Dr. Eric M. Plakun presents nine practical principles helpful in establishing and maintaining a therapeutic alliance in the psychodynamic psychotherapy of self-destructive borderline patients.

Educational Events

Alliance-Based Intervention for Suicide

Riggs Medical Director/CEO Eric M. Plakun, MD. 

"After Vienna: A conversation with Otto Kernberg, MD, and Thomas Kohut, PhD"

The opening roundtable examines the experiences two prominent psychoanalysts, Otto Kernberg and Heinz Kohut who were forced to emigrate from Vienna as the Holocaust approached. Dr. Kernberg will speak about his life and career considering his emigration experience, and Tom Kohut, PhD, will speak about how the emigration experience of his father Heinz Kohut influenced his personal and professional life and work. How both men have shaped American psychoanalysis will be examined. This discussion will be moderated by Nancy McWilliams, PhD.

This roundtable is part of "From Despair to Hope: The Holocaust, Immigration, and Psychoanalysis in North America," a collaboration between the Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center and the Sigmund Freud Museum honoring the late Anton O. Kris, MD.

The roundtable series is partially underwritten by Steven C. Ackerman and the Stockbridge Cultural Council. Additional sponsorship opportunities are available. Contact lisa.lewis@austenriggs.net

Refugees and Immigrants: Their Experience and Contribution to Psychoanalysis in North America - Virtual Roundtable #1

Roundtable #1 examines the experiences two prominent psychoanalysts, Otto Kernberg and Heinz Kohut who were forced to emigrate from Vienna as the Holocaust approached.

Dr. Adam Polnay states, "In the course of writing a new textbook on psychotherapy, I was struck by the joy and value in re-visiting the so-called ‘basic’ concepts and practices of therapy. From discussion with colleagues, I think I am not alone in observing how we as therapists may, over time, come to take the basics for granted, and even ‘forget’ them." In the introduction section of his talk, he explores possible explanations for this. These include the role of interpersonal dynamics inherent in working closely with people in therapy; as well as a familiarity that may creep in that diminishes the fresh shock of clinical encounters present earlier in one’s career. Furthermore, there is the tendency for any activity we practice repeatedly to become automatic–whilst adaptive in some ways, this is not necessarily without detriment.

Borrowing ideas from a different discipline to therapy, a key technique book for experienced violinists is titled ‘Basics.’ This title is deceptively simple as the book is over 200 pages; it is not intended for beginners but for experienced violinists to use as part of their daily practice. Polnay suggests that aspects of how some musicians practice may be helpful for us therapists–including a recognition of the importance of the continuing need to attend to the ‘basics,’ the foundations, of one’s craft.

With this background in mind, he goes on to highlight–with a contemporary lens–some of the basics of therapeutic work. These include:

How an understanding of memory systems can provide a grounding for the therapist

The importance of observation to infer a patient’s underlying ways of being

‘Listening in’ as a plain language approach to countertransference work, drawing on the work of Michael Parsons

The potential for the patient to discover, within the therapeutic relationship, ‘something new from something old’ (Mitchell, 1997, as cited in Gabbard and Westen 2003)

A contemporary approach to transference work

To conclude, the process of writing a book has, in a good way, led Polnay to feel less experienced, more ‘on the edges of knowing and not-knowing’ (French and Simpson 2000, drawing on Bion 1980). Bion argues that this is a helpful disposition for the therapist, although it is not necessarily easy. As French and Simpson (2000) put it:

“Just at the moment when working at the edges between knowing and not-knowing can allow space for a new thought, it can also let in the anxiety of one's nakedness.”

(Re)discovering the Basics of Therapy: A Continuing Process for the Psychodynamic Therapist

Dr. Adam Polnay states, "In the course of writing a new textbook on psychotherapy, I was struck by the joy and value in re-visiting the so-called ‘basic’ concepts and practices of therapy.

Jonathan Sklar, LRCP, MRCS, MBBS, FRCPsych, TQAP 

FRIDAY NIGHT GUEST LECTURE SERIES 2022-23

The tradition of Apocalyptic prophecy developed in the Middle Ages, first by Jewish and later Christians ‘consoles, fortified and asserted themselves when confronted by the threat.' Messianism and debates about the Antichrist were further developed during the Crusades. Later the good-bad dichotomy was enacted by the thousands of penitents masochistically scourging themselves across Europe as well as the Torquemadian sadistic persecutions. Yet all the major European powers used such cruel displays as it was socially, politically, and economically expedient to those in power. Unconscious manifestations of human cruelties find expressions in society and very often such matters are reframed, covered over, and even believed to be ideal states of humanity–such as ‘religious goodness.'

Jonathan Sklar is presenting a Virtual Friday Night Guest Lecture on February 10, 2023, through the Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center.

Jonathan Sklar

Apocalyptic Times and the Missing Debate

1.5 CME/CE Credits. Free Virtual Friday Night Guest Lecture with Jonathan Sklar.

This lecture takes up the question of what a social psychoanalysis might look like in the clinic, in our psychoanalytic institutions, and in our society. Drawing on some earlier psychoanalysts’ concepts that have connected the social world and the psychic world, I introduce the concept of normative unconscious processes, which addresses the ways that racism, heterosexism, classism, and other social inequalities are unconsciously replicated in the clinic. The talk then explores how therapists can resist unconsciously replicating such cultural inequalities. We will then look outside the clinic at how cultural inequalities manifest in the wider circles of contemporary institutional and sociocultural life. Here, too, we will explore how we, as citizens and therapists, both unconsciously replicate and can resist replicating harmful, unequal relations. We will think together about how to address the places in our different subjective and communal worlds where harm has been done, and engage together on how to make repair.

Lynne Layton, PhD, is presenting a Virtual Friday Night Guest Lecture on March 10, 2023 through the Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center.

Lynne Layton, PhD

Social Psychoanalysis, Normative Unconscious Processes, and an Ethic of Repair

 Free Virtual Friday Night Guest Lecture with Lynne Layton, PhD.

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Unsplash

Race and Racism in Psychoanalytic Thought: Shaking Our Analytic Frame

Beverly J. Stoute, MD, FABP, DFAPA, DFAACAP gives the 2023 Yasmin Roberts Memorial Lecture. This is a free virtual Friday Night Guest Lecture.

Explore a wide range of psychotherapy conferences, lectures, workshops, and educational events with Riggs clinicians, as well as online CE/CME courses. 

Therapy Conferences & Educational Events | Austen Riggs Center

For answers to any questions about events, conferences, or CME courses, please feel free to contact us.

In addition to wide ranges of published articles, interviews, and other materials featuring the work of Riggs clinicians, our Resource Center houses video excerpts and select full presentations from past academic conferences and educational events.

An important part of the Erikson Institute's educational mission is providing online continuing education and continuing medical education courses with an emphasis on psychodynamic psychotherapy. Certificates and CE/CME credits are availabile for those with an MD, PhD, or PsyD, and for social workers.

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