The Silvan S. Tomkins Institute's 1999 Colloquium

Colloquium Schedule

Friday 22 October Solis-Cohen Auditorium Jefferson Medical College
Evening
7:00 - 10:00	Introduction to the Affect/Script theory of Silvan S. Tomkins Donald L. Nathanson, M.D. and Jonathan L. Grindlinger, M.D. Tomkins's theory of human emotion is complex. Many of us have worked with this material for years in order to increase the depth of our understanding. In this three hour introduction, Drs. Nathanson and Grindlinger present enough of the basics of the theory to get a beginner through this weekend's presentations. We hope you will follow up by joining an ongoing study group in your home area. We'll tell you more about the study group system at the conference.
Saturday 23 October Van Pelt Auditorium Philadelphia Museum of Art
Morning
8:00 - 8:30	Registration and Continental Breakfast A delicious blend of the affects interest-excitement (as we anticipate the opening of the 1999 Colloquium on The Experience and Relief of Distress) and enjoyment-joy (as hunger and the early morning symptoms of caffeine withdrawal are quenched), catered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Bagels, sweets, fruit, and beverages will be offered.
8:30 - 8:40	Welcome Jonathan L. Grindlinger, M.D. Training Director, Silvan S. Tomkins Institute
8:40 - 10:00	The Everyday World of Distress - Anguish Donald L. Nathanson, M.D. Just as curiosity (interest-excitement) is the dominant positive affect of infancy and early childhood, distress-anguish is its dominant negative affect. The hand that rocks the cradle does so to soothe and modulate distress; early development is characterized by techniques for the socialization of distress to which we have paid far too little attention. So much does the child's distress-anguish cause displeasure for parents that we handle it less as a spotlight with which to view its triggering stimulus than a problem to be hidden.
10:00 - 10:15	Break A temporary respite from overload.
10:15 - 11:45	Distress in Psychopathology Donald L. Nathanson, M.D. Directly in proportion to the degree to which an individual is coached to hide, disguise, or disavow distress will be the importance of its incorporation in scripts for psychopathology. Presented will be an overview of the role and function of backed-up distress-anguish in a wide range of clinical conditions. A Compass of (backed up) Distress is offered as a device through which to organize this material.
11:45 - 12:00	Q & A
12:00 - 1:15	Buffet Lunch (Included) Philadelphia Museum of Art Catering Services
Afternoon
1:15 - 2:30	Sighs Matter: Working with Backed-up Distress in Psychotherapy Wesley G. Novak, Ph.D. Suffering continues to be a disavowed, private, and ubiquitous experience. As psychotherapists, most of us enter our careers unwittingly prepared with a preferred language and method through which to "talk" with our patients about their emotional pain. Yet this process of "meaningful connection" with our patients may be encumbered by our own well-earned backed-up distress. The presentation will build on Tomkins's overlooked theories for the socialization of distress and discuss some of its various clinical manifestations as modeled in the newly evolved "compass of distress." Clinical vignettes from the presenter's own work will be offered as one way to look more deeply at the inevitable and often veiled losses embedded within the "plot" of our patients' lives.
2:30 - 2:45	Break
2:45 - 3:45	Workshops (Choose One) A. Intimate Connections in Good Times and Bad Vernon C. Kelly, Jr., M.D. Dr. Kelly will discuss what happens within a relationship when the ratio of positive to negative affect is biased toward the negative. Beginning with a concept of intimacy based on affect and script, he will guide participants from the theoretical underpinnings of intimate connections toward an understanding of clinical approaches to their enhancement and repair. B. The Spotlight Technique Jeanette Wright, ATR The Spotlight Technique builds on Nathanson's metaphor of the affect system as a bank of spotlights. This technique assists clients toward visual and verbal exploration of their relation to each affect. The Spotlight Technique is an easily learned, effective teaching tool through which clients may be helped to develop a map and a personal frame of reference for the understanding and management of emotion. During this session, participants will be shown slides of drawings made by clients, and will learn how to use this technique themselves. As with all uses of the drawn image in psychotherapy, no drawing skills are necessary. C. The Pharmacology of Anguish: Toward an Understanding of the Neurobiology of Distress Robert E. Most, M.D. A wide variety of pharmacologic agents, some prescribed and some illicit, can be shown to increase or decrease the experience of distress. An examination of drug mechanisms reveals that distress must involve many neurotransmitters that work over complex neurological pathways. Although the spatial resolution provided by brain imaging techniques may lead us to (over)emphasize certain "regions of interest" (some of which will be reviewed), temporal contour is even more critical within Affect Theory. Psychopathology must result whenever the individual's normal range of stimulus variation is overwhelmed by constant external "stress," or by mis-cued internal feedback loops. Medication may help reset the range of stimulus density, and even encourage normal brain mechanisms to repair damaged firmware.
3:45 - 5:00	Therapy Informed by The Music of Distress Jonathan L. Grindlinger, M.D. Music is a language though which sequences, cadences, and frequencies are expressed and therefore experienced by the listener. Since anything that varies the density and gradient of stimulation (stimulus contour) must trigger innate affect, music quite naturally may be used to escape distress, excuse the expression of distress, and even increase the experience of distress. Many of the currently available computer programs that assist musical composition utilize rules that govern the complexity of musical performance, rules that bear striking resemblance to those for affect and script that govern the complexity of human experience.
Evening
7:00 - 10:00	The Silvan S. Tomkins Institute Annual Membership Meeting and Dinner (additional charge) The Union League, Meade Room 140 South Broad Street Open to all Members of the Silvan S. Tomkins Institute, including those who are joining at the time of this Colloquium. Further information about this subscription dinner will be included in your registration packet.
Sunday 24 October Van Pelt Auditorium Philadelphia Museum of Art
Morning
8:00 - 8:25	Continental Breakfast
8:25 - 8:30	Welcome Jonathan L. Grindlinger, MD
8:30 - 9:45	Faith, Suffering, and Psychotherapy for a New Millennium Susan Leigh Deppe, MD, FAPA This session will focus on the management of distress-anguish in a variety of faiths and contexts. The major religions provide scripts that enable their followers to endure loss and pain with dignity or to transform it into another form of experience. The role of celebratory, commitment, hope, and other scripts will be explored. What happens to a society that believes the end of the world or the Kingdom of God is near? How does the believer find joy in suffering, and use it for growth? How can such scripts be understood and used in psychotherapy?
9:45 - 11:00	Images of Overload and Relief: The Function of Creativity in the Transformation of Emotion Jeanette Wright, ATR A new term called the drawn image is entering the language of psychotherapy. This term refers to images created by clients, representations that transform biology and biography into visual form. These drawn images are viewed as both creative and transformative because affective investment in the symbolic representation of experience generates the power through which one may understand the experience at greater depth. When individuals literally see what they think and how they feel, something new happens: the file on emotional biography is accessed and linked with personal history and the unseen is seen. This presentation begins with visual vignettes (slides) of client drawings in response to the proverb, "Don't cry over spilled milk" and ends with an in-depth discussion, including video clips, of a client with bipolar affective illness in treatment for six years. These clips show the transformation of both backed-up affect that has become encrypted as ideoaffective complexes and also anti-toxic scripts into experiences of relief as well as new limitation-remediation scripts.
11:00 - 11:15	Break
11:15 - 12:15	Choose one of these workshops: A. Panel Discussion: Ways That Affect Theory Can Induce and Reduce Distress: The Study Group Solution The Richmond Study Group: Verda Little, PhD, Study Group Coordinator, with Beverly Buston, PhD, Theresa Buczek, PhD, Nancy MacConnachie, PhD, and Edith Ott, PhD After four humbling years of study, the Richmond, VA group is ready to share its findings on how to make use of Affect Theory even if you don't fully understand it. We hope to involve you in our process, which has included Distress and Shame triggered by reading the work of Silvan S. Tomkins, the most brilliant and dense writing any of us has ever encountered. Excitement is triggered by the thought that we have understood a concept, followed by the return of Shame at the realization that we must reread that sentence yet again, followed by Joy at the realization that other Study Group members continue to struggle along with us. Nevertheless, through this process our own scripts have been altered and our patients thus allowed to benefit from our endeavors. B. Experiential Workshop on Drumming Bruce Murray, MSW, LSW The study of rhythm can expand one's skills in behavioral observation and increase the accuracy of responsive mirroring in clinical interventions. This presentation will provide the enjoyable experience of drumming, intense discussion about the affective power of rhythm and tone, and suggestions as to how any increase in rhythm awareness may improve human interaction. Presented will also be work on the influence of the physical and neurological processes of sound and hearing on personal development; the influence on emotion of sound and music will be shown by use of the Affect Pattern Chart. The miniaturization and maximization of affect will be discussed as scripted and biological tendencies, and as target activities in clinical work. Finally, a bridge will be made between musical and non-musical uses of rhythm in the context of psychotherapy. Clinical techniques using rhythm, meter, and tone will be demonstrated.
12:15 - 1:15	Buffet Lunch (Included) Meet the Speakers
Afternoon
1:15 - 2:30	Tragedy and Comedy: The Two Faces of Suffering Melvyn A. Hill, Ph.D. "A comedy is a tragedy that turns around at the end of the third act." That is how Northrop Frye, the eminent literary theorist, once defined the relation between these two classic forms of drama that take us to the edge of suffering. Frye's definition helps clarify the learning curve in psychotherapy, since therapy often involves an apparent increase in suffering before clients can turn their life around. This intensification of distress marks the experience of those negative affects bound in self-defeating scripts. This is the experience that empowers clients to examine and reorganize their motivation and behavior; it follows the pattern in comedy precisely. I will discuss tragedy and comedy from Frye's point of view, and show the value of his concept for script theory and for the understanding of the process of psychotherapy. Finally, I will show how script theory helps us understand what it means to approach the edge of suffering.
2:30 - 2:45	Break
2:45 - 4:00	The Third Michael Franz Basch Memorial Award Lecture The Michael Franz Basch Memorial Award is presented each year to a scholar or clinician whose work has furthered our understanding of the link between affective development and psychotherapy. It honors Dr. Basch, the psychoanalyst who first introduced the work of Silvan Tomkins to the mainstream of our field, and whose contributions to the world of psychotherapy remain as vivid today as when they first appeared. The award consists of a framed certificate, an honorarium, and the opportunity to present a lecture at a Tomkins Annual Colloquium. In the past, the Michael Franz Basch Memorial Award has been presented to Leigh McCullough-Vaillant, Ph.D. and to Donald Mosher, Ph. D. This year, Dr. Donald Nathanson, Founder and Executive Director of the Silvan S. Tomkins Institute, will present the Third Michael Franz Basch Memorial Award to the Reverend David McShane, who worked closely with Silvan Tomkins for more than 20 years. Distress: Bad News from a Friend Reverend David McShane Reverend McShane will place religious symbols and symbolic activities in the context of affect/script theory, especially in relation to inevitable distress and its amelioration through pastoral counseling and worship events. He will discuss some forms of memory that may not be accessible through verbalization, and describe other means for therapeutic rescripting.
4:00 - 4:15	Where do we go from here? Donald L. Nathanson, M.D.
(End of Colloquium)