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Axel Hoffer. MD - Bringing Meditation into Psychoanalysis: Free Association, Meditation and Bion
Saturday, November 12, 2016, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM PDT
Category: Special Programs

Bringing Meditation into Psychoanalysis: Free Association, Meditation and Bion

Presenter: Axel Hoffer, M.D. 
Discussants: Jeffrey Eaton, MA and Gerald Fogel, MD

This talk is based on the commonality of free association, attention to everything that goes through the mind without judgment, as understood both by psychoanalysts and by Buddhist meditators; the goal is to see what each tradition can learn from the other. It will include the proposition that psychotherapy and psychoanalysis can be viewed as a “two-person meditation.” (Kakar, 2015)

Free association of the patient (and its counterpart for the analyst - - evenly swaying attention) will be discussed in terms of how Freud’s original idea of free association has been modified by later analysts. The German words for (1) evenly-hovering attention (gleichschwebende Aufmerksamkeit) and for (2) association (Einfall) will be re-translated. Freud’s original concept, unbeknownst to him, is closer to Buddhism. Freud’s original use of free association is captured in the well-known telephone metaphor, where the patient and analyst are in direct unconscious communication with each other. There will be discussion of how meditation favors the use of the “Sense Door” over the “Mind or Thinking door,” expanding the purview of countertransference.

The psychoanalyst Wilfrid Bion proposed the controversial idea that the analyst eschew memory (past) and desire (future), which brings psychoanalysis both closer to Freud’s original idea and also to Buddhism. His emphasis is on the importance of the analyst’s being in the moment with the patient.

A clinical vignette by Thomas Ogden will illustrate both (1) relying on unconscious memory, rather than on conscious memory, and (2) the experience of being in the moment.

What psychoanalysis and meditation can learn from each other includes, for analysts, heightened awareness of countertransference by attention to bodily feelings and increased tolerance of painful feelings and, for meditators, awareness of its nearsightedness resulting from ignoring the role of psychodynamics and the unconscious.

Educational Objectives:  At the conclusion of this program participants will be able to:
1. Discuss the origins of Freud’s view of free association and how later analysts changed it over time.
2. Compare the similarities and differences between psychoanalysis and Buddhist meditation.
3. Explain and discuss the new concept of psychoanalysis as a two-person meditation.
4. Understand and explain Bion’s paradoxical concept of listening without memory or desire.
5. Describe and discuss what Buddhism and Psychoanalysis can learn from each other.

Axel Hoffer, MD, is a Training and Supervising Analyst in Boston and Associate Professor of Psychiatry (part-time) at Harvard Medical School. He won the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association prize for his paper ‘Toward a definition of psychoanalytic neutrality.’ He has also written the Foreword to Freud’s monograph ‘A Phylogenetic Fantasy’, and the Introduction to the second volume of the Freud-Ferenczi Correspondence. He has lectured and supervised in the United States, Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia and Israel.  His new book, Freud and the Buddha: the Couch and the Cushion, is published in 2015 by Karnac Books.

Fee $135 / $121.50 members
$67.50 residents & interns—Please call to register!
Full-time students—Please call for fee and to register! 

REGISTER HERE
Continuing Medical Education
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education through the joint sponsorship of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the Oregon Psychoanalytic Center.
 
The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.  The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 3 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. 
 
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters of this CME program have any relevant financial relationships to disclose. 

 


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