17th GEI Annual Conference, with Elizabeth Corpt

In live streaming:

Therapeutic Generosity and Reserve: Holding Both in our Work

a conference by Elizabeth Corpt, MSW, LICSW *

This conference is approved by the Ordre des psychologues du Québec for 4 hours of continuing education units (CEU) in psychotherapy. No OPQ: RA03280-20.

In most analytic work, but especially in intersubjective and self-psychological approaches, the importance of the therapist’s empathic stance towards the patient is seen as primordial. This empathic posture seems simple enough at first sight, but in practice, it is deeply demanding and complex.

In this program, we will consider this all-too-human complexity of the therapeutic work that we do; the way our work requires both a special kind of provision and generosity, while at the same time, requiring us to practice a special reserve for the patient who, for good reason, may distrust our generosity, provision, or direct shows of empathy. With special attention to both the therapist’s and patient’s point of view, we will consider empathy as a complex gift brought to the clinical endeavor, and the particular pressures it places on both patient and therapist. We will also consider the importance of the therapist’s privately held need to sustain an empathic position while managing his/her own suffering.

Lastly, we will think about clinical ethics; that ground between experience nearness when empathic connection is spontaneous, and experience distance where we are required to stretch to understand something about the patient’s experience that feels difficult to empathically grasp. It is here that we confront both the loneliness and the deep satisfaction of the therapist’s work. Case material, including some related to the present pandemic context, will be presented to bring these topics alive.

Working from an intersubjective/self-psychological psychoanalytic lens and a relational ethics perspective, Ms. Corpt offers a way of thinking about the work of being a therapist that includes attention to the everyday vulnerabilities and dilemmas faced by every human being, but also the shared vulnerabilities of this unprecedented Covid-19 troubled situation. Her approach invites an openness and non-judgmental attitude and a deep appreciation of the unique emotional effort required from those of us to choose to do this work. According to Ms. Corpt, it is our awareness of our very vulnerabilities that allows us to do this work well.

*The three publications marked by an asterisk are available for purchase and download: see the Readings section below.

• Corpt, E. (2011). The Art and Craft of Psychoanalytic Practice: A Discussion of Donna Orange’s Traumatic Living Memory and the Dialogue of Metaphors. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 6:214-227.
• *Corpt, E. (2013). Peasant in the Analyst’s Chair: Reflections, Personal and Otherwise, Class and the Forming of an Analytic Identity. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 8: 52-67.
• Corpt, E. (2013). How We Choose to Be With Each Other: Discussion of Preston and Shumsky’s “Toward an Integrative Sensibility: Conversing across Theoretical Boundaries”. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 8:328-37.
• Corpt, E. (2015). Commentary on Westphal: The Patient’s Intentionality as Primary. In D. Goodman & M. Freeman (Eds.) Psychology and the Other. (pp.138-145). New York, Oxford University Press.
• *Corpt, E. (2016). The Complications of Caring and the Ethical Turn in Psychoanalysis. In D. Goodman & E. Severson (Eds.) The Ethical Turn: Otherness and subjectivity in contemporary psychoanalysis, (pp.109-116). London, Routledge.
• Corpt, E. (2016). The Transformation From Non-Being to Being: A discussion of Hilary Maddux’s “Adrienne Rich’s ‘Transcendental Etude’: The Poetics of Self-Transformation”. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 11:22-27.
• Corpt, E. (2017). Maternal Ethics and the Therapeutic Work of Protecting Open Futures. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 37: 412-418.
• *Corpt, E. (2018). The Ethics of Listening in Psychoanalytic Conversations. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 3: 220-228.

At the conclusion of this presentation, the participant will be able to:

1. Define and differentiate between therapeutic generosity and therapeutic reserve.
2. Describe ways in which empathy can be a complex gift that places pressures on the therapeutic dyad.
3. Articulate the therapeutic difference between privately held sustained empathy versus shows of empathy for certain suffering patients.
4. Explain what is required of the therapist in the ground between experience distance and experience nearness.

There will be a 20 minutes break during the conference

You are welcome, if you wish, to prepare questions in advance for the discussion periods between the speaker and the participants. It will be possible to ask questions in English or in French, either verbally, or by writing in the chat of the webconference for the facilitator to read to the speaker.

At the Vendredis intersubjectifs (evenings of text study at the GEI) of this year, two of Elizabeth Corpt's papers have been studied (the 3rd VI having been cancelled in reason of the pandemic) in preparation for her conference (n.b. it is not required to read the papers to fully benefit from the conference). They are available at a cost of 10$ (for copyright fees) in their original English version and their French transalation at this page: Trois articles d'Elizabeth Corpt (the page is in French).

If you were a participant to the first two Vendredis intersubjectifs Elizabeth Corpt, you already have access to these papers by clicking on the My files link, in the User menu, located in the right margin of the site (it is necessary to log into your user account to access this link).

You are also invited to attend a clinical workshop (limited to 20 participants) with Elizabeth Corpt to be held on Saturday, October 17th, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., three weeks after her September conference.

A participant will present a clinical case, and after an exchange between this participant and our invited speaker, the discussion will be open to the group. To register, please go to the Atelier clinique page (this page is in French, and it will be accessible only to GEI members during the pre-registration period from Monday, May 17th, to Thursday, May 30th, and it will be open to all from Friday, May 31st).

N.B. : questions in French will be translated in English for our speaker and for the English-speaking participants, and theirs will be translated in French for the French-speaking participants.

Jean-François Bernard, psychologist, webmaster
Annette Richard, psychologist, GEI president