Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute

On Friday, March 5, CPI hosted an evening workshop that was open to the public. The presentation featured Dr. Thomas Barrett, a noted child psychoanalyst and the Director of the Hanna Perkins Center. Dr. Barrett's talk focused on work with unresolved grief issues in children and adults who have experienced the death of a parent in early childhood. He presented theoretical ideas in addition to moving clinical material about his work with a young boy whose mother had died. Dr. Clayton Gotwals, a member of the CPI faculty, presented material from his work with an adult that poignantly demonstrated the long-term impact of unresolved issues from an early parent loss. There was a lively discussion, and members of the audience had thoughtful comments and questions.

On Saturday morning, March 6, we held a smaller workshop for faculty, candidates and students in CPI's advanced psychotherapy programs. We focused on the technical issues involved in deciding when and how to intervene through direct interpretation vs. through work in the metaphor or displacement. Ms. Denia Barrett, also a noted child psychoanalyst and a therapist at the Hanna Perkins Center, presented a wonderful paper on the concept of displacement.  Drs. Sam Robertson and Edward Kohn of the CPI faculty presented cases that allowed for valuable in-depth discussion of these issues.