Houston Psychoanalytic Society
Ethics Conference
Caring, Trustworthiness, and the Ethical Turn
in Psychoanalysis
Jon G. Allen, PhD
Saturday, January 27, 2024
10:00 AM - 1:15 PM Central Time

3 CME/CE/CEUs

Live via Zoom
*Pre-Registration required for Zoom invitation
This event will not be recorded

Registration Fees
HPS Active Members: $75
HPS Student Members: $45
Non-Members: $90

Instructional Level: Beginner - Advanced
Dr. Allen proposes that relationally oriented psychotherapy is moral work that requires ethical reflection. This orientation to clinical practice is supported empirically by decades of research showing that common relational factors in diverse forms of psychotherapy make a predominant contribution to effectiveness. Yet, as relational psychoanalysis exemplifies, improving the quality of relationships not only facilitates therapy; it also comprises the essential work of therapy. This essential work applies above all to patients who must heal from the pervasive adverse effects of trauma in attachment relationships. The ethical turn in psychoanalysis brings recent philosophical literature into the forefront of the relational approach insofar as therapeutic relationships promote ethical change in relationships. The rich ethical literatures on caring and caregiving as well as trusting and trustworthiness pertain not only to the process of psychotherapy, but also to its contribution to healing relationships beyond psychotherapy. While this presentation focuses on dyadic relationships, we also must be mindful that these relationships cannot be separated from the broader social context that can undermine trust in what should be a lawful, caring world—to use Jessica Benjamin’s terms.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After attending the program in its entirety, attendees will be able to:
  1. Distinguish morality from ethics and how each applies to the practice of relational psychotherapy.
  2. Explain the necessity of making moral judgments and the associated need for ethical reflection.
  3. Distinguish experiential and reflective levels of caring and caregiving and their role in relational psychotherapy.
  4. Describe a conceptual framework for enhancing the feeling of connection in relational psychotherapy.
Presenter
Jon G. Allen, Ph.D., holds the position of Clinical Professor as a member of the Voluntary Faculty in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Baylor College of Medicine. He is a member of the honorary faculty at the Houston Center for Psychoanalytic Studies and the adjunct faculty of the Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center. He sought postdoctoral training at the psychoanalytically oriented Menninger Clinic, where he taught and supervised fellows and residents; conducted psychotherapy, diagnostic consultations, and led research on clinical outcomes. He and his colleagues developed an intensive inpatient treatment program for trauma, in which he created what became a hospital-wide psychoeducational program on recovering from trauma. Having retired from clinical practice after 40 years at the clinic, he continues to teach, write, and consult with psychotherapists. His books include Trusting in Psychotherapy, Restoring Mentalizing in Attachment Relationships: Treating Trauma with Plain Old Therapy; Mentalizing in Clinical Practice (with Peter Fonagy and Anthony Bateman); Coping with Trauma: From Self-Understanding to Hope; and Coping with Depression: From Catch-22 to Hope, all published by American Psychiatric Association Publishing. Additional books are Mentalizing in the Development and Treatment of Attachment Trauma (Karnac/Routledge) and Traumatic Relationships and Serious Mental Disorders (Wiley).

REFERENCES
1) Allen, J.G. (2016). Should the century-old practice of psychotherapy defer to science and ignore its foundations in two millennia of ethical thought? Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 80, 1-29.
2) Benjamin, J. (2018). Beyond doer done To: Recognition theory, intersubjectivity, and the third. New York: Routledge.
3) Delboy, S. & Michaels, L. (2021). Going beneath the surface: What people want from therapy. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 41, 603-623.
4) Goodman, D.M. & Severson, E.R., Eds. (2016). The ethical turn: Otherness and subjectivity in contemporary psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge.
5) Held, V. (2006). The ethics of care. New York: Oxford University Press.

IMAGE of heart hands from Can Stock.
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and Houston Psychoanalytic Society. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 3 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s)* to disclose with ineligible companies* whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.

*Financial relationships are relevant if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company.

-Updated July 2021-
Houston Psychoanalytic Society is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Houston Psychoanalytic Society maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

HPS, through co-sponsorship with the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies, also offers approved CEUs for Texas state-approved social workers, licensed professional counselors, and marriage and family therapists.
1302 Waugh Dr. #276, Houston, TX 77019
(713) 429-5810