A three-session webinar series by Prof Andrew Moskowitz

The American psychologist Philip Bromberg, more than any other contemporary thinker and clinician, built a bridge between dissociation and contemporary psychoanalytic thinking and theory. Through his writings and teachings, Bromberg emphasized the core relevance of dissociation to the interpersonal psychology of Harry Stack Sullivan and relational psychoanalysis. He quipped that Janet’s ghost had come home to haunt Freud – who had famously eschewed dissociation for repression. Bromberg argued forcefully for a central role for trauma and dissociation in normal personality, and for pre-emptive dissociation in personality disorders – which maintained interpersonal distance in order to prevent psychological pain. He also believed that effective therapy required the activation of parts of the therapist’s self that could engage with the client’s parts (essential for the enactments he viewed as necessary for therapeutic progress) all the while respecting the other (normal) dissociative parts that were in the background; in addition, Bromberg insisted on – in striking contrast to classical psychoanalysis – the necessity of periodic therapist disclosures in order for therapy to be effective. And in his use of dreams in therapy, as in many of his teachings, he echoed – without apparently realizing it – the writings of another major historical figure who locked horns with Freud – Carl Jung.

Series Learning objectives:

At the end of the three-webinar series, participants will:

1)           Understand the personal and professional context out of which Bromberg emerged, including the writings of Freud and Breuer, Ferenczi, Sullivan and Jung, and the unique contribution he made to interpersonal and relational psychoanalysis.

2)           Appreciate Bromberg’s conception of the mind and personality, including the ubiquitous nature of trauma, ‘normal’ dissociation in healthy human development, and the role of pathological dissociation in personality disorders and other forms of psychopathology. Bromberg’s frequent recourse to literature and poetry on the one hand, and neuroscience on the other, to ground his ideas is also highlighted.

3)           Understand Bromberg’s conception of therapy, which emphasized enactments and required committed engagement by the therapist and a nuanced understanding of dissociation, along with an interest in using dreams in therapy in ways more reminiscent of Jung than of Freud.

4)           Appreciate the ways in which Bromberg’s ideas foreshadowed or paralleled contemporary advances, including movements which recognize the essential dissociative nature of normal personality, such as Voice Dialogue and Internal Family Systems therapeutic approaches.

 About Prof Andrew Moskowitz: Andrew Moskowitz, Ph.D. is director of the Forensic Psychology graduate program at George Washington University in Alexandria, Virginia, former president of the European Society for Trauma and Dissociation and a core member of the WHO ICD-11 dissociative disorders diagnoses task force. He is a renowned expert in the trauma/dissociation field, who, for the past 20 years, has used this perspective to inform our understandings of psychosis and violent behavior. As a clinical and forensic psychologist, Dr. Moskowitz has performed therapy and conducted forensic evaluations in the United States, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, in both prison and forensic mental health settings. As an academic, he has taught undergraduate and graduate psychology and medical students in the United States, New Zealand, Scotland, Denmark and Germany, and was the lead editor of both editions of the influential book Psychosis, Trauma and Dissociation (Wiley, 2008, 2019).