Curriculum Overview
Our curriculum revolves around the study of existential philosophy and phenomenology, including Fredrich Nietzsche, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty; the Greeks, including Plato, Aristotle, the Epicureans (Epicurus), the Stoics (Epictetus), the Sceptics (Pyrrho); and seminal psychoanalysts who to varying degrees embody an existential sensibility, including but not limited to Sigmund Freud, C. G. Jung, Jacques Lacan, and especially R. D. Laing, the inspiration for how we conceive the interface between existential philosophy and psychoanalysis. Other thinkers and clinicians will also come into play from time to time. Moreover, our faculty enjoy more than three hundred years of teaching among them, and are accomplished thinkers and authors in their own right.
The didactic portion of our training is broken down into four 8-week segments, with liberal breaks in between. The date of our first meeting will be determined once we have a cohort ready to begin. We will convene one day a week, for two back-to-back 90-minute sessions. The first session will be theoretical, the second devoted to clinical presentations.
Once a start date has been determined (sometime in 2022) we will convene for a one-week Retreat at a location to be determined (Hawaii? Spain? Mexico?) for the purpose of spending some time together, and to bond. Our Retreat will include brief morning sessions designed to prepare candidates for the training; the rest of each day will be devoted to relaxing and having fun. Our rationale is simple: distance learning via Zoom can be alienating when you don’t know the people who comprise your cohort. Spending a week together before we get started should serve as a way to mitigate this problem.
Below we provide an outline of our first year of didactic seminars. The curriculum for our second year of training will be provided not long before the beginning of our second year, with input from candidates.
New School for Existential Psychoanalysis Curriculum
2022 – 2023
1A. Michael Guy Thompson
What Is Authenticity?
1B. Michael Guy Thompson
Case Conference
2A. Michael Guy Thompson
What Is Authenticity?
2B. Michael Guy Thompson
Case Conference
3A. Michael Guy Thompson
Freedom and Will
3B. Michael Guy Thompson
Case Conference
4A. Michael Guy Thompson
Freedom and Will
4B. Michael Guy Thompson
Case Conference
5A. Douglas Kirsner
Laing on Freud’s Introductory Lectures
5B. Heather LaFace
Case Conference
6A. Douglas Kirsner
Laing on Freud’s Introductory Lectures
6B. Heather LaFace
Case Conference
7A. Douglas Kirsner
R.D. Laing & Jean-Paul Sartre
7B. James Norwood
Case Conference
8A. Douglas Kirsner
R.D. Laing & Jean-Paul Sartre
8B. James Norwood
Case Conference
1A. Jon Mills
Introduction to Phenomenology: Hegel
1B. Jon Mills
Case Conference
2A. Jon Mills
Introduction to Phenomenology: Husserl & Merleau-Ponty
2B. Jon Mills
Case Conference
3A. Jon Mills
Introduction to Onto-Phenomenology: Heidegger
3B. Jon Mills
Case Conference
4A. Jon Mills
Introduction to Onto-Phenomenology: Sartre
4B. Jon Mills
Case Conference
5A. Rebecca Greenslade
Existential Therapy & Mindfulness
5B. Rebecca Greenslade
Case Conference
6A. Rebecca Greenslade
Existential Therapy & Mindfulness
6B. Rebecca Greenslade
Case Conference
7A. Sanford Rosenberg
Phenomenology of Presence
7B. Sanford Rosenberg
Case Conference
8A. Sanford Rosenberg
Phenomenology of Presence
8B. Sanford Rosenberg
Case Conference
1A. Douglas Kirsner
Laing on the Therapeutic Encounter
1B. Rebecca Greenslade
Case Conference
2A. Douglas Kirsner
Laing on the Therapeutic Encounter
2B. Rebecca Greenslade
Case Conference
3A. Wilfried Ver Eecke
Hegel and Lacan
3B. Wilfried Ver Eecke
Case Conference
4A. Wilfried Ver Eecke
Hegel and Lacan
4B. Wilfried Ver Eecke
Case Conference
5A. James Norwood
Pyrrhonism
5B. James Norwood
Case Conference
6A. James Norwood
Pyrrhonism
6B. James Norwood
Case Conference
7A. Michael Guy Thompson
Freud’s Technical Papers
7B. Michael Guy Thompson
Case Conference
8A. Michael Guy Thompson
Freud’s Technical Papers
8B. Michael Guy Thompson
Case Conference
1A. Jon Mills
Analytical Psychology
1B. Jon Mills
Case Conference
2A. Jon Mills
Poststructuralism: Lacan
2B. Jon Mills
Case Conference
3A. Jon Mills
Hermeneutics: Ricoeur
3B. Jon Mills
Case Conference
4A. Jon Mills
The Postmodern Turn: Foucault & Derrida
4B. Jon Mills
Case Conference
5A. Fritjof Capra
The Essence of Life
5B. Astréa Issler Ribeiro
Case Conference
6A. Fritjof Capra
The Essence of Life
6B. Astréa Issler Ribeiro
Case Conference
7A. Michael Guy Thompson & Douglas Kirsner
Critique of Contemporary Psychoanalysis
7B. Michael Guy Thompson
Case Conference
8A. Michael Guy Thompson & Douglas Kirsner
Critique of Contemporary Psychoanalysis
8B. Michael Guy Thompson
Case Conference
