We often wonder about the future of Transference Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) and the challenges that lie ahead, as well as the directions we would like to pursue. The paper featured this month examines the recent developments of our technique, observing how specific principles of TFP have naturally met the needs of the broader community of mental health providers.

Over the past four decades, there has been a gradual increase in attention given to the personality component of various pathologies and pathological or quasi-pathological circumstances. For instance, the study of pathological dynamics in large groups.

The author of the paper, Richard Hersh MD, is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, certified TFP supervisor, and a well-known figure for his contributions in expanding the applications of TFP to different clinical settings. This includes settings that do not primarily focus on psychotherapy-based interventions. You can find more information about Dr. Richard Hersh at this link: https://www.columbiapsychiatry.org/profile/richard-g-hersh-md

Silvia Bernardi

Silvia Bernardi, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University. After graduating from medical school in Florence Italy in 2006, Silvia emigrated to the USA to work intensively in neuroscience research, studying the bases of the interaction between emotions and cognition. Silvia completed her residency in Psychiatry at Columbia and has since practiced privately in New York. She trained in Transference Focused Psychotherapy and continues to see patients for medication management and psychotherapy while conducting her research to unlock further knowledge to support the biological underpinnings of TFP and borderline personality disorder.

The ISTFP established the Adolescent Committee to develop a treatment for adolescents with various personality pathologies. Since the DSM diagnostic system officially recognized the diagnosis of BPD in adolescence and considering the unique developmental challenges of this stage (puberty, peer and love relationships, sexuality, aggression, and narcissism), a group of ISTFP members (L. Normandin, K. Ensink, A. Weiner, and Otto F. Kernberg) published the first edition of a TFP-A manual (Normandin et al., 2021). The manual preserves the core techniques and strategies of TFP for adults but includes specific adaptations for working with parents and addressing developmental issues.

In February 2022, Ukraine was invaded by its powerful neighbor. Since then, the whole world has been witnessing with horror and sadness the struggle of the Ukrainian people to protect their lives, land, culture, and identity.

In this article, I invite you to meet the leader of TFP-Ukraine, Oleksii Lemeshchuk. With his openness, wit, and generosity, he helps us understand his people and reflect on the challenges of applying TFP in a country at war.

Meeting Oleksii and his people

My first contact with Oleksii was through an email I sent him during the holidays. I decided to contact him when I discovered, through the warm holiday wishes that many of you sent, that we had a Ukrainian TFP group in our society. It seemed to me that they would have a unique perspective on human nature and on the application of transference focused psychotherapy in a difficult context.

He answered quickly and showed enthusiasm for the project. We arranged a zoom meeting with an interpreter so that communication of his ideas would not be limited by language. 

On the given day, I connected with Oleksii and his interpreter and was pleasantly surprised by the brightness of his office. Looking back, I wonder if I was expecting darkness and despair. The short time I spent with Oleksii showed me light and hope for a better future.

Perhaps that resilience comes from spending his childhood in a communist country. Oleksii remembers how it was dangerous to exist outside of Marx and Lenin’s thinking: 

That was the time when everybody had to be obedient and do what is told.

Olexeii Lemeshchuk, Leader of TFP-Ukraine

Mathieu Norton-Poulin, M.Ps.

Mathieu Norton-Poulin is a psychologist in private practice in Gatineau, Québec. He graduated from Laval University in 1995 and started his training in transference focused psychotherapy in 2005. Member of the TFP-Québec group he as been practicing as a certified TFP therapist for the last 11 years. Since 2009 he organized several training events and has given lectures on TFP for medical doctors and college students. He maintains a blog where he write, in plain words, articles to explain TFP to the general public.

Read author’s Blog

Dear Colleagues,

In this period of troubles in the world, I am particularly aware of how much I take for granted. An example is taking for granted that my life is not directly disrupted by a war. Oleksii Lemeshchuk’s interview in this newsletter reminds me of how quickly life can become a struggle for life itself. In that context, I tend to wonder about the importance of my contributions to society as a psychotherapist. It is encouraging to read that psychotherapy has an important role in helping both individuals and society in a time of war. In keeping with that theme, Silvia Bernardi and Glauco Valdivieso have written an important commentary in this newsletter on “The role of psychodynamically informed therapy in complex socio-political realities” in which they elaborate on Otto Kernberg’s reflections on malignant narcissism and group processes. I encourage you all to read it.

In the previous newsletter, I introduced the ISTFP mailing list project as the initial step in a comprehensive global strategy to support TFP-Groups worldwide in promoting their training activities. The primary objective of this project is to facilitate the dissemination of information about TFP training opportunities in a convenient and efficient manner.

We are pleased to report that a significant number of you have subscribed to the ISTFP members list. For those who have not yet subscribed, we strongly encourage you to do so promptly to continue receiving our newsletter.

Additionally, we have observed a consistent flow of subscriptions to the ISTFP mental health professionals newsletter. As this mailing list serves as our primary means of recruiting new trainees, I will provide you with ways to contribute to its growth. 

Furthermore, I will outline the process for submitting your upcoming training events to ensure that they are featured on our website and newsletter. We are striving to establish guidelines that will enhance our effectiveness and the success of your events.

Mathieu Norton-Poulin, M.Ps.

Mathieu Norton-Poulin is a psychologist in private practice in Gatineau, Québec. He graduated from Laval University in 1995 and started his training in transference focused psychotherapy in 2005. Member of the TFP-Québec group he as been practicing has a certified TFP therapist for the last 9 years. Since 2009 he organized several training events and has given lectures on TFP for medical doctors and college students. He maintains a blog where he write, in plain words, articles to explain TFP to the general public.

READ THE AUTHOR’S BLOG

In this issue of our newsletter, we focused on the role of psychodynamically informed therapists in current sociopolitical conflicts. That is why we have chosen to review Otto Kernberg’s paper: Malignant Narcissism and Large Group Regression.” Psychoanalytic Quarterly 89(1):1-24, 2020.

This article gains in appropriateness by the minutes, as we see conflicts, natural catastrophes and new regimes come to exist all over the world. In the first section of the manuscript, Dr. Kernberg reviews the major contributions of Freud, Bion, Turquet and Volkan on group psychology, highlighting how, at all different levels of grouping, from individual to large groups, when regression develops and the normal social structure that assures the individual of his status in the society disappears, a search for a “second skin”, a second identity that returns individual security begins. In reviewing these masterful contributions.

Social instability and the defensive behaviours of large groups

Otto depicts how, during threats, groups adopt defensive behaviors similar to the paranoid-schizoid position described by Melanie Klein, splitting, denial, omnipotent control, projective identification. In the headline section of this newsletter, Oleksii references his attention and awareness to these feelings and phenomena as his own population goes through massive destruction during the war (Read the article).

Silvia Bernardi

Silvia Bernardi, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University. After graduating from medical school in Florence Italy in 2006, Silvia emigrated to the USA to work intensively in neuroscience research, studying the bases of the interaction between emotions and cognition. Silvia completed her residency in Psychiatry at Columbia and has since practiced privately in New York. She trained in Transference Focused Psychotherapy and continues to see patients for medication management and psychotherapy while conducting her research to unlock further knowledge to support the biological underpinnings of TFP and borderline personality disorder.

The Research and Publication Committee was established within the ISTFP to promote attention toward research relevant to the field of TFP. John Clarkin has guided the Research Committee since the foundation of the ISTFP. During the past decade, I had the opportunity to assist Dr. Clarkin in the initiatives of the Committee. In particular, we had regular open meetings of the Committee during the biennial ISTFP conferences, and the stimuli from those meetings fostered the initiatives of the Committee. In 2022 I was given the exciting opportunity to chair the Research and Publication Committee and was honored to accept this role. The first task was to establish a group of members. With the precious consultation of John Clarkin and Stephan Doering, a list of highly competent and motivated colleagues emerged:

Marko Biberdzic, Victor Blüml, Anna Buchheim, John Clarkin, Chiara De Panfilis, Rossella Di Pierro, Stephan Doering, Karin Ensink, Eric Fertuck, Andrea Fontana, Susanne Hörz-Sagstetter, Maya Krischer, Maria Jesus Rufat

Dear ISTFP members,

The 7th ISTFP conference ended just over two months ago, and I am still reflecting on how stimulating it was, both intellectually and emotionally. Like me, those of you who attended were able to witness our strong sense of community that prevails despite the challenges to group cohesion wonderfully described during the conference by Miguel Angel Gonzalez Torres.

Our sense of community strengthens each of us in numerous ways, so it is important that we nurture this sense of community on an ongoing basis. One way to accomplish this is to enhance our ability to share different skills and resources.

To formalize this ability to share and communicate, the ISTFP’s Public Relations and Communications Committee is creating a complimentary service that will be provided to all TFP groups. We call this service “The ISTFP Mailing List Project”. This will be especially relevant to those of you who plan lectures, trainings, and other academic events.

What is a mailing list?

Mathieu Norton-Poulin, M.Ps.

Mathieu Norton-Poulin is a psychologist in private practice in Gatineau, Québec. He graduated from Laval University in 1995 and started his training in transference focused psychotherapy in 2005. Member of the TFP-Québec group he as been practicing has a certified TFP therapist for the last 9 years. Since 2009 he organized several training events and has given lectures on TFP for medical doctors and college students. He maintains a blog where he write, in plain words, articles to explain TFP to the general public.

READ THE AUTHOR’S BLOG

Dear colleagues and ISTFP members,

The European Society for the Study of Personality Disorders (ESSPD) is proud to announce the third ESSPD Summer School for early career researchers, organized in collaboration with the University of Lausanne, Depart- ment of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychotherapy and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Service, with the financial support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

The aim of the summer school is to increase the meth- odological competencies in conducting high quality de- velopmental psychopathology research in the domain of personality disorders. Topics include: developmental psy- chopathology (i.e., prediction of self-harm and suicide in adolescence), inclusion of family in research designs (i.e., mothers with personality disorders and their offspring), prospective long-term follow-up studies, psychotherapy, research designs (i.e., effectiveness, mediation, modera- tion), assessment of emotional processing, socio-cognitive processing and reflective functioning in adolescence.

We will adopt a theory-integrative, disorder-oriented and evidence-based approach. Throughout the one-week pro- gram, the focus will be on the plurality of methods, their productive use for specific research questions and their creative combinations in order to deepen the understand- ing of developmental pathways and the effects of pre- vention and intervention to personality disorders in youth.

Teaching methodologies include interactive presentations, workshop exercises on actual research material, plenary and small group discussions, individual work, speed-talk presentations, playfully structured question-and-answer sessions.

Where?

The summer school takes place in a relaxing and inspiring atmosphere at the picturesque retreat center Crêt-Bérard, calmly perching over Lac Léman in Switzerland, one of the largest lakes in Western Europe. Activities as part of a social program will be organized.

When ?

Sunday, August 27th 2023 (arrival day) – Saturday, September 2nd, 2023 (departure day); 5 full days residential).

For whom ?

PhD students, MDs, or early post-doctoral fellows affiliated with a European university.
Deadline : Applications by February 1st, 2023 by e-mail to [email protected].

All applications must contain a letter of motivation, a curriculum vitae and a 1-page summary of the relevant research project (in one PDF file). Applications from Eastern Europe are explicitly encouraged.

Full fee EUR 750 (includes registration to all scientific ac- tivities, six overnight stays at Crêt-Bérard, all meals/coffee breaks, and organized social activities).

Reduced fee EUR 300 for participants from Eastern Euro- pean countries (includes registration to all scientific ac- tivities, six overnight stays at Crêt-Bérard, all meals and organized social activities).

Important: ESSPD, with funding from SNSF, fully supports financially up to five participants from Eastern European countries (will be paid for: reduced fee and travel expens- es). Please attach one letter of support (e.g. from your supervisor) if you are interested to apply for this funding.

Flyer of the event (PDF)

ESSPD

The European Society for the Study of Personality Disorders (ESSPD)

ESSPD website