Appalachian Psychoanalytic Society
a local chapter of the Division 39 of the American Psychological Association
presents a
Saturday Morning Seminar
with
Jack M. Barlow, PhD,
and
Timothy L. Hulsey, PhD,
on
A Close Reading of Wilfred Bion's "Making the Best of a Bad Job"
Participants are asked to bring a copy of this article
to read as a group during the seminar.
Saturday, October 5, 2024
8:30am - 12:10pm
University of Tennessee Medical Center
Morrison Education and Conference Center
1924 Alcoa Highway
Knoxville, TN 37920
Description of Program
This intermediate presentation will cover Bion’s “Making the best of a bad job,” written in his final year, when he was 81 years old. We will examine his approach to therapy and his considerations for how best to approach patients. We will discuss his claim that “When two personalities meet, an emotional storm is created" and that psychotherapy can only ever aim to “make the best of a bad job” by turning that storm between the two people in the room to good account. We will also consider his concern that the great authority of Freud and Klein (and himself) would become a barrier to studying actual people.
Presenters
Jack M. Barlow, PhD, is a mostly retired clinical psychologist who served as an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Tennessee for 45 years. In 1974, he was appointed Assistant Professor, part-time, to supervise clinical psychology graduate students in their clinical work. By 1976, he began working half-time with further responsibilities as a classroom instructor at the graduate level and serving on doctoral committees. He began teaching a required course titled “Psychodynamic Psychotherapy.” By 1980, this course became the basis for his graduate course on “Object Relations Theory” which he taught as an elective for his remaining years at the university. British Object Relations Theory constitutes the main conceptual orientation of his professional practice and the primary subject area for his seminars.
Dr. Barlow served for six years on the Board of Examiners in Psychology. He coauthored one book, wrote a research Training Manual for identifying and selecting figurative language in discourse, authored or coauthored four articles, and delivered twenty papers at programs covering such topics as Figurative Language in Therapy, experiences of productive depression, the work of psychoanalyst Harry Guntrip, British Object Relations Theory, and Transference Consciousness. He practiced psychoanalytic psychotherapy full-time for most of those 45 years. His enduring interests remain the emotional processes and interpersonal experiences of transference, countertransference, insight, inference, awakening of conscious awareness and language heuristics that facilitate, if not constitute, these psychological experiences.
Timothy L. Hulsey, PhD, is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Tennessee. From 2013-2020, he also served as an Associate Provost and Director of Honors and Scholars Programs at UT. From 2004 to 2013, he served as Dean of the Honors College at Virginia Commonwealth University. Prior to that, he served as Associate Professor and Director of the University Honors Program at Texas State University. Dr. Hulsey took his bachelor's degree in psychology at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, master's degree in clinical psychology at Trinity University, and PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Tennessee. He completed pre- and post-doctoral fellowships at Darthmouth Medical School. Dr. Hulsey has received several teaching awards as well as the Fellowship award from the American Psychoanalytic Association. He has published numerous journal articles, book chapters, and a monograph. He currently teaches a graduate course on psychoanalytic theory.
Schedule
8:30am Registration
8:55am Welcome and Introductions
9:00am Bion’s approach to the therapeutic situation
10:30am Break
10:40am On sleeping and waking
12:10pm Complete Evaluations and Adjourn.
Learning Objectives
After attending this intermediate program in full, participants will be able to:
1. Describe Bion’s idea that dreaming is unconscious thinking.
2. Describe Bion’s use of opposites like dream and wake states to establish that the pair is what matters; one renders meaning to the other.
3. Describe Bion’s belief that communication in a psychoanalytic hour requires the creation of a language that can express the truth of the moment before it can reach the patient’s present state of mind.
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 September 30, 2024:
Professional Members and Scholar Members: $45
Non-members: $60
Early-Career Professional Members: $35
Graduate Student Members: Free.
AFTER September 30, 2024:
Professional Members and Scholar Members: $60
Non-members: $75
Early-Career Professional Members: $50.
Graduate Student Members: Free
Registration will close on October 4, 2024.
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:
Wesley Gosselin, LMSW
APS Treasurer
100 Forest Court
Knoxville, TN 37919.
Refunds honored with written/electronic notice at least 48 hours before date of conference. Contact Wesley Gosselin, LMSW.
Contact the APS President Bill MacGillivray, 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 Bill MacGillivray, PhD.
APS Membership
Eligible professionals can join APS or renew their membership for the 2024-2025 program year for $80. Scholars can join/renew for $50 and Early-Career Professionals can join/renew for $45. Graduate students may join or renew for $25.
American Psychological Association Approval Statement
Division 39 is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Division 39 maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
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 Division 39. Partial credit is not available for partial attendance.
APS and Division 39 are committed to conducting all activities in conformity with the American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles for Psychologists. APS and Division 39 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.
Selected References/Recommended Reading
Angeloch, D. (2023). Thinking the dream: Dream and dream thinking in Sigmund Freud, Hanna Segal, and Wilfred Bion. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 83(2), 178-209.
Brown, L.J. (2024). Bion’s transformations and clinical practice. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 93(3), 453-471. DOI:10.1080/00332828.2024.2373972
Oelsner, R. W. R. Bion’s Theories of Mind: A Contemporary Introduction by Annie Reiner, Routledge, Abingdon and New York, 2023, 84 pp. Am J Psychoanal 83, 434–438 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-023-09414-w
Roitman, Y. (2023). Abolishing the captivity of a tyrannized woman: Evidence of Bion's concept of the contact-barrier as manifested in dreams. Psychoanalytic Review, 11 (3), 295-319.
Sampolahti, T. & Laitila, A. (2023). The philosophical and historical context of Bion's concept of Reverie and its use as a Rhetorical Act in his theory of psychoanalysis. British Journal of Psychotherapy, 39(2), 324-340.
Contact
If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them. Please address requests, questions, concerns and any complaints to the APS President Bill MacGillivray, PhD.
There is no commercial support for this program nor are there any relationships between Division 39, APS, presenter, 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.
