66th Annual Conference

Saturday, February 21

Morning Workshops

9:00 - 11:30 A.M.

Workshop 78

Generativity versus Stagnation:  The Experience of Meaning in our Personal and Professional Lives

Chair:                

Art Raisman, Ph.D., CGP, Private Practice, San Francisco, California

According to Erik Erikson generativity, contributing to and guiding the next generation, is the key to a meaningful adult life. To experience meaningfulness in our work and avoid burn out, we must see ourselves making a real difference in the lives of others. This workshop addresses this issue from both group leader and a group member perspectives.

demonstration-sharing of work experiences-experiential-didactic

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:

1. Identify what makes their own lives meaningful and what blocks that experience.

2. Articulate the subtext of patients' search for meaning as it emerges in group interaction.

3. Create a greater sense of meaning for group members, both within the group and in their lives outside of group.

Course References:

1. Erikson, E. (1987). A way of looking at things: selected papers of Erik H. Erikson. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co.

2. Sanville, J.B. (2002).  When therapist and patient are both in Erikson's eighth stage.  Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 22: 626-639.

3. Chodorow, N.J. (2004).  The Ameriocan independent tradition:  Loewald, Erokson, and the (possible) rise of intersubjective ego psychology.  Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 14: 207-232.