2 CE/CME's Available

• $80 for Non-Members Seeking CE Credit
• $40 for Non-Members not Seeking CE Credit 
• FREE for Students & PCOP Members

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Program Description

Dr. Anderson’s book on psychobiography explores how the authors’ relationships with and feelings about the people written about impact the biographical account. From a psychoanalytic perspective, then, the author’s countertransference infiltrates the biographical account.For example, Sigmund Freud co-authored a psychobiography of Woodrow Wilson, whom Freud admitted he hated.  One can only imagine how this was reflected in this particular psychobiography. Or, in his writing about Gandhi, Erik Erikson started out idealizing him but suffered from writer’s block when he encountered some of Gandhi’s hypocritical, mean behaviors.  Margot Duxler knew and liked Anaïs Nin, but after the diarist’s death she learned that Nin had often lied to her and others.  Duxler wrote a psychobiography of Nin in large part to come to grips with her feelings about this deception. Dr. Anderson will discuss how his studies of various psychobiographies enlivened and deepened his insight and appreciation of countertransference, and helped refine his work with patients in psychotherapy.  In this presentation, Dr. Anderson will help us to understand how to use our countertransference, to better understand our patients. He will underscore the ways that countertransference can be both our greatest ally and our greatest challenge in conducting psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.

About the Speaker 

James W. Anderson, PhD, is a former President of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society and a faculty member of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute. A Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University, Dr. Anderson specializes in psychobiography, using a psychological perspective, of historical, political, literary, and artistic figures. His book, Psychobiography: In Search of the Inner Life (Oxford University Press), was published last year.