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Author: bgsp@cmitboston.com

Working with Negative Feelings

Negative feelings, such as anger, envy, hopelessness, fear and disgust, are part of being human, but they often present the biggest challenge when working with patients, colleagues, or institutions. This is especially true for frontline mental health workers who work with complicated and challenging cases. This Fall, a panel of BGSP alumni presented examples of dealing with difficult feelings in a variety of mental health settings, including a hospital diversion program, a group home and a home-based treatment program. [Read More]

The English Patient

By Dr. Mara Wagner. My class this semester, Unconscious Dynamics in Film, recently discussed The English Patient , and with their permission, I decided to write it up as an example of what goes on in a course such as this. The film offered what one student called “a great primer” for the beginning of the semester (Bianca Grace). The weekly assignment had directed the students to think about wishes in conflict, to seek and document evidence of their inferences about unconscious dynamics, and to discover the wish represented as fulfilled in the film as a whole, as if it were a dream. We looked at clinical challenges and transformations in the characters as well. To these ends, we engaged in much the same process as the mis-identified patient, piecing together the unconscious story that was layered throughout the film and uncovering as much meaning as we could in the limited time we had. [Read More]

Oliver Sacks Video

By Dr. Stephen Soldz The great neurologist Oliver Sacks, who died last weekend, was a great friend of psychoanalysis. In this 2011 interview he describes his own psychoanalysis, which at [Read More]

The ‘Deus’ in ‘Ex Machina’

By Wes Alwan, former BGSP student Source: http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/the-deus-in-ex-machina/ While the “deus” is missing from the title of Alex Garland’s incredible film Ex Machina, it figures prominently in its reflection upon the nature [Read More]