The Silvan S. Tomkins Institute presents the fourth annual colloquium in the series "Toward a New Psychotherapy," dedicated to the Memory of Michael Franz Basch:
People have complained about the duration of psychotherapy since it began to take shape near the beginning of this century. The current era of psychological therapy may be said to have begun with Freud's recognition that strongly held beliefs and ways of living resist most attempts at change because of forces that bear little relation to simple learning. Conventional education provides knowledge that is imparted swiftly and retained if used; training toward the enhancement of skill goes on as long as the student wishes to learn. Although blocks to emotional change must be dealt with by "resistance analysis" in psychoanalytic practice, prolonged resistance to change may also be linked to faulty logic, biological disorders of affect mechanisms, and a wide range of cultural constellations.
Alone among the great teachers of psychotherapy, Michael Franz Basch maintained that effective psychotherapy must be based on a solid understanding of the affective life of the individual who has asked our help. It was Basch who, in 1976, first introduced the affect/script theory of Silvan Tomkins to our profession, and who championed the development of systems of treatment that took into account this body of knowledge. This fourth of our annual meetings in the series "Toward a New Psychotherapy" is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Basch, and honors his final book, Doing Brief Psychotherapy, by investigating and extending the ideas discussed therein. In addition, beginning with this meeting, the annual colloquia of the Tomkins Institute will award the Michael Franz Basch Memorial Lectureship to a scientist or clinician whose work has involved the issues of affect, development, and psychotherapy thas in specific realms of psychotherapy and in the application of affect/script theory to their area of specialization. Despite the differences in their interests and approaches, each has agreed to focus on the differences between cases that predispose to brief or to extensive therapy, and on the specific techniques they have developed for both ranges of treatment.
From our experience presenting this material at previous conferences, we believe that you would find it helpful to develop some familiarity with the affect theory of Silvan Tomkins and have studied at least Part One of Dr. Nathanson's book Shame and Pride: Affect, Sex, and the Birth of the Self (W. W. Norton, 1992). Clinical extensions of these ideas may be found in his recently released edited book Knowing Feeling: Affect, Script, and Psychotherapy (W. W. Norton, 1996) containing chapters by many of those who will present at this meeting. A brief synopsis of the basic theories may be found at http://www.behavior.net through our association with the Behavior OnLine Internet site.
Conference Objectives:
Expected Outcome:
Course participants will acquire a new way of understanding the importance of affect and affect modulation scripts in the process of brief psychotherapy, a paradigm that would not otherwise be as clearly and readily accessible. With intense attention to therapeutic technique, this conference offers material that can be put to immediate use by professionals at all levels of training and skill. A major outcome of this course will be the timely exposure to and acquisition of information and techniques neither published nor available elsewhere.
Who May Attend:
Any mental health practitioner. Clinicians and graduate students currently enrolled in a training program are welcome. Those who do not have such training may write for special consideration.
