancy, evaluation of attachment in foster children, developmentally appropriate psychotherapy for children under three, autism, pervasive developmental disorder, child maltreatment, family therapy, trauma and developmental processes, and theory of development of mind.

Accreditation

Physicians:  This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and Policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint sponsorship of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians and takes responsibility for the content, quality and scientific integrity of this CME activity. 

The American Psychoanalytic Association designates each educational activity for a maximum of 5 hours in category 1 credit towards the Physicians Recognition Award. Each physician should claim only those hours of credit that he or she actually spent in the educational activity.  Disclosure information is on records indicating that participating faculty members have no significant financial relationships to disclose.

Psychologists: The Institute for Psychoanalysis of Chicago is approved by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. The Institute for Psychoanalysis maintains responsibility for this program

Social Workers: The Institute for Psychoanalysis of Chicago is approved as a continuing education sponsor for social workers by the Department of Professional Regulations of the State of Illinois.  The Institute designates each continuing education activity as earning a maximum of 5 hours Continuing Education for Social Workers.

Professional Counselors:  The Institute for Psychoanalysis of Chicago is approved as a continuing education sponsor for Professional Counselors and Clinical Professional Counselors by the Department of Professional Regulation of the State of Illinois.  The Institute designates each continuing education activity as earning a maximum of 5 hours Continuing Education credit.