Continuing Education Course

Reiser Psychoanalytic Core Curriculum

Dedicated to Lynn and Morton F. Reiser, MD in appreciation of
their support of Psychoanalytic Education

Mind-Body Explorations at the Interface of Psychiatry, Medicine, and Psychoanalysis

Many psychoanalytically oriented therapists have not been introduced to attachment theory as a framework for understanding how early attachment patterns shape adult relationships. Attachment theory offers valuable insight into the origins of both interpersonal and intrapersonal dynamics that can create significant challenges in adulthood, often leading to self-destructive behaviors and emotional isolation. This course aims to deepen participants' awareness and appreciation of how early childhood relationships influence expectations in intimate relationships. By enhancing therapists’ attunement and empathy, the course seeks to help them recognize and address the underlying expectations that drive maladaptive interpersonal strategies.

Learning Objectives

• Participants will be able to describe the attachment environment that leads to Secure, Insecure Avoidant, Insecure Preoccupied, and Disorganized attachment in infancy.
• In a psychotherapy encounter the learner will be able to recognize cues that suggest a particular attachment pattern. This will provide a basis for hypothesizing about the client’s developmental environment and their expectations for attachment relationships.
• The learner will become attuned to and recognize when the client’s report to them is disorganized, incoherent, difficult to follow, or missing orienting information from the client, because in those moments the client has lost the capacity to mentalize the therapist, as suggestive of dissociative experiences in the client which reflect the traumatic nature of the material (see the Adult Attachment Inventory).