When We Lose Our Voice: Writing Impasses and Unconscious Processes

Elise Miller, PhD, Discussant Jane Burka, PhD

Friday May 13, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

2nd Fridays

Sometimes it seems impossible to put our ideas into words. We may be confronted by our fears and limitations. We have too many ideas that make it difficult to hone them down into useable form. Or we have to contend with our unconscious and its many permutations. In other words, the many vicissitudes that bubble up and impact our creativity. A logjam. These unconscious processes and the power of our own self-attacks impact our creativity, our spontaneity, and our ability to link thoughts and ideas in new and exciting ways. Presenter Elise Miller thinks about the impact of impasses on writing. She is also interested in the way that clinicians who work with disturbed patients and utilize deep internal communications, can still feel stifled while writing or attacked by deadlines. In this 2nd Fridays, we will explore what gets in the way of us feeling free to express our ideas in clear and dynamic ways. We will address what gets in the way of our communicating creatively and becoming embroiled in our own writing impasses. Join us in the lively discussion of ways that we limit our own expression and how to think about the process of writing so that we can analyze what gets in the way and how to challenge ourselves to produce in a cogent and dynamic way.

CE Credits offered: 2

Course Objectives

After completing this course participants will be able to:

1. List elements of internal processes that limit creativity of expression.
2. Describe psychoanalytic ways to understand and work through writer’s block.

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The Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. PINC maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Visit pincsf.org/policies for policies and disclaimers.