63rd Annual Conference

Friday, February 24

Morning Workshops

10:00 A.M.-1:15 P.M.

Workshop 50

Early Parental Loss (Childhood to Age 25): Integrating Tasks of Separation & Continuity

Chair:    

Mary Sussillo, LCSW, BCD, Private Practice, New York, NY

Freud's formal writings on loss, emphasized the task of detachment. The presenter will expand and extend Freud's theory and integrate it with more current bereavement thinking on maintaining continuity with lost parental objects. The presenter will also demonstrate the dialetical tension in grief work: how the group analyst can help facilitate the patient's continuity with dead parents while respecting the need for separation from lost loved ones. This workshop will integrate Freud's emphasis on detachment in his writing on loss, with current bereavement thinking on maintaining continuity with lost parental objects. Regulating the dialectical tension in grief work, the presenter will demonstrate the facilitation of the continuity with dead parents while respecting the need for separation from lost loved ones.

experiential-demonstration-sharing of work experiences-didactic

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:

1. Expand and extend their understanding of mourning theory.

2. Identify the dual tasks of mourning--separation and continuity.

3. Increase their ability to help facilitate the dual tasks of mourning with patients.

4. Increase awareness of countertransference issues with adult patients who

have experienced early parental loss.

Course References:

1. Gaines, R. (1997). Detachment and Continuity. Contemp. Psychoanal., 33,549-571.

2. Silverman, P., Nickman,S. and Worden, J. (1992). Detachment Revisited: The child's reconstruction of a dead parent. Amer. Jl. of Orthopsychiatry, 62(4), 494-503.

3. Sussillo, M. (2005). Beyond the Grave: Adult treatment of adolescent parental

loss. Psychoanalysis. Dialogues, (in press)