“Psychoanalytic Counterresistence to Sexual Issues”

“Psychoanalytic Counterresistence to Sexual Issues from 1880 to the Present”

Mark J. Blechner, PhD

Friday, May 2, 2025

6:30PM – 8:30PM (EDT)

PPSC

Live Webinar on Zoom

$60 Regular Admission and $40 Student

*This talk provides 2 hours of continuing education credits for LCSWs, LMSWs, LPs, LMHCs, LCATs, LMFTs, and licensed psychologists.

Psychoanalysts can be resistant to hearing about and working with sexual issues with their patients. This presentation will examine the observations of such counterresistance in a three-year study group, led by the speaker, with sophisticated psychoanalytic clinicians seeking to expand their knowledge and facility in working with multifarious sexual issues, desires, and practices. We will review the operation of psychoanalytic counterresistance to sexual issues in psychoanalytic history, starting with the case of Anna O. and Breuer, based on readings of primary documents written by the patient.

Mark J. Blechner, Ph.D. is Training and Supervising Analyst at the William Alanson White Institute and Clinical Supervisor and Adjunct Professor, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. He has published four books: The Mindbrain and Dreams: Explorations of Dreaming, Thinking, and Artistic Creation (2018), Sex Changes: Transformations in Society and Psychoanalysis (2009), The Dream Frontier (2001), and Hope and Mortality: Psychodynamic Approaches to AIDS and HIV (1997). Dr. Blechner was the founder and director of the HIV Clinical Service at the White Institute. He is editor emeritus of the journal Contemporary Psychoanalysis. He has established scholarships to fund the training of candidates of color and transgender candidates at the White Institute. He practices psychoanalysis and psychotherapy and leads private dream groups.

Learning Objectives

After attending this presentation, participants will be able to:

• discuss the manifestations of counterresistance to sexual issues in clinical psychoanalysis, in both therapists and supervisors.
• identify how counterresistance can be triggered and recognized and describe a methodology for correcting counterresistance to sexual issues.
• review specific instances in psychoanalytic history of counterresistances to sexual issues starting with the first psychoanalytic case of Anna O. and Breuer.

Agenda

6:30 – 7:00: Manifestations of counterresistance to sexual issues in clinical psychoanalysis in both therapists and supervisors.

7:00 – 7:30: How counterresistance to sexual issues can be triggered, recognized, and corrected.

7:30 – 8:00: History of counterresistance to sexual issues in psychoanalysis beginning with Anna O. and Breuer.

8:00 – 8:30: Q & A.

*For a refund to a PPSC Annex event, we must receive a cancellation notice 24 hours prior to the event. Please contact annex-ops@ppsc.org if you want to cancel within this timeframe or if you have any other questions or concerns.

*Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts #P-0040, licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0166, licensed creative arts therapists #CAT-0083, and licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0119. We are recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0054 and by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0118. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center maintains responsibility for its programs and its content.

*PPSC does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, sexual preference, gender, gender identity, marital status, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its admissions and educational policies.