Tampa Bay Psychoanalytic Society
Saturday, September 26, 2026, 9:30 am–12:30 pm ET
Speaker: Warren S. Poland, M.D.
“The Analyst’s Witnessing and Otherness”
Description:
This presentation will focus on the analyst ’s or analytic therapist ’s “getting” the emotional import of what the patient is going through while simultaneously recognizing those feelings as actual experiences in the patient ’s life—something the patient experiences and the analyst does not. This is distinct from the transference and countertransference engagement and implies a basic respect for the patient ’s being and self in its own right, an appreciation that, whatever the intensity of the clinical couple or analytic third, the patient is nonetheless a unique and separate person.
The analyst ’s witnessing, a profound nonverbal communication of recognition, is an essential catalyst for the patient ’s increasing self-realization and growing self-definition.
Learning Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
- 1. Identify the distinction between transference engagement and the foundational otherness of all people as separate selves.
- 2. Differentiate witnessing from holding and containing and explain the clinical importance of appreciating individual uniqueness and separateness.
- 3. Describe how, while all are cut from the common fabric of humanity, each person is separate and unique, and how recognition of the analyst’s being alongside the patient helps solidify the patient’s sense of self.
Speaker:
Warren S. Poland, M.D., who has practiced clinical psychoanalysis for more than 60 years, is the author of Intimacy and Separateness in Psychoanalysis and Melting the Darkness: The Dyad and Principles of Clinical Practice. He also authored the “Clinician ’s Corner” column in American Imago. He was awarded the Sigourney Prize in 2009 and served as Book Review Editor of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. His papers have been translated into eight languages.
References:
1.Margulies, A. (2021) Alongside: Regarding the otherness of Warren Poland, International Journal of Psychoanalysis 102:618-629.
2.Stern, D. (2022) On Coming into Possession of Oneself: Witnessing and the Formulation of Experience. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly 91:639-667.
3.Ullman, C. (2006) Bearing Witness: Across the Barriers in Society and in the Clinic. Psychoanalytic Dialogues 16:181-198.
3 CME ’S
LOCATION: Virtual - Zoom
CHARGE: Members get up to 21 CMEs/CEUs for free per year.
Non-members pay $25 to attend a 3-hour speaker program meeting and an additional $20 for CEUs for a total of $45 (or $15/CEU).
Register Online: https://tbps.wildapricot.org/
ACCME Accreditation Statement
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and Tampa Bay Psychoanalytic Society. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
AMA Credit Designation Statement
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this live activity for a maximum of 3 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
The APsA CE Committee has reviewed the materials for accredited continuing education and has determined that this activity is not related to the product line of ineligible companies and therefore, the meets the exception outlined in Standard 3: ACCME,s identification, mitigation and disclosure of relevant financial relationship. This activity does not have any known commercial support.