The curriculum of the Toronto Institute of Psychoanalysis
attempts to respond to the ongoing needs of each
candidate class, with the aim of improving and developing
the educational goals and standards for each subsequent
class. What follows is an outline of the current
curriculum. Note that there is some fluctuation
in curriculum: courses are added or dropped, especially
in the fourth year, where electives vary with candidates'
interest.
Seminars run from September to June on Tuesday evenings,
7:15 to 10:30 p.m., with a 15-minute break between
the two seminars. (Seminars will not be held during
the two weeks of March Break, or during Passover.)
First Trimester (September to December) -
course descriptions
| Introductory
Evening |
2
sessions
|
| History
of Psychoanalysis in Toronto |
1
|
| Ethics |
1
|
| The
Supervised Case: Part 1 |
2
|
| On
Being an Analyst |
2
|
Assessment
& Analyzability
The Beginnings of Psychoanalysis: |
2
|
| Dreams
1896–1901 |
8
|
| Basic
Concepts of Technique |
7
|
| Metapsychology
& the Development of the Structural Theory
|
1
|
Second Trimester (January to March) -
course descriptions
| Metapsychology
& the Development of the Structural Theory
|
12
sessions
|
| Hysteria |
1
|
| Phobias |
1
|
| Obsessions
1 |
1
|
| Obsessions
2 |
1
|
| Psychosexual
Conflicts |
1
|
| Paranoia |
1
|
| Depression |
1
|
| Infantile
Neurosis |
1
|
| Masochism |
1
|
| Fetishism |
1
|
| Anxiety
|
1
|
Third Trimester (March to June) -
course descriptions
| Conflict
and Compromise Formation 1 |
3
session
|
| Conflict
and Compromise Formation 2 |
3
|
| Anxiety |
5
|
| Continuous
Case Seminar 1 |
5
|
| Analysis
Terminable and Interminable |
1
|
| An
Outline of Psychoanalysis |
1
|
| The
Scientific Project |
1
|
| The
Supervised Case: Part 2 |
3
|
| From
Freud to Klein |
2
|
First Trimester (September to December) -
course descriptions
| Technique |
5
sessions
|
| Child
Development |
5
|
| Ethics |
2
|
| Oedipal
Development |
5
|
| Ego
Psychology |
5
|
| Latency |
4
|
| Adolescence |
4
|
Second Trimester (January to March) -
course descriptions
| Ego
Psychology |
5
sessions
|
| British
Object Relations |
10
|
| Continuous
Case Seminar 2 |
10
|
Third Trimester (April to June)
- course
descriptions
| American
Object Relations |
10
sessions
|
| Continuous
Case Seminar 3 |
10
|
| Evaluation |
1
|
First Trimester (September to December)
- course
descriptions
| Introductory
Evening |
1
session
|
| Self
Psychology |
10
|
| Continuous
Case Seminar 4 |
10
|
| Dreams |
5
|
| Bion |
2
|
| Electives |
2
|
Second Trimester (January to March) -
course descriptions
| Character |
5
sessions
|
| Perverse
Formations |
5
|
| Continuous
Case Seminar 5 |
10
|
| Ethics
|
2
|
Third Trimester (April to June) -
course descriptions
| Comparative
Transference |
5
sessions
|
| Comparative
Counter-transference |
5
|
| Gender
Issues and Sexuality |
8
|
| Research
in Psychoanalysis |
4
|
First Trimester (September to December) -
course descriptions
| French
Psychoanalysis |
5
sessions
|
| Klein
|
5
|
| Comparative
Metapsychology |
10
|
|
Continuous Case Seminar 6 |
10
|
Second Trimester (January to March) -
course descriptions
| Lacan
|
5
sessions
|
| Masochism |
5
|
|
Continuous Case Seminar 7 |
7
|
| Termination |
5
|
Third Trimester (April to June) - course
descriptions
| Ethics |
2
sessions
|
| Dreams:
Theoretical Aspects |
5
|
| Winnicott |
2
|
| Bion
(elective) |
5
|
| Evaluation
& Feedback |
1
|
Introductory
Evening
History of Psychoanalysis in Toronto
Discussion of Dr. D. Frayn's Psychoanalysis in
Toronto (2000) looking back on the many and
varied aspects of the local development of the Toronto
Psychoanalytic Society, its members and Institute.
Ethics
This seminar will be the introduction to a course
on psychoanalytic ethics extending over the four
years of didactic classes. The goal of this first
seminar is to review the history of the introduction
of ethical principles into clinical practice. Candidates
will explore how the recognition of the influence
of the transference on the behaviour of psychoanalysts
led to the development of a framework for psychoanalytic
practice. The continued importance of key aspects
of this frame will be explored, and current concepts
of boundaries in psychoanalysis will be examined.
The Supervised Case: Part 1
These seminars will address the history of the supervised
case in psychoanalytic training and some of the
related controversies. The most common difficulties
encountered in control cases will be outlined, as
well as approaches to their resolution.
On Being an Analyst
This seminar will give all participants a chance
to speak with each other about the multifaceted
issues that will affect and challenge them in their
new careers as psychoanalysts.
Assessment and Analyzability
These seminars will address the many considerations
influencing the selection of analytic cases as well
as the indications and contraindications of psychoanalysis
itself. Topics such as premature termination, diagnosis,
outcome, and current developments will be covered.
The Beginnings of Psychoanalysis: Dreams (1896–1901)
These seminars offer an opportunity to explore the
origins of psychoanalysis in Freud's work, but their
primary purpose is to gain a mastery of ideas and
observations that will provide a clinically useful
understanding of hysteria, dreams, and neurotic
symptoms. Throughout, attention will be paid to
clinical applications.
Basic Concepts of Technique
The goal of these seminars is to introduce the basic
concepts of psychoanalytic technique. This will
be done through a comparative review of these concepts,
concerning three important junctures in the development
of technique. The early period covers Freud's papers
on technique. These papers were written in the second
decade of the twentieth century and prior to Freud's
introduction of the structural hypothesis. The second
period begins in 1941 when Otto Fenichel published
Problems of Psychoanalytic Technique. The
third period is the current one and focuses on a
mainstream textbook, The Patient and the Analyst,
by Sandler, Dare, and Holder. Discussions will also
address interesting controversies about some of
our basic and cherished ideas.
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Metapsychology and the Development
of the Structural Theory
This course will follow and elucidate the development
of Freud's theorizing as he gradually moved from
the topographic model found in The Interpretation
of Dreams, toward the greater clinical and theoretical
explanatory power of the structural theory. The
course will further examine the significant theoretical
tension within Freud's metapsychology as his theory
advanced and expanded, subsuming the dynamic, topographic,
economic, and genetic points of view. The vicissitudes
and complexity of Freud's changing notion of instincts,
so crucial to the development of the structural
theory, will be given special consideration. The
conclusion of the course will consider modern currents
and developments in the theory of instincts and
metapsychology.
Classics of Formulation
This course will examine the evolution of Freud's
thinking through an examination of his classic case
studies. His evolving understanding and formulation
of multiple clinical syndromes with their complex
manifestations will be followed. Attention will
be given to the historical context and current relevance
of these concepts.
Anxiety
This course will consider Freud's early and later
understanding of anxiety as well as subsequent developments,
contributed by authors such as Klein and Kohut,
which will be explored through comparative case
study.
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Conflict and Compromise
Formation
This course will deal with the part that defence
against drives and against reality, both internal
and external, plays in conflict and compromise formation.
Continuous Case Seminars
Seven "continuous cases" are spread over the four-year
training program, some sixty seminars in all, that
offer intensive, detailed, and practical clinical
training. In these seminar courses, each led by
a different training analyst, either a candidate
or the instructor presents clinical material from
an ongoing analysis. Through discussions of the
unfolding clinical process, analytic concepts and
techniques are illuminated, and differing theoretical
approaches to the material are explored. These seminars
afford candidates the opportunity to present their
own case material to their peers and to an experienced
training analyst. It is in these clinically focused
seminars that the vital content of differing psychoanalytic
perspectives is explored experientially.
Analysis, Terminable and Interminable: A Half-Century
Retrospective
Soberly realistic about analytic outcome, Freud
indicated that conflict could not be permanently
resolved or the ego definitively strengthened. He
emphasized some important aspects of constitution,
such as strength of the instincts, libidinal adhesiveness,
free aggression, and psychic fluidity or rigidity.
Considering the influence of experience, he regarded
the more accidental traumatic neurosis as having
an unusually favourable prognosis. While concurrently
advancing dual drive theory and ego psychology,
Freud also paradoxically returned to concepts of
ego instincts. Freud pondered the nature of termination
as well as incomplete, completed, periodic, and
interminable analysis. He recognized that analysts
might require re-analysis and hoped that the analytic
process would continue after termination in the
analyst's self-analysis.
An Outline of Psychoanalysis
In the long succession of Freud's expository works,
the Outline exhibits a unique character.
The others are, without exception, aimed at explaining
psychoanalysis to an outside public, a public with
varying degrees and types of general approach to
Freud's subject, but always a relatively ignorant
public. This cannot be said of the Outline. This
is not a book for beginners; it is something much
more like a refresher course for advanced students.
The Scientific Project
Using Freud's letters to Fliess and Sulloway's understanding
of the context in which Freud wrote "The Project,"
we will study its major concepts and the illumination
they provide of Freud's theory of the functioning
of the mind in normality and psychopathology. We
will think about the relationships between experience,
metaphor, fantasy, hypothesis- and theory-making,
and become acquainted with the additional gloss
on the work in Lacan's "Rereading the Entwurf"
in Seminar VII, The Ethics of Psychoanalysis.
The Supervised Case: Part 2 The main purpose
of this course is to elucidate the objectives of
the case report and explore various ways of writing
case reports. Candidates will also clarify the differences
between the supervisor and the reader and be informed
of the workings of the post-submission process.
From Freud to Klein
This seminar addresses the changes and expansion
of Freudian theory into the object relations model.
Reference will be made to the transition (e.g.,
Abraham and "infantile depression"), the extension
(into child analysis, borderline and psychotic states),
and the differences (e.g., concept of superego,
neurotic vs. primitive mechanisms of defence) between
Freud and Klein in theory and practice.
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Technique
This course teaches various theoretical approaches
to technique and illustrates them from cases in
the clinical practices of the instructors and candidates.
Ethics
This course continues an exploration of the concept
of boundaries and focuses particularly upon boundary
violations in clinical practice.
Dream Seminars
In this course the focus is on the study and re-evaluation
of some of Freud's ideas on dream interpretation
and their application to understanding dreams within
the psychoanalytic process.
Child Development
This course is devoted to the study of the current
psychoanalytic understanding of infancy: the intersubjective
nature of infancy, the development of self and object
representations; affects; self and object differentiation;
self and object permanence; the ability to reflect
and understand the mind and emotional states of
the other. The understanding of these processes
in infancy may help in understanding the adult analytic
situation and individual dynamics.
Oedipal Stage Development
This course develops an understanding of male and
female sexual development, the role of parents in
facilitating development in the preschool years;
the processes that introduce Oedipal stage development;
the meaning of phallic narcissistic and phallic-Oedipal
stages, and the importance of object constancy.
Latency
This course develops an understanding of the stages
of latency and how this knowledge can be applied
clinically.
Adolescence
This course focuses on psychoanalytic perspectives
on disturbances in adolescent development and their
contribution to adult psychopathology and the contribution
of psychoanalysis to the psychotherapy of adolescents.
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Ego Psychology
This seminar presents ego psychological clinical
theory from its early development to its contemporary
forms in structural and conflict theory. It aims
to familiarize the candidate with the basic concepts
required to formulate a clinical case and prepare
the required clinical case reports on training cases.
British Object Relations Theories
This course is an introduction to the main British
object relations theories, from Ferenczi, through
Klein, Fairbairn, and Winnicott, to Bion and the
contemporary Kleinians, with a focus on their relevance
to current psychoanalytic work.
American Object Relations
Theory
This course introduces the work of authors who have
developed object relations theories that attempt
to accommodate classical Freudian theory and are
in contrast to the British object relations theories.
It focuses on the development of the internal world
and its influence on psychopathology and treatment.
Evaluation
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Introductory Evening
Self Psychology 1 & 2
The first, introductory, course explores the contributions
of self psychology to contemporary psychoanalytic
theory and technique. Students are introduced to
concepts, such as the use of empathy as an instrument
of inquiry, the influence of the analyst's subjectivity
on technique, the importance of the repair of disruptions
in the analytic relationship to the treatment process,
and a self psychological perspective upon the unconscious.
The second course focuses on the modifications that
have shaped modern self psychological theory and
clinical practice, including the evolving concept
of the selfobject, the intersubjective approach,
attachment theory, and the pathological structures
of accommodation, motivational systems theory, and
relational theory.
Dreams
In this section of the dreams course, students will
study dreams from four different perspectives: self
psychology, Fairbairn, Winnicott; and Klein. The
fifth seminar will be devoted to comparing the different
models.
Bion
These seminars provide candidates with an overall
view of Bion's main contributions to modern psychoanalysis,
mainly in relation to (a) psychoanalytic theory:
structure and function of the mind; interaction
between unconscious and conscious; (b) theory of
the practice: counter-transference and "O"; phenomenology
of listening.
Electives
This course is devoted to subjects of specific interest
to the class. It has often taken the form of a course
in applied psychoanalysis (e.g., psychoanalysis
applied to the study of film or literature).
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Character
In this series of seminars students are introduced
to the concept of character and its place in psychoanalytic
thought, including the historical evolution of the
concept and current thinking. Clinical examples
are presented and discussed, illustrating how analytic
work is informed by an understanding of character.
Perverse Formations
In this course, the concept of "perversion" is explored,
beginning with an introduction to Freud's basic
papers, followed by those of important classic and
contemporary authors. Students develop an understanding
of the dynamics of perversion, the influence of
pathogenic conditions, and the defence mechanisms
connected with this pathology.
Ethics
These seminars are a continuation of the ethics
course, which begins in first year and continues
throughout the candidate's training. Candidates
read and discuss papers on boundary violations in
clinical practice, the fate of the transference
after termination, post-termination boundaries,
and issues of confidentiality.
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Comparative Transference/Counter-transference
The purpose of this course is to study the transference–counter-transference
matrix, which is viewed as the main way to access
the analysand's inner life. The candidate is introduced
to and familiarized with the literature on transference
and counter-transference by reading, discussing,
and comparing papers representing the three major
streams of psychoanalytic theory, in order to understand
clinical material from various perspectives.
Gender and Sexuality in Psychoanalysis
This course covers Freud's and other early psychoanalytic
views, gender identity and sexual difference, contemporary
views on sexual orientation, as well as neurobiological
aspects of gender and sexuality. Time is set aside
to discuss clinical applications, especially including
candidate material.
Research in Psychoanalysis
A look at psychoanalytic methods of research, specifically,
outcome studies as distinct from process research.
A visit from an affect researcher or psychotherapy
researcher will offer valuable comparisons.
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Note:
Content of the fourth-year seminars varies somewhat
from year to year in response to input from candidates.
French Psychoanalysis
This course covers some aspects of French psychoanalytic
thought, as presented through important papers by
several authors. First, Grunberger on narcissism,
then Green on depression, followed by McDougall
on psychosomatic conditions. Finally, we cover a
paper by Laplanche on deferred action, phantasy,
and seduction.
Klein
This course builds on previous knowledge of Melanie
Klein and her contributions. The work of Herbert
Rosenfeld is studied to revise the concepts of early
life, including the early Oedipus complex, narcissism,
and pathological narcissism. Other papers are used
to study the implications for contemporary psychoanalytic
work.
Comparative Metapsychology
The seminar has three purposes: to review some fundamental
classical and current issues in metapsychology,
to re-examine some major components of Freud's theory
in the final year of Institute studie, and to evaluate
metapsychological theories clinically. Four papers
by Prof. C. Hanly are a helpful background to work
in the seminar. They deal with the epistemology
of clinically testing psychoanalytic theories.
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Lacan
This course is given as an introduction to the work
of Jacques Lacan. The purpose of the course is to
stimulate interest and not to try to be totally
inclusive of a difficult topic.
Masochism
This course has three main themes. The first concerns
over-determination (multiple causation) as a concept
in psychoanalysis. The second is that of masochism,
its clinical presentation, causation, and treatment.
Finally, there is a presentation of different forms
of defence related to masochism. To further ground
the discussion, the presenter will discuss dynamics
of an analytic case of his or her own.
Continuous Case Seminar 7: Comparative Technique
This case seminar seeks to consider a single case
from several theoretical and technical vantage points,
comparing and contrasting different theoretical
perspectives and exploring the ways in which they
differentially affect technique. Some relevant papers
will also be consulted. Two training analysts of
differing theoretical orientations will participate.
Termination
The history of psychoanalytic thinking (and avoidance
of thinking) about termination is considered. The
gradual development of the concept of a termination
phase of the analytic process is reviewed. Both
theoretical and technical considerations regarding
termination of analysis are discussed in relation
to clinical material.
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Ethics
This course, which has considered other aspects
of ethics in previous years, looks at issues of
rehabilitation, institutional reactions, and the
value of having a code of ethics.
Dreams: Clinical and Theoretical Aspects
The focus of the first part of this course is on
clinical issues arising during the process of understanding
and interpreting dreams at the various stages of
the analysis. Both a class member's case material
and another clinical presentation will be utilized.
In the second part of the course we will look at
dreams and dreaming in psychoanalysis from varied
theoretical vantage points.
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