Event Description:
What if the most important perspective in psychoanalysis is the one we rarely hear? Lay patients—those without theoretical training or professional community—make up the vast majority of analysands, yet their authentic voices remain largely absent from our field’s discourse. Unlike analyst-patients who can contextualize their experience through theory and collegial exchange, lay patients navigate analysis without a map. Their accounts offer raw, unfiltered insights into what truly matters in the therapeutic encounter—insights with the potential to transform our understanding of the analytic process.
This talk invites attendees to join a pioneering project exploring the place and value of patient narrative in psychoanalytic discourse. Together we’ll consider excerpts from Joan K. Peters’ own memoir Untangling: A Memoir of Psychoanalysis, alongside narratives she is collecting for a forthcoming special issue of Psychoanalytic Inquiry on The Patient Experience. The unique data you’ll hear marks a striking departure from the “nightmare analyst” novels of popular culture—which we’ll briefly review—as well as the handful of accounts written by analysts in the early years of the profession.
By the end of the discussion, we will reflect on whether granting patients their own voice can deepen our understanding of the intersubjective relationship emphasized by Winnicott, Kohut, and others, and advance the vision of true “two-person therapy” articulated by Jay Greenberg and Stephen Mitchell in The Relational Revolution.
When
Where
CEUs
Cost
Educational Objective(s)
- Discuss the challenges for patients undergoing analysis in the absence of an analytic A community or theoretical foundation that most candidates/analysts have.
- Develop a practice of writing about their own analyses to further their own and their patients’ growth.
Presenter Information
Presenter information:
Joan K. Peters is a Professor Emeritus of Literature and Writing at California State University at Channel Islands. She is the author of a novel, two books on working mothers, and Untangling: A Memoir of Psychoanalysis (Roman and Littlefield, 2/2025). Living in California with her husband and their dogs and chickens, she continues to write about psychoanalysis on her blog and discuss it on podcasts. She’s presented a talk on “Memoir and Psychoanalysis” at last winter’s APsA meeting and will participate in a panel discussion about her book at this coming one. Her book is available in kindle and hardcover on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles.
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CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION CREDITS
SDPC is proud to offer CE/CME credit to Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Psychologists and Social Workers. Continuing Education certificates of attendance will be awarded electronically in exchange for a completed evaluation form. Please see the CE/CME credits page for more information.
For refund policies or cancellations, please visit our policies page. Any other questions, contact the SDPC Continuing Education Manager.
CMA Accreditation Statement: The San Diego Psychoanalytic Center is accredited by the California Medical Association (CMA, provider #4001214) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
AMA Credit Designation Statement: The San Diego Psychoanalytic Center designates this Continuing Education activity for a maximum of 2 hours AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™️. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
CAMFT Accreditation: The San Diego Psychoanalytic Center (SDPC) is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) as a continuing education provider, (#050121), to offer Category 1 credit for LMFT’S, LCSW’S, LPCC’S and LEP’S. SDPC as required by the California Board of Behavior Sciences. SDPC maintains responsibility for this course program and all of its content.
Disclosure Statement: The San Diego Psychoanalytic Center CE Committee has reviewed the materials for accredited continuing education and has determined that this activity is not related to the product line of ineligible companies and therefore, the activity meets the exception outlined in Standard 3: ACCME's identification, mitigation and disclosure of relevant financial relationship*. This activity does not have any known commercial support.
*Financial relationships are relevant if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company.
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The San Diego Psychoanalytic Center is affiliated with the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA), the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA), and the organization of Southern California Psychoanalytic Institutes and Societies.
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