Endings: In Psychotherapy And The Written Word

All writing, whether story, poem, essay, or play, has a beginning and an ending as does every psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Still, writers and clinicians often find that the opening phase is easier to navigate with confidence than the conclusion.

Like effective psychotherapy or psychoanalysis, which does not end with the last words spoken, good writing resonates well beyond the final page.   When a satisfactory ending is reached between therapist and patient, or author and reader  a memorable, generative experience continues to resound. Yet in clinical and authorial endeavors it is often difficult to determine the end. How much easier it is to know what we want to say than to conclude with confidence that it has been said.

During our weekend on Endings, analysts, writers and editors will share their experience and expertise on what constitutes good endings. We will explore the elements that make a good ending, and draw a parallel between a therapist’s role in good clinical terminations and an author’s challenges to conclude a piece of writing well.

Presentations, panel discussions, open forums, and small discussion groups will provide ways to re-energize the sustained creative effort as therapist and writer.

PROGRAM ORGANIZER:  ELIZABETH HERMAN MCKAMY, MSW

GUEST FACULTY:
RUTH LIVINGSTON, PHD is Executive Editor of the William Alanson White Institute’s professional journal, Contemporary Psychoanalysis and the Founder and Director of Living with Medical Conditions, a study group and referral service affiliated with the William Alanson White Institute. Certified in Bioethics and Medical Humanities from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Yeshiva University, she is also on the faculty of Columbia University Teachers’ College. Dr. Livingston is in private practice in New York City. She writes and lectures on the subject of psychoanalytic treatment for those with acute and chronic medical conditions.

JILL SALBERG, PHD is adjunct clinical associate professor at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis where she teaches and consults/supervises, and is a member of the faculty and supervisor at the Stephen A. Mitchell Center for Relational Psychoanalysis and the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy in NYC. She has taught Relational Theory; Termination: Theoretical, Technical and Relational Considerations; Early Freud: 1895-1920; and Dreams in Judaism and Psychoanalysis. She has chapters in Relational Psychoanalysis: Evolution of Process Vol. 5; The Jewish World of Sigmund Freud; Answering a Question with a Question: Judaism and Contemporary Psychoanalysis and is a contributor to and the editor of the book, GOOD ENOUGH ENDINGS: Breaks, Interruptions and Terminations from Contemporary Relational Perspectives, (2010, Routledge). She is on the editorial board of the Psychoanalysis and Jewish Life Book Series (Academic Studies Press). She is in private practice in Manhattan.

SARA MANSFIELD TABER, MSW is a writer of essays, memoirs, commentary, and literary journalism. Her works include Born Under an Assumed Name: The Memoir of a Cold War Spy’s Daughter, Dusk on the Campo: A Journey in Patagonia, and Bread of Three Rivers: The Story of a French Loaf. Her essays, memoirs, travel pieces, and reviews have appeared in literary journals, newspapers such as The Washington Post, and have been produced for public radio. She has taught creative nonfiction writing at Johns Hopkins University, the Vermont College of Fine Arts, the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland and has led workshops at New Directions.

RICHARD M. WAUGAMAN, MD. is the author of scholarly work on Shakespeare, Freud, and Nietzche, and has been Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University since 1977. Rick has been consultant and advisor to New Directions since its inception. His 160 publications in psychoanalysis and English literature have ranged from the Shakespeare authorship question to dreams during the termination phase of psychoanalysis. He practices in Bethesda, MD.