Relentless Hope: The Refusal to Grieve

A one and a half day workshop on November 5th and 6th, 2010. Presented by:

MARTHA STARK, M.D.

Intended Audience:

Psychologists, Psychological Assistants, Psychiatrists, Psychoanalysts, Psychotherapists, Social Workers and Counselors.

Description of the Workshop:

Dr Martha Stark’s particular interest has long been in the client’s “relentless pursuit of the (bad) object”. The client’s relentless hope (which fuels her self-destructive or self sabotaging behaviour) is a stance to which she desperately clings in order to avoid confronting – and grieving – certain intolerably painful realities about the love/hate object to which she is intensely attached; and her relentless outrage (which fuels her desire to hurt and punish) is the stance to which she resorts in those moments of dawning recognition that the longed-for relationship may never be forthcoming after all. And relentless despair and profound hopelessness is the stance to which she retreats when attachment itself has become intolerable – attachment and withdrawal the only viable option for such clients. The masochistic defense of relentless hope, the sadistic defense of relentless outrage, and the schizoid defense of relentless despair and hopelessness all speak to the client’s refusal to grieve.

Drawing upon four models of therapeutic action (enhancement of knowledge “within”, provision of corrective experience “for”, engagement in authentic relationship “with” and facilitation of flow “throughout”), Dr Stark will offer a number of prototypical interventions. These are specifically designed to facilitate transformation of the client’s “defensive” need to possess and control the object (and, when thwarted, to punish the object by attempting to destroy it) into the “adaptive” capacity to relent, grieve, accept, and internalize what “good” there was – in order to separate and move on. Dr Stark will also offer a number of clinical vignettes that speak to the power of an integrative approach that focuses on accountability and development of the capacity to relent (on the parts of both client and therapist).

The ultimate goal is to transform defensive need into adaptive capacity – the need to have one’s objects be other than who they are into the capacity to accept them as they are.

Specific Learning Goals:

At the end of the workshop participants will be able to:

1. explain the relationship between the refusal to grieve and relentlessness;
2. appreciate the distinction between relentless hope, relentless outrage, and relentless despair,
3. speak to the importance of transforming the need to possess and control the object (and, when thwarted, to attempt destruction of it) into the capacity to relent, accept, grieve, forgive, internalize, separate, and move on.

Biographical Sketch:

Martha Stark, MD is a psychiatrist/psychoanalyst in private practice in Boston. She is on the Faculty at Harvard Medical School (where she is Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry) and a Teaching/Supervising Analyst at the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis. In addition, she serves on the Faculty of the Continuing Education Program in the Department of Psychiatry at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Harvard Medical School), is Adjunct Faculty at the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies at the Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard Medical School), and teaches in the continuing education programs at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology and the Smith College School for Social Work.

Dr Stark is the author of three award-winning textbooks on psychoanalytic theory and technique – Working with Resistance, A Primer on Working with Resistance, and Modes of Therapeutic Action – all three of which have earned the top rating of five stars on amazon.com.

Workshop Schedule:

November 5, 2010

12.30 – 1.30pm Registration
1.00 – 2.30pm Relentless Hope/Relentless Outrage/Relentless Despair
2.30 – 2.45pm Break
2.45 – 4.00pm Challenging/Supporting the Client’s “Defensive: Refusal to Greive”

November 6, 2010

8.30-9.00am Coffee and muffins
9.00-10.30am Specific Interventions designed to Facilitate Transformation of Defensive Need into Adaptive Capacity.
10.30-11.00am Break
11.00-12.00noon Three Modes of Therapeutic Action: Wisdom, Acceptance, Accountability
12.00noon-1.30pm Lunch on your own.
1.30-2.30pm Tranference/Countertransference Considerations and the Capacity to Relent.
2.30-2.45pm Break
2.45-4.15pm Relenting,Accepting,Forgiving,Grieving,Internalizing,Separating, and Moving On.

Bibliography:

Stark M (1999). Modes of Therapeutic Action. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Inc.

Stark M (1994). The attainment of mature hope. In Working with Resistance, pp.281-287. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Inc.

McLaughlin JT (1991). Clinical and theoretical aspects of enactment. JAPA, 39:595-614.

Kopp S (1969). The refusal to mourn. Voices, Spring, pp. 30-35.

Searles H (1979). The development of mature hope in the patient-therapist relationship. In Countertransference and Related Subjects: Selected Papers, pp. 479-502. New York: International Universities Press.

Continuing Education Credit:

This workshop has been approved by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association for six hours of CEU credit for psychotherapists and counselors.

Resources:

• Brochure (PDF; 33 KB)