Appalachian Psychoanalytic Society upcoming events

October 24, 2026 Fall Conference: Donald Carveth, PhD (Saturday, October 24, 2026)

Sat, 24 Oct 2026 12:30:00 GMT

Appalachian Psychoanalytic Society
a local chapter of the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (SPPP)
of the American Psychological Association

presents a

Fall Conference
with

Donald Carveth, PhD,

Why We Need a Judge
to Judge the Judge:
On the Conscientious Critique
of the Superego

Saturday, October 24, 2026
8:30am - 3:15pm

Crowne Plaza Knoxville
401 W. Summit Hill Drive
Knoxville, TN 37902

Description of Program

Building on his previous work (Carveth, 2013; 2015; 2016; 2023) which distinguishes persecutory from reparative guilt and the superego from the conscience, this intermediate-level conference explores how these distinctions can be applied in clinical practice. Dr. Carveth argues that, while we must avoid becoming “superegoish” with our patients, we are nonetheless tasked with carrying the conscience within the treatment until patients are able to internalize it themselves. Similarly, although the hostile superego cannot be simply “demolished,” it can be disempowered through ethical critique. This paper considers how that process unfolds in the clinical encounter.

Dr. Carveth encourages participants to read his book Guilt: A Contemporary Introduction in advance of the conference.

Dr. Carveth will address the limitations of evidence on guilt as well as the risks associated with overlooking the role guilt plays in our patients’ lives and overvaluing the superego.

AI was not used in any capacity to create the content of this presentation.

Presenter
Donald L. Carveth, PhD, is an emeritus professor of sociology and social and political thought at York University in Toronto. He is also a training and supervising analyst with the Canadian Institute of Psychoanalysis, a former Director of the Toronto Institute of Psychoanalysis, and past Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis.

Dr. Carveth is the author of several influential books, including The Still Small Voice: Psychoanalytic Reflections on Guilt and Conscience (Karnac, 2013), Psychoanalytic Thinking: A Dialectical Critique of Contemporary Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2018), and Guilt: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge, 2023). Many of his publications can be found on his York University webpage and his personal website. His video lectures are available on his YouTube channel.

Dr. Carveth maintains a private psychoanalytic practice in Toronto.

Schedule
This program, when attended in its entirety, is available for 5 continuing education credits.

8:30am Registration
8:55am Welcome and Introduction*
9:00am Theory of superego, the conscience, and persecutory versus reparative guilt.
10:30am Break*
10:45am Why we need to modify, rather than demolish, the superego; discussion.
12:15pm Buffet lunch, with vegetarian option (included in registration fee)*
1:00pm Conscientious critique of the superego.
2:00pm Break*
2:15pm Deconstruction of unconscious fantasy; discussion.
3:15pm Complete Evaluations and Adjourn.*

*CE credit is based on learning time and does not include these portions of the program.

Learning Objectives

After attending this intermediate-level program in full, participants will be able to:

1. Explain the difference between persecutory and reparative guilt and how they alternatively affect patients’ lives.

2. Distinguish the superego from the conscience.

3. Explain why we need a judge to judge the judge, and how we help patients, in the clinical situation, stand up to the “bully” superego.

4. Clarify the differences between guilt and shame and their clinical manifestations.

5. Explain Freud’s managers’ concepts of “guilt substitutes” and “suicide equivalents.”

6. Explain the meaning and clinical importance of Leo Rangel’s concept of “the syndrome of the compromise of integrity” (The Mind of Watergate).

Participants
This program is open to all APS members and other interested mental health professionals
who may not be members. It is not limited to individuals practicing in a predominately psychoanalytic mode. The material will be appropriate for clinicians with intermediate levels of experience and knowledge.

Registration Fees and Policies

BY October 19, 2026:

Professional Members and Scholar Members: $125
Non-members: $145
Early-Career Professional Members: $75
Graduate Student Members: $30.

AFTER October 19, 2026:
Professional Members and Scholar Members: $150
Non-members: $165
Early-Career Professional Members: $100
Graduate Student Members: $50.

Registration will close on October 22, 2026.

Although walk-ins will be accepted, please register online at www.aps-tn.wildapricot.org in advance to assure adequate food and seating.

If you prefer to pay by check, please print the Program Registration form, and mail with your payment to:

Marisa Whitley, PhD
APS Treasurer
100 Forest Court
Knoxville, TN 37919.

Refunds honored with written/electronic notice at least 48 hours before date of conference. Contact Marisa Whitley, PhD.

Contact the APS President Jenna Gilmore, PhD to negotiate fees, if needed.

Facility is accessible to persons who are physically challenged. If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them.

Please address requests, questions, concerns and any complaints to Jenna Gilmore, PhD .

APS Membership
Eligible professionals can join APS or renew their membership for the 2026-2027 program year for $120. Scholars can join/renew for $80 and Early-Career Professionals can join/renew for $65. Graduate students may join or renew for $25.

American Psychological Association Approval Statement
The Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (SPPP) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. SPPP maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Continuing Education
This program, when attended in its entirety, is available for 5 continuing education credits. With full attendance (sign-in at start of program) and completion of a program Evaluation and Learning Assessment, a certificate will be issued. Psychologists will have their participation registered through SPPP. Partial credit is not available for partial attendance.

APS and SPPP are committed to conducting all activities in conformity with the American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles for Psychologists. APS and SPPP are also committed to accessibility and non-discrimination in continuing education activities. Participants are asked to be aware of the need for privacy and confidentiality throughout the program. If program content becomes stressful, participants are encouraged to process these feelings during discussion periods.

If there are grievances/complaints with the program, please contact APS President Jenna Gilmore, PhD. Please see SPPP’s Grievance policy on the APS website’s Continuing Education Programs tab.

Selected References/Recommended Reading
Carveth, D. L. (2013). The still small voice: Psychoanalytic reflections on guilt and conscience. Karnac.

Carveth, D. L. (2015). Toward a post-Kleinian theory of the superego. Psychoanalytic Review, 102(2), 147–169.

Carveth, D. L. (2016). The superego, sadism, and despair: Toward a contemporary understanding of the superego. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 76(2), 162–182.

Carveth, D. L. (2023). Disempowering the superego: Guilt, shame and the function of the conscience. Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis, 31(1), 72–93.

Carveth, D. L. (2024). A psychoanalyst's confrontation with illness, aging, and death. The Psychoanalytic Review, 111(1), 47-50.

Carveth, D. (2025). The superego: Our inner authoritarian. In D. Burston & K. Jacobson (Eds.), Authoritarianism in all its guises: Perspectives on right, left, and center (pp. 24–31. Routledge.

Frattaroli, E. (2013). Reflections on the absence of morality in psychoanalytic theory and therapy. In S. Akhtar (Ed.), Guilt: Origins, Manifestations andManagement. Lanham, MD: Aronson, 2013, pp. 83–110.

Freud, A. (1936). The Ego and the Mechanisms ofDefence. New York: International Universities Press.

Jung, C. G. (1958). “A Psychological View of Conscience.” In Civilization in Transition. 2nd ed. Vol. 10 of The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, edited by Herbert Read, Michael Fordham, and Gerhard Adler, translated by R. F. C. Hull. 437–55. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1970.

Winnicott, D.W. (1963a). The development of the capacity for concern. In The maturational processesand the facilitating environment. London: Hogarth, 1965, pp. 73-82.

Contact
If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them. Please address requests, questions, concerns and any complaints to the APS President Jenna Gilmore, PhD.

There is no commercial support for this program nor are there any relationships between SPPP, APS, presenters, program content, research, grants or other funding sources that could reasonably be construed as conflicts of interest. During the program, the validity/utility of the content and risks/limitations of the approaches discussed will be addressed.

November 21, 2026 Saturday Morning Seminar: Eric Minton, MS, LMFT, MDiv (Saturday, November 21, 2026)

Sat, 21 Nov 2026 13:30:00 GMT

Appalachian Psychoanalytic Society
a local chapter of the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (SPPP)
of the American Psychological Association

presents a

Saturday Morning Seminar
with
Eric Minton, MS, LMFT, MDiv,
on
Systemic Therapy
in an Age of Estrangement:
On the Absurdity of Working
with Couples and Families

Saturday, November 21, 2026
8:30am - 12:10pm
3 CE credits available

University of Tennessee Medical Center
Morrison Education and Conference Center
1924 Alcoa Highway
Knoxville, TN 37920

Description of Program

This introductory presentation will explore the unique and often absurd components of systemic relationship therapy with couples and families. Mr. Minton will cover the historic underpinnings of systemic therapy, and the ways that systemic therapy approaches have shaped work with couples and families over time. He will introduce the key models informing his own work with couples and families: specifically, through the lenses of Symbolic-Experiential family therapy, Structural family therapy, Contextual family therapy, and, most recently, Restoration therapy. Case examples will be considered as a means of exploring the implications of these traditions upon the interventional role of the therapist in session.

Mr. Minton will address the limitations and risks associated with the therapeutic approaches discussed.
AI was not used in any capacity to create the content of this presentation.

Presenter

Eric M. Minton, M.S., LMFT, M.Div., is a licensed marital and family therapist (TN License #1707), a level 2 Restoration Therapist, and co-owner, with his spouse, Lindsay R. Minton, M.S., LMFT, of Minton Family Therapy. Mr. Minton has been treating individuals, couples, and whole families for nine years in a variety of settings, and has both presented on and written about the practice and utilization of systemic therapy in a variety of settings. Mr. Minton’s first book, It’s Not You, It’s Everything (Broadleaf/Fortress, 2023) deals with the confluence of systemic, technological, religious, and economic constraints impacting the collective (lack-of) psychological well-being and relational connectedness of Americans writ large.

Schedule
This program, when attended in its entirety, is available for 3 continuing education credits.

8:30am Registration*
8:55am Welcome and Introduction*
9:00am Systemic therapy as a way of seeing: An overview from 30,000 feet at 500 miles an hour.
10:30am Break*
10:40am Absurdity as intervention: the role of the therapist in working with couples and families.
12:10pm Complete Evaluations and Adjourn*

*CE credit is based on learning time and does not include these portions of the program.

Learning Objectives
After attending this introductory-level program in full, participants will be able to:

1. Name at least three key models of couple/family therapy, and list one way each seeks to intervene uniquely in couple/family distress.

2. Discuss how systemic thinking can be used to reframe and challenge existing conceptions of psychopathology with individuals, couples, and families.

3. Explain the role of the therapist in experiential couple/family therapy, specifically how a second-order cybernetic approach differs from other models of psychodynamic therapeutic frames.

Participants

This program is open to all APS members and other interested mental health professionals who may not be members. It is not limited to individuals practicing in a predominately psychoanalytic mode. The material will be appropriate for clinicians with introductory levels of experience and knowledge.

Registration Fees and Policies

BY November 16, 2026:

Professional Members and Scholar Members: $45
Non-members: $60
Early-Career Professional Members: $35
Graduate Student Members: Free.

AFTER November 16, 2026:
Professional Members and Scholar Members: $60
Non-members: $75
Early-Career Professional Members: $50.
Graduate Student Members: Free

Registration will close on November 14, 2026.Although walk-ins will be accepted, please register online at www.aps-tn.wildapricot.org in advance to assure adequate food and seating.

If you prefer to pay by check, please print the Program Registration form, and mail with your payment to:

Marisa Whitley, PhD
APS Treasurer
100 Forest Court
Knoxville, TN 37919.

Refunds honored with written/electronic notice at least 48 hours before date of program. Contact Marisa Whitley, PhD.

Contact the APS President Jenna Gilmore, PhD to negotiate fees, if needed.

Facility is accessible to persons who are physically challenged. If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them. Please address requests, questions, concerns and any complaints to Jenna Gilmore, PhD .

Continuing Education
This program, when attended in its entirety, is available for 3 continuing education credits. With full attendance (sign-in at start of program) and completion of a program Evaluation and Learning Assessment, a certificate will be issued. Psychologists will have their participation registered through SPPP. Partial credit is not available for partial attendance.

Selected References
Bailey, Molly E. (2022) Science catching up: Experiential family therapy and neuroscience. J Marital Fam Therapy. 48:1095-1110.

Hargrave, T., Zasowski, N. (2022). Families and Forgiveness: Healing wounds in the intergenerational family (2nd edition). Routledge.

Hargrave, T., Yoon-Hammer, M., Zasowski, N. (2019). Advances and Techniques in Restoration Therapy Routledge.

Nichols, M. P., & Davis, S. D. (2020). Family therapy: Concepts and methods (12th ed.). Pearson.

Zarbo C, Tasca GA, Cattafi F, Compare A. (2016) Integrative Psychotherapy Works. Front Psychol. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.02021. PMID: 26793143; PMCID: PMC4707273.

Contact
If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them. Please address requests, questions, concerns and any complaints to the APS President Jenna Gilmore, PhD.