Dynamic assessment entails a therapeutic process integrating affective attunement with an approach that continually checks and extends the patient’s ego capacity for deeper work. Deep therapy proceeds from the onset of treatment.

This five-week, ten-hour course is designed for psychoanalysts and advanced clinicians seeking to extend initial-interview skills. We will examine the dual realms of rapid dynamic assessment of personality and restructuring of fragile and malignant character defenses. The contributions of Habib Davanloo, MD will be central to the course. Extensive use of videotaped anecdotes will illustrate the core points.

Topics include:

• How to manage the forces of anxiety in the dynamic interview
• How to manage the forces of resistance toward a positive therapeutic outcome
• Assessment and management of fragility and structural weakness in the personality
• How to read non-verbal signals that retard and advance the interview
• Assessment and management of depressive and other malignant defenses
• Application of Davanloo’s Central Dynamic Sequence as a guide
• Recognition and management of regressive defenses
• Recognition and management of the unfinished business of the interview

Since this course is intended for advanced licensed clinicians, permission of the instructor is required for non-psychoanalysts prior to registration for this course.

Objectives: At the conclusion of this course, participants should have a familiarity with rapid assessment of character structure and initiation of structural interventions at the outset of treatment.