Master Clinicians of the Interpersonal-Relational Perspective

The 2025 SUMMER EDUCATIONAL INTENSIVE

MASTER CLINICIANS OF THE INTERPERSONAL-RELATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Miri Abramis, PhD,  Sandra Buechler, PhD,  Jack Drescher, MD,  Anton Hart, PhD,  Jean Petrucelli, PhD, CEDS-S

Monday-Friday, June 23rd-27th, 2025

We are pleased to announce the 2025 Summer Educational Intensive, offered in person, on location at the Institute during June. This year offers a stellar line-up of five of the Institute’s most prominent Master Clinicians.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

This year the Institute is proud to present a program with five of its true Master Clinicians. Each offers expertise in a specific area. They will offer their perspective on the practice of Interpersonal-Relational psychoanalysis, illustrating technique and theory as applied to clinical material. Participants will attend three intensive hours each morning comprised of clinical case presentation, live supervision, group discussion, and class Q&A.

All classes are held in person at the Institute. A welcome breakfast and introduction to the Institute will be part of the first morning’s schedule; coffee and light refreshments are available daily.

The format of the program offers class participants a unique vantage for observing and participating in clinical examination with direction and input from experts in the field. Afternoons and evenings are free for socializing and exploring New York City, or for locals to return to their work settings.

15 CEs are available for this program.

The William Alanson White Institute is located at 20 West 74th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue, in the heart of Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The neighborhood includes Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, several museums, as well as numerous restaurants and shops. It is also a great jumping-off point for visiting all other parts of the City.

THE SCHEDULE & PROGRAM

MONDAY, JUNE 23rd, 9:00am-12:30pm*

SANDRA BUECHLER, PhD

The Clinical Legacies of Sullivan and Fromm

While both H.S. Sullivan and Erich Fromm emphasize the interpersonal nature of all human experience, their clinical legacies differ some. Sullivan and Fromm are my Apollonian and Dionysian gods. That is, Sullivan’s work guides me to approach treatment as occurring in phases, while Fromm’s thinking infuses me with passion. One without the other would be incomplete. In this course I describe their influence, with clinical illustrations.

*Today’s schedule includes a Welcome Breakfast and an introduction to the Institute, starting at 9AM. 

TUESDAY, JUNE 24th, 9:30am-12:30pm   

JACK DRESCHER, MD

From Bisexuality to Intersexuality: Rethinking Gender Categories

The study of human sexual and gender identities is changing, obliging analysts to think about gender and sexualities in ways never envisioned by their psychoanalytic forebears. These changes also require an awareness of the limitations imposed upon by their own theoretical traditions. Toward that end, Dr. Drescher begins with a review of historical assumptions underlying the theory of bisexuality. Then, introducing the role of categories and hierarchies in general, he examines the particular clinical meaning of sexual hierarchies, and a discussion of the meanings and uses of the term, “natural.”  He concludes with a commentary on intersexuality as an example of both the social and surgical construction of gender.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25th, 9:30am-12:30pm   

ANTON HART, PhD, FABP, FIPA

The Analyst’s Aspiration to be Radically Open to Patient Experience, especially in Foreign Situations

Practicing the dispositional stance of “radical openness” requires the analyst take to heart the analysand’s experience and formulations about the analyst. Dr. Hart will discuss this and the desired effect: creating a space for analytic self-discovery that may extend beyond the analyst’s tolerable awareness.

THURSDAY, JUNE 26th, 9:30am-12:30pm

MIRI ABRAMIS, PhD

Listening with an Interpersonal Lens

Despite our shared book learning on theory and technique, each of us brings a unique subjectivity and instrument to analytic dialogue. Like our patients, how we listen, process, and communicate word and deed are essential components of the ongoing conversation. In this workshop Dr. Abramis shares her Interpersonal perspective, incorporating many of the varied influences that shape her thinking, including the use of infant and child research in adult treatment, the work of Edgar Levenson, and an interest in comparative psychoanalysis. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss analytic listening following a detailed case presentation.

FRIDAY, JUNE 27th, 9:30am-12:30pm

JEAN PETRUCELLI, PhD, CEDS-S

The Too-muchness and Not Enough-ness of Desire: What’s Food Got to Do with This?

For patients struggling with an eating disorder, there is an unrelenting internal dialogue related to desire — the having or not wanting to want – and the consuming behavioral rituals that briefly quiet these tortuous thoughts and cause much suffering. Patients must triumph over these thoughts, emotions, compulsions, and often, the experience of denial, in order to begin the road to recovery. From the Interpersonal perspective, treating an ED involves the interplay between attending directly to the disorder and disengaging from the pull to do so.

Case Presenter: Bevin Campbell, PsyD

PROGRAM PRICING

Take advantage of our deeply discounted pricing, available through May 16th:

PROFESSIONALS $500

CANDIDATES & STUDENTS $300

Full priced registration, starts May 17th:

PROFESSIONALS $750

CANDIDATES & STUDENTS $400

Note: Requests for refunds must be made before Monday, June 9th, which is two weeks prior to the course’s start date. From June 9th and on, medical documentation will be required. 

ABOUT OUR MASTER CLINICIANS

Miri Abramis, PhD, is Faculty, Training and Supervising Analyst, Emeritus Fellow at the William Alanson White Institute in New York City. She is currently teaching and writing about the work of Edgar Levenson. For many years she taught Child Development Research and Adult Treatment, an ongoing area of interest. She is Director emeritus of the Intensive Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program (IPPP) at WAWI and is an Associate Editor of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, the Institute’s academic journal. Dr. Abramis is in private practice in Manhattan, specializing in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy with individuals and couples. She supervises widely and is currently running a study group: Enhancing Attention to Clinical Process: Language theory of Edgar Levenson, informed by contemporary research on infant development.

Sandra Buechler, PhD, is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the William Alanson White Institute. She is the author of Clinical Values: Emotions that Guide Psychoanalytic Treatment (Analytic Press, 2004),  Making a Difference in Patients’ Lives (Routledge, 2008), which won the Gradiva award;  Still Practicing: The Heartaches and Joys of a Clinical Career (Routledge, 2012), Understanding and Treating Patients in Clinical Psychoanalysis: Lessons from Literature (Routledge, 2015), Psychoanalytic Reflections: Training and Practice (IP Books, 2017),  Psychoanalytic Approaches to Problems in Living (Routledge, 2019), Poetic Dialogues (IP Books, 2021), and Erich Fromm: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge, 2024).

Jack Drescher, MD, is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in private practice in New York. He is a member of the Board of Trustees and a Training and Supervising Analyst at William Alanson White Institute. Dr. Drescher is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University and Faculty Member at Columbia’s Division of Gender, Sexuality, and Health. He is Senior Psychoanalytic Consultant at Columbia’s Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Adjunct Professor at New York University’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. He served as Section Editor of the Gender Dysphoria Chapter in the DSM-5 Text Revision (DSM-5-TR) process. He is a Director-at-Large of the American Psychoanalytic Association and moderator of the Journal Club of the International Psychoanalytical Association. Dr. Drescher is author of Psychoanalytic Therapy and the Gay Man (Routledge), and is Emeritus Editor of the Journal of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health. He was awarded the 2022 Mary S. Sigourney Award for his International Work on Gender and Sexuality.

To learn more about Dr. Drescher go to: https://jackdreschermd.net/

Anton Hart, PhD, FABP, FIPA, is Training and Supervising Analyst and Faculty of the William Alanson White Institute. He is a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Psychoanalytic Psychology and Contemporary Psychoanalysis. He has published articles and book chapters on a variety of subjects including psychoanalytic safety and mutuality, issues of racial, sexual and other diversities, and psychoanalytic pedagogy. Dr. Hart is a member of the group Black Psychoanalysts Speak, and he also Co-produced and was featured in the documentary film of the same name. He teaches at The New School for Social Research, The Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis, Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York Presbyterian Hospital, the National Institute for the Psychotherapies National Training Program, the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis, and the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis. Dr. Hart served as Co-Chair of the Holmes Commission on Racial Equality in American Psychoanalysis. He is currently completing a book for Routledge entitled Beyond Oaths or Codes: Toward a Relational Psychoanalytic Ethics. He is in full-time private practice in psychoanalysis, individual and couple psychotherapy, psychotherapy supervision and consultation, and organizational consultation in New York.

Jean Petrucelli, PhD, CEDS-S, is a Training & Supervising Analyst, Faculty, Director and Co-Founder of the Eating Disorders, Compulsions and Addictions Service (EDCAS); Conference Advisory Board (CAB) Committee Chair; and Founding Director of the EDCAS one-year educational certificate program at the William Alanson White Institute. She is an Adjunct Clinical Professor and Clinical Consultant for NYU’s Postdoctoral Program; Associate Editor for Contemporary Psychoanalysis; editor of six books, and winner of the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis 2016 Edited Book award for Body-States: Interpersonal and Relational Perspectives on the Treatment of Eating Disorders. Dr. Petrucelli specializes in the interpersonal treatment of eating disorders and addictions. She presents nationally and internationally and maintains a private practice in New York City.

She can be reached at: drjmpetrucelli@gmail.com