Our fourth report comes from Beijing China.

Nowadays, with the increasing demand for psychological counseling in China and psychoanalytic counseling becoming more and more popular, the number of psychological counselors is increasing.

After more than 100 years of evolution, the theory of psychoanalysis has developed to the stage of contemporary theoretical innovation. The theory of Self Psychology and Intersubjective System Theory has gradually gained wider influence.

In order to promote and popularize Self Psychology and Intersubjective System Theory in China, Self Psychology Educational Project (SPEP) held the First “Symposium of Intersubjective System Theory and Self Psychology” in Beijing on April 19, 2018. Nearly 30 participants who were engaged in professional psychological counseling or were interested in the contemporary psychology participated in the symposium, shared and discussed the application of contemporary Self Psychology and intersubjective system theory in clinical and daily life.

Three senior instructors of the SPEP: Dr. Doris Brothers (Member of the Executive Board, Advisory Board and Council of IAPSP), Dr. Jon Sletvold (Former chair of the Psychotherapy Specialty Board of the Norwegian Psychological Association) and Xin Li (Founder of the Li Institute of Psychology) shared their academic and clinical views and experiences with participants at the symposium.
 

Keynote Speech: Self Psychology and the Healing of Trauma (Dr. Doris Brothers)

A great deal of research has confirmed that most of us have experienced at least one severe mental trauma in our lives, which tends to be passed on from generation to generation. What is trauma? What happens during the traumatic experience and how can we deal with trauma in our clinical work? Dr. Doris Brothers shared her understanding about how the healing of trauma occurs in treatment.
 

Keynote Speech: Odysseus Complex and Intersubjectivity (Xin Li)

Greek mythology is the foundation of European culture and closely related to psychoanalysis. We are all very familiar with the Oedipus complex that classical psychoanalysis interprets us. Xin Li shared another story with participants about Odysseus’s way of going home and he interpreted Odysseus’s story from the perspective of the intersubjective system theory.
 

Psychology & Personal Growth from the Integrated Perspective (Xiaocen Liang)

Xiaocen Liang, a learner and practitioner of Self Psychology and Intersubjective System Theory, shared his personal experience and his unique perspective on understanding psychology at the symposium. He believes that the future of psychology will move towards a more integrated and unified direction.
 

The evening lecture was broadcast online, with nearly 2000 online participants participating in the open lecture.
 

Dr. Doris Brothers shared with us the intimate relationship from the perspective of Self Psychology and the relational system, she said, very importantly, when we are with our partner, our children and our parents, we should never think that we have “fully” understood them. It is very important to keep the relationships open and being curious to people around us.

The symposium promotes the in-depth communication between the domestic and foreign professionals, and strengthens the docking between the domestic therapists and the international contemporary psychoanalytic psychotherapy theory. In the future, SPEP will hold more academic symposiums and other related activities to promote the further development of the Self Psychology and Intersubjective System Theory in China.

The Self Psychology Educational Project (SPEP) invited Dr. Doris Brothers and Dr. Jon Sletvold to deliver a three-day workshop in Beijing in April 20-22.

This workshop builds on the self-psychological, relational-systems understanding of trauma that Dr. Doris Brothers has developed. In addition, it addresses an aspect of trauma that has been largely overlooked in psychoanalysis – the effects of trauma on the body. Dr. Jon Sletvold’s work on embodiment in the therapeutic setting provides a missing element in the understanding of the psychoanalytic healing of trauma.
 

The first day of the workshop opened with a review of the ways in which trauma may be understood as a confrontation with the uncertainty of psychological survival and the restorative efforts that are inevitably initiated. It suggested that most patients and therapists have experienced trauma and that traumas in previous generations may be transmitted from parent to child. A demonstration showed how this embodiment is registered in the earliest moments of a therapeutic encounter.
 

On the second day of the workshop, sameness and difference between patients and therapists have been discussed. A demonstration highlighted the willingness and resistance felt by analysts to match their trauma patients. The ways in which uncertainty about psychological survival is transformed into premature certainty and reflected in bodily and emotional rigidity have been discussed.
 

The third day of the workshop focused on healing as a movement from certainty and rigidity to uncertainty and flexibility. Demonstrations of embodied supervision have been offered to the students.

This workshop received very good feedback from the students. It has strengthened students’ understanding about the trauma and embodiment and learnt how to deal with relevant therapeutic contexts.
 

* SPEP: Self Psychology Educational Project, an integrated Course System regarding the theory and practice of Self Psychology and Intersubjective System Theory collective by IAPSP and the Li institute of Psychology, is tailored to the Chinese therapists, counselors and amateurs.