Discussion Group 74: Contemporary Models of Psychoanalytic Group Dynamics Interventions: Theory and Process Thursday, January 17, 4:45 p.m. – 7 p.m.
At the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York, NY
Click here: for more information on the APsaA Winter Meeting
Chair: Christine C. Kieffer, Ph.D., ABPP (Chicago, IL)
Co-Chair: Irene Harwood, Psy.D., Ph.D., M.S.W. (Los Angeles, CA)
Presenter: Daniel B. Frank, Ph.D. (Chicago, IL)
Discussant: Stephen Kerzner, M.D. (Duxbury, MA)
For this meeting, our discussion group will be devoted to examining organizational issues that affect group life in schools. School climate and group-as-a-whole system dynamics have an unconscious impact on individual experience in school settings, and this program will examine methods of intervention at the large group level that can support dyadic treatment with children and adolescents. Moreover, individual and dyadic experiences affect the large group atmosphere. Case material from child and adolescent analyses will be presented, with an emphasis on how studying school system dynamics can help us to understand the development and maintenance of individual distress. Methods of group level intervention also will be presented.
Discussion leaders also will draw parallels among these phenomena and the kinds of organizational issues that face APsaA, elucidating underlying group dynamics that are parallel to both kinds of systems. After attending the session, participants will be able to identify two aspects of school climate or large group construction, which promote group norms that lead to increased levels of relational aggression.