Simultaneoulsly on-site and on Zoom

This activity will be recorded and available for online viewing*

Enchantment and Disillusion in Clinical Development: A Therapist’s Pilgrimage

Lien vers la version en français   Enchantement et désillusion dans le développement clinique : pèlerinage d'un thérapeute

a conference by Darren Haber, Psy.D.*

This conference is approved by the Ordre des psychologues du Québec for 6 hours of continuing education units (CEU) in psychotherapy. No OPQ: RA06086-24.

The professional development of a psychotherapist is a continuous, long-term, and evolving process. Like the experience of being a patient in psychotherapy, this process involves gradual growth both imperceptible and dramatic. The therapist, as much as the patient, travels through his own cycle of developmental aspirations and repetitive disappointment, moving from enchanting hope to the ebb of disillusionment and repetitive anxieties.

Any preferred theory represents an aspiration and principles deeply linked to our subjectivity, becoming a kind of ideal relational home. These metaphorical homes may seem particularly vulnerable, even jeopardized, in the face of the rigid or chaotic archaic worlds of some traumatized patients. Our chosen theories provide a reframing but in fraught moments can become too much "the picture" rather than a helpful perspective. How can we find a way forward when our familiar perspectives appear at impasse with patients’ entrenchment? To what extent should we compromise in the pursuit of our therapeutic ideals? Can “meeting the patient where they are” be a bridge too far? How can we learn from these destabilizing experiences and support our development?

The narrative of a colleague's lived experience of this developmental cycle can inspire us to recognize our own journey. Dr. Darren Haber, our guest speaker, will share his own pilgrimage through various theoretical landscapes, starting with the constitutive relational experiences from an alcoholic upbringing which influenced his theoretical choices. He was initially greatly inspired by intersubjective-systems theory (IST), particularly the work of Bernard Brandchaft, which emphasizes pathological accommodation and the terror of differentiation. IST offered him an entirely new and exciting perspective as illustrated by some clinical vignettes. Then came the inevitable deflation, with complex clinical impasses. Yet these voids, filled with fraught uncertainty, though frightening to experience, made room eventually for unexpectedly new ways of thinking, and expansion of participants’ perspectives via a new clinical relatedness.

Dr. Haber also introduces the metaphor of language games from the philosopher Wittgenstein, which helps us recognize how our theories can create a profound disjunction with patients' language games, two worlds seemingly at odds, thus paralyzing the dialogical process in therapy.

Working with uncertainties and recurrent clinical voids arising from trauma requires an act of faith from both participants, as it is impossible to know where the treatment leads. There is something waiting for us on the other side of the void, even if we cannot specifically predict what, or how to describe it in advance. Using multiple illustrations with case studies, Darren Haber proposes that these imminent clinical voids represent both the looming abyss and horizonal possibilities.

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

Haber, Darren (2022a). Addiction, Accommodation and Vulnerability in Psychoanalysis: Circles without a Center. U.K.: Routledge.

*Haber, Darren (2022b, March 3). Medusa Moments in Psychoanalysis [blog post]. Blog of the APhA. https://blog.apaonline.org/2022/03/03/medusa-moments-in-psychoanalysis/

*Haber, Darren (2021a). The Doorknob Dilemma. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, vol. 16, n° 2, pp. 144-153.

Haber, Darren (2021b, November 30). Either/Or Questions Are Part of Psychotherapy’s Language Games [Blog article]. Blog in Psyche.co. https://psyche.co/ideas/eitheror-questions-are-part-of-psychotherapys-language-games

*Haber, Darren (2020). Simulated Selfhood, Authentic Dialogue: An Intersubjective Systems Look at Treating Addiction. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, vol. 15, n° 4, pp. 412-420.

Haber, Darren (2018). Yearning for Godot: Repetition and Vulnerability in Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, vol. 13, n° 2, pp. 132-148.

At the Intersubjective Fridays (evenings of text study at the GEI) of this year, three of Darren Haber's papers have been studied in preparation for his 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: Three papers by Darren Haber.

If you were a participant to the three "Vendredis intersubjectifs Darren Haber", you already have access to these papers by clicking on the My files link, in the user menu to your name located to the right over the main menu bar (once logged into your site user account).

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

1. Describe impasses, uncertainties, and voids arising from trauma in clinical interaction..
2. Identify the utility of Intersubjective Systems Theory (IST) and the concept of "pathological accommodation" to explain these voids.
3. Identify the utility of the concept of "language games" to understand and approach patients.
4. Explain the importance for the therapist to recognize their own transferential experience in relating to the patient.

15 minutes a.m. and p.m. breaks
Snacks included (pastries and beverages)

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.

• On-site participants will be able to ask their questions either verbally, or in writing for the facilitator to read them to the speaker.
• And remote participants will be able to write their questions in the Zoom "Chat".

You are also invited to attend a clinical workshop (limited to 20 participants) with Darren Haber to be held the following day, on Sunday, September 29, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

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 Clinical Workshop.

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.

Annette Richard, psychologist, administrator
Caroline Dumont, psychologist, administrator
and Jean-François Bernard, psychologist, administrator