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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