Psychoanalytic Understanding of Addiction

Addiction has been widely misunderstood and inappropriately treated in our society for virtually all of our history because of failure to understand its psychological nature.

This field is required.
This field is required.

3 Sessions: Wednesdays, Jan. 15, 22, 29
Time: 7:00 - 8:30 PM EDT

All courses will take place online. Seminar sessions are not recorded
Registration Deadline: January 13th, 2025

Registrants are expected to be able to attend all sessions in their entirety. Should your availability change, please contact the BPSI Team (team@bpsi.org) to remove your course registration and allow other interested participants to attend.

Psychoanalytic Understanding of Addiction 
 
Addiction has been widely misunderstood and inappropriately treated in our society for virtually all of our history because of failure to understand its psychological nature. Even psychoanalysts have not been immune to believing the same assumptions about its nature and proper treatment as our non-psychologically-trained professional brethren and the lay public. In this minicourse we will consider the nature of addiction, the relative importance of psychological and non-psychological (neurobiological, physical, genetic) factors, the relationship of addictions to compulsions, and implications of psychoanalytic understanding for psychotherapy of people with addictions. As time permits, we will also address the psychology of self-help groups and commonly held myths about addiction.

 

Instructor

Lance Dodes, MD

Lance Dodes, MD is a Training and Supervising Analyst Emeritus at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, member of the faculty of the New Center for Psychoanalysis (Los Angeles), and retired assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He has been the Director of the substance abuse treatment unit of Harvard's McLean Hospital, Director of the Alcoholism Treatment Unit at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital (now part of Massachusetts General Hospital), and Director of the Boston Center for Problem Gambling. He is the author or co-author of many journal articles and book chapters about the psychology of addiction and the author of three books on the topic. He has been elected a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and has been asked to lecture across the United States, Canada, and Europe about the understanding of addiction he has developed.

This course will be open to licensed clinicians or clinicians on the path to licensure. Continuing Education credits are not offered for this course.

 

Scholarships are available for BPSI programs.

FEE:
$375 Course Fee
$350 Early Bird (available until 01/03/2025)
Use Code at Checkout: EB2025AD
$50 Early Career Clinicians, Residents and Students

 

Explorations in Mind: Community Education at BPSI is made possible by the generous support of BPSI Members and friends. To make a gift to BPSI, contact Carole Nathan (cnathan@bpsi.org or 617-266-0953 x101),
go to www.bpsi.org, or send mail to BPSI, 141 Herrick Road, Newton Centre, MA 02459.

 
Program Administrator
Stephanie Maggiano: smaggiano@bpsi.org

Program Chair
Holly Friedman Housman, LICSW: holly@housman.org
Natasha Lifton, PhD:
natashalifton@gmail.com
 
Event Cancellation Policies & Procedures
Any program participant requesting their individual program registration be canceled, must submit their request in writing via email to Stephanie Maggiano at scavanaugh@bpsi.org. For fee-based events, a request for cancellation (and refund using the original form of payment) must be received no later than 48 hours in advance of the event. Requests received later than 48 hours prior to the event will not be processed or accepted. All approved refunds are subject to a $10.00 administrative fee. If BPSI cancels an event, all registrants will receive a full refund of fees paid (no administration charge) no later than two business days following the scheduled date of the event, using the original form of payment.
 
Grievance Policy
Please address any questions or concerns about your experience at this or any program or event you have attended at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute to the Program Chair(s), via the Senior Administrator/Continuing Education Administrator, BPSI, 141 Herrick Road, Newton Centre, MA 02459; team@bpsi.org; 617.266.0953.
 
The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Inc., 141 Herrick Road, Newton Centre, MA 02459, does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, age, sexual orientation, national origin or handicap in the admissions to or administration of its educational programs, scholarship programs or employment.