Seminar Leaders: Drs J. Kohl and R. Ruskin
Course Description
In this second section of a course taught sequentially through each of the four years of teaching, in two sessions, we explore boundary concepts to understand the unique boundaries of psychoanalytic work, as well as for how to work optimally from a risk management perspective. Non-sexual boundary violations, in such areas as receiving gifts, money exchange and therapist self-revelation are considered, as well as misuses of boundary theory to explain problematic clinical outcomes. Boundaries are also considered in terms of their role from different theoretical psychoanalytic perspectives, as well as their way of being perceived by different professional regulatory bodies.
Course Objectives
- (3.2) to review, discuss, and integrate the CRPO Code of Ethics.
- (4.2) To consider how the management of nonsexual boundaries is important, both from a risk management perspective and as away of understanding various transference-countertransference dynamics that are operating within the treatment relationship.
- (1.4, 4.3) In this way, the impact of a therapist’s self and attachment needs are understood to put pressure on these boundaries.
- (4.5) Also, professional responses to inappropriate needs for attachment behavior in the patient are integral to conceptualize in this area.
- To consider how one’s theoretical orientation may alter how an analyst understands boundaries, and yet commonalities that exist to all of our work when it comes to the handling of boundaries, from a risk-management perspective (4.2, 4.3).
- (4.2) To consider the essential role of context in understanding the difference between a “boundary crossing” and a “boundary violation” (3), with respect to self-disclosure). To then consider the regulatory body’s difficulty in understanding that context, when its role may cause it to lose that, as it focuses solely on the behavioral.
Seminar 1
In this session we review the CRPO Ethics Code; we explore boundary concepts to understand the unique boundaries of psychoanalytic work, as well as for how to work optimally from a risk management perspective. Boundaries are also considered in terms of their role from different theoretical psychoanalytic perspectives.
Required Readings
CRPO Ethics Code.
Coen, S. (Chair), Harris, D. (Reporter). (1994). Panel report: What are the boundaries of psychoanalytic work? Journal Of American Psychoanalytic Association, 42(4), 1209-1224.
Gutheil, T.G. & Gabbard, G.O. (1993). The concept of boundaries in clinical practice: theoretical and risk management dimensions. American Journal of Psychiatry, 150(2), 188-196.
Goldberg, A. (2008). Some limits of the boundary concept. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 77, 861-875.
Gabbard, G.O. (2008). Boundaries, technique and self-deception: discussion of Aarnold Goldberg’s “Some limits of the boundary concept”. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 77(3), 877-881.
Poland, W.S. (2008). Boundaries and beyond: Commentary on Arnold Goldberg’s “Some limits of the boundary concept”. Psychoanalytic Quarterly 77(3), 890-896.
Seminar 2
In this session non-sexual boundary violations, in such areas as receiving gifts, money exchange and therapist self-revelation are considered, as well as misuses of boundary theory to explain problematic clinical outcomes. Boundary issues are also considered in terms of their way of being perceived by different professional regulatory bodies.
Required Readings
Gabbard, G.O. & Lester, E. (1995). Chapter 7: Nonsexual boundary violations. In Boundaries And Boundary Violations In Psychoanalysis. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Godley, Wynne. (2001). Saving Masud Khan. London Review of Books, 23(4), 22. Copy will be provided)
Gutheil, T.G. & Gabbard, G.O. (1998). Misuses and misunderstandings of boundary theory in clinical and regulatory settings. American Journal of Psychiatry, 155(3), 409-414.