SATURDAY MORNING SEMINAR SERIES 2012

 Dr Anthony Korner

Saturday, 4 August 2012

9.30 am – 12.30 pm

Y Hotel Conference Centre, Mary Jane Barker B Room , Level 4

5-11 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney

Abstract

Modern developed societies such as Australia no longer have a symbolic order that is externally defined or widely accepted amongst the majority of their people. One way of looking at psychotherapy is to understand that people come, bringing a personal sense of reality, and seek to find an “order” that will allow the particular “self” to thrive. Such an order is a “personal symbolic order”.

This seminar will be about looking for, understanding, and developing such personal orders. This will include a discussion of the biological underpinnings of that which is most significant to human being. The role of the scientist is to define the “facts” of “objective reality” whereas the role of the artist is to express a personal sense of “reality”. The modalities of the scientist are those of measurement, hypothesis-formation, experimentation, and analysis. The modalities of the artist are those of self, expression, performance, and communication.

The psychotherapist who has developed the role of “participant-observer” needs to be competent in bringing together the methods of both scientist and artist. In the spirit of observation (for the audience), the first part of this seminar will involve a presentation by the speaker. In the spirit of participation each person who attends is asked to “bring something”. This could be an object or it could be something like a song, a poem, an image, a story, or any recognizable “object of attention” that can be held in the mind and has personal significance for the individual in relation to their work. There will, in the second part of the seminar, be opportunities to share what has been brought. For a group of psychotherapists this may contribute to the development of a communal “symbolic order” that is of utility in their work.

Dr Warwick Middleton & Dr Andrew Leon     
(Numbers for this seminar are limited – please register early)
    
Saturday, 19 May 2012, 9.30 am – 12.30 pm     
Y Hotel Conference Centre     
Mezzanine B , Level 1, 5-11 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney     

To be held fortnightly on the first and third Wednesday evening of the month commencing on 2 March and finishing on 29 June.  To be held at Glebe.

‘The Origins of the Creative Self’
Presented by Professor Louise Newman

AND

‘Attachment, Adjustment and Achievement in Intellectually Gifted Children’
Presented by Mimi Wellisch

AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM – 25 SEPTEMBER 2010 9.30 AM – 12.30 PM

Louise Newman is the Professor of Developmental Psychiatry and Director of the Monash University Centre for Developmental Psychiatry & Psychology. Prior to this appointment she was the Chair of Perinatal and Infant Psychiatry at the University of Newcastle and the previous Director of the New South Wales Institute of Psychiatry.