The Psychoanalytic Center of California

Infant Observation Conference with Dr. Persila Conversano
2023-02-11 09:00 - 12:00 UTC | Zoom online

CE Conference with Dana Amir
2023-03-04 09:00 - 12:00 UTC | Zoom online
More details to follow.
Join us for a Continuing Education Conference titled, Psychoanalytic Explorations in Trauma Work: When Traumatic Lacuna Meets Language with Drs. Dana Amir and Eliane Hary. Learn more.

PCC Open House 2023
2023-04-02 11:00 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Hybrid – In-Person and Virtual, 3200 Motor Avenue, Los Angeles, 90034, United States
Join us for our 2023 Open House. A dialogue and conversation will be held with the audience, faculty members and candidates followed by presentations about our core training, psychoanalytic psychotherapy and child programs. You will have the opportunity to ask questions and explore our diverse and unique possibilities for training. We hope you will join us in learning and understanding more about the PCC. Learn more.

CE Conference with Avner Bergstein
2023-04-22 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom online
In this seminar, psychoanalyst Avner Bergstein will present a paper, “Buried in the future which has not happened: Non-linear time, ‘non-logic’ and the ultimate reality of the session.” In this paper, leaning on Bion’s writings, Bergstein emphasizes the close observation of the evolution of the emotional experience of the session as a way of approaching an infinitely complex and often unthinkable reality. This process extricates us from a hallucinatory grasp on the past and elaborates the capacity to tolerate the unknown and unknowable infinite stream towards the future. Hence, the work of analysis, as depicted in this paper, is not only revealing unconscious thoughts buried in the past, but also cultivating a psychically alive mind able to create and generate new thoughts, oriented toward the future and the unknown.
Learn more.

Merav Roth In-Person: True Love as the Love of Truth
2023-07-15 08:30 - 15:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | New Center for Psychoanalysis, 2014 Sawtelle Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90025, United States
This will be a welcome first in-person event for PCC since the pandemic! Or you can join by Zoom!
Dr. Roth will present two papers. The first paper explores the phantasies concerning, on the one hand, ideal connection and complete satisfaction and on the other, the defenses against a bad and frustrating object. The struggle between these two attitudes is at the root of true love. The second paper engages with a specific kind of pathological identification which Roth calls ‘raw’ object identification. This form of identification manifests as concrete physical phenomena which attempt to evade meaning and integration, generating massive splitting. Certain properties of the object are experienced as foreign bodies in the subject and are defensively identified with, resulting in stubborn bodily symptoms. There will be an opportunity for audience participation after each paper. Learn more.

Autistic States of Mind and Body Across the Human Life Cycle
2023-10-07 07:30 - 2023-10-08 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
The Contemporary Freudian Society and The Psychoanalytic Center of California will co-sponsor a two-day zoom workshop with a focus on the clinical and theoretical aspects as well as the transference and counter-transference experience evoked in our work with the autistic state of mind. Ample time will be available for discussion among the presenters and with the audience.
Featuring presentations by:
Joshua Durban, Tel Aviv/Los Angeles
Maria Rhode, London
Shelley Rockwell, Washington, DC
Margaret Rustin, London
The fee for the weekend will be $200 and $100 for those clinicians
working in the public sector and for candidates/students.
Registration material are forthcoming.

Dr. Judith Mitrani Presents: Some Technical Extensions of the Work of Frances Tustin for the Analysis of Autistic States in Adults
2023-12-02 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom online
Join us as our PCC Member Emeritus, Judith Mitrani, PhD present her important paper on psychoanalytic technique, Trying to Enter the Long Black Branches: Some Technical Extensions of the Work of Frances Tustin for the Analysis of Autistic States in Adults (IJP, 2011).
In this paper, Dr. Mitrani suggests a number of technical extensions and clinical applications of Frances Tustin’s work with autistic children, which are applicable to the psychoanalysis of neurotic, borderline and psychotic adults. These are especially relevant to those individuals in whom early uncontained experiences have been silently encapsulated through the use of secretive auto-sensual maneuvers and bodily protections related to autistic objects and shapes. Learn more.

Dr. Stefano Bolognini presents New Forms of Psychopathology in a Changing World: A Challenge for Psychoanalysis in the Twenty-First Century
2024-01-20 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom online
Join us for a conference with Dr. Stefano Bolognini. In this program, Dr. Stefano Bolognini will explore challenges to the practice of psychoanalysis today. Learn more.

Meg Harris Williams presents "Aesthetic Conflict in Infant Observation: The Developing Baby and the Developing Observer"
2024-02-10 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom online
Join us for a conference with featured presenter Meg Harris Williams. In this program, Ms. Williams will focus on the use of the ideas and methods of W.R. Bion and Esther Bick as developed by Martha Harris in the training model she established for child psychotherapists at the Tavistock Clinic. Learn more.

PCC Open House 2024
2024-03-17 11:00 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Hybrid – In-Person and Virtual, 3200 Motor Avenue, Los Angeles, 90034, United States
Join us for the PCC’s Annual Open House with with Featured Speaker Joseph Aguayo, Ph.D. Topic: Encountering the Primitive Mind: A Psychoanalytic Exploration of Our Beginning. Learn more

Transgender Youth and "The Missing": Exploring the Use of Photographs in "Working Through" the Natal Body
2024-05-18 09:00 - 10:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom online
Join us for a Presentation with Dr. Alessandra Lemma on Transgender Youth and “The Missing”: Exploring the Use of Photographs in “Working Through” the Natal Body. Learn more.

Toward a Jung/Bion Dialogue: W.R. Bion's Reading of C.G. Jung's Memories, Dreams and Reflections
2024-06-15 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Hybrid – In-Person and Virtual, 3200 Motor Avenue, Los Angeles, 90034, United States
Join us for an engaging conference with featured speaker Dr. Joseph Aguayo titled; “Toward a Jung/Bion Dialogue: W.R. Bion’s Reading of C.G. Jung’s Memories, Dreams and Reflections“. Learn more.

Radical Rethinking: A Future for Psychoanalysis Beyond the Individual Unconscious
2024-09-14 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Hybrid – In-Person and Virtual, 3200 Motor Avenue, Los Angeles, 90034, United States
In this program Dr. Francisco Gonzalez will discuss Radical Rethinking: A Future for Psychoanalysis Beyond the Individual Unconscious. Learn More

2024 Melanie Klein Lectureship, Melanie Klein's Narrative of an Adult Analysis
2024-10-26 09:00 - 15:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
PCC’s 2024 Annual Melanie Klein Lectureship will focus on Dr. Christine English’s new book, Narrative of an Adult Analysis (2023), which is an exploration of the first record of Melanie Klein’s long treatment of an adult patient, Mr. B. Learn more.

Melanie Klein Lectureship Brunch on Dinner
2024-10-26 18:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Lulu at the Hammer
PCC Members and Candidates are invited to join Christine English for an intimate and elegant dinner at Lulu at the Hammer, located in the courtyard of the Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd, Westwood, 90024. Free self -parking is available at the Hammer, with entrances on both Westwood Blvd and Lindbrook Blvd. Valet parking is $10. Learn more.

From Fear to Love: Revisioning the Oedipus Complex
2025-05-03 09:00 - 10:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom online
In her lecture, “From Fear to Love: Revisioning the Oedipus Complex”, Dr. Kunst will explore the Oedipus complex by drawing from the ideas of Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, and contemporary Kleinians. She will apply these models to the challenges of modern life and clinical work in an easily digestible and compelling way. Film clips and audience discussion will be utilized to enhance the learning experience. Learn more.

ICAPP Clinical Series with Dr. Patricia O'Brien and Jeffrey Eaton
2025-05-04 09:30 - 11:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Working Analytically with Young People from Early Childhood to Adolescence and Understanding the Earliest Development of Primitive States of Psych-Soma. Learn More.

Jean Laplanche's Theory of the Unconscious and Why Gender Matters in Psychoanalysis
2025-09-27 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom online
Join us for Jean Laplanche’s Theory of the Unconscious and Why Gender Matters in Psychoanalysis with Dr. Dominique Scarfone. Learn More.

An Advanced Ethical Framework for Psychoanalysis with Dr. Jennifer Kunst
2025-11-09 09:00 - 12:15 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom online
Please join Dr. Jennifer Kunst as she presents “An Advanced Ethical Framework for Psychoanalysis“. Learn more

Infantile Trauma and Transformations: The Application of Infant Observation to Clinical Work with Children and Adults
2026-02-14 09:00 - 12:15 (America/Los_Angeles) | New Center for Psychoanalysis, 2014 Sawtelle Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90025, United States
PCC’s Infant Observation Committee has dedicated this year’s Infant Observation Conference to showcasing the work of Alessandra Cavalli, Ph.D. and her unique model of infant observation which integrates Jung, Klein and Bion’s thinking in analytic work with children and adults. Learn more.

Hope and the Machine: Thriving in, Not Just Surviving, the AI Revolution with Todd Essig, PhD
2026-03-14 09:00 - 12:15 (America/Los_Angeles)
Dr. Todd Essig will discuss Hope and the Machine: Thriving in, Not Just Surviving, the AI Revolution. Learn More.

PCC Open House 2026
2026-03-22 11:00 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Hybrid – In-Person and Virtual, 3200 Motor Avenue, Los Angeles, 90034, United States
Join us for the PCC’s Annual Open House 2026. Dr. Jennifer Kunst will discuss, “Sowing and Reaping the Seeds of Change: Evolving Models from Freud to Klein and Beyond”. Learn More.

OUTSIDER.FREUD Fundraiser and Film Screening followed by a Discussion with the Director Yair Qedar and Christfried Togel, Freud Biographer
2026-04-19 10:00 - 13:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center at Vista Del Mar, 3200 Motor Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90034
Join us for a Film Screening of the “OUTSIDER. FREUD”, followed by a Discussion with Director Yaie Qedar and Christfried Toegel, Freud Biographer. Learn More.

A Cure Through Love? with Dr. Judy Eekhoff
2026-04-25 09:00 - 12:15 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom online
Join the PCC for “A Cure Through Love?” half-day conference with Judy Eekhoff, Ph.D. Learn More.

The Psychoanalyst's Listening with Dr. Bruce Reis
2026-06-06 09:00 - 12:15 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom online
Join us on Zoom on Saturday, June 6, 2026 for this enriching seminar, “The Psychoanalyst’s Listening: for, to, and with” featuring Dr. Bruce Reis. Learn more and register here

On Countertransference: Bearing the Unbearable
2026-09-26 09:00 - 12:15 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom online
Join the PCC Conference entitled, “On Countertransference: Bearing the Unbearable” featuring Dr. Dhwani Shah. Learn more.
