Bob Wolf and Art Robbins: The Artist/Psychoanalyst @ NPAP on Friday, October 30, 2015

THE PROGRAM COMMITTEE

OF THE NATIONAL PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION FOR PSYCHOANALYSIS

PRESENTS

THE ARTIST IN THE THERAPIST/THE THERAPIST IN THE ARTIST:

A CREATIVE DIALOGUE

 

PRESNTERS: Dr. Arthur Robbins and Professor Robert Irwin Wolf

MODERATOR: Alan Roland, Ph.D.

 

The presentation will explore the importance of the psychoaesthetic dimensions of working within the third analytic space between analyst and patient. We will then focus on how the utilization of photography and sculpture can stimulate the analyst’s own growth, and how this may then be integrated into clinical applications and practice.

BIO

Arthur Robbins, Ed.D., is the author of numerous articles and books in the area of creativity and therapeutic artistry. He is Founding Director of the Institute for Expressive Analysis, former Director of the Graduate Art Therapy Program, Pratt Institute, and Honorary Life Member, The American Art Therapy Association. He is a Senior Member and former member of the Board of Directors of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis. He is also a fine art sculptor.

BIO

Professor Robert Irwin Wolf is currently President of the Institute for Expressive Analysis, on the Graduate Faculty of The College of New Rochelle and the Art Therapy Program at Pratt Institute, and a Senior Member, National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis. He is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on the uses of creativity and expressive art modalities in clinical practice. He is an exhibiting fine art photographer and sculptor.

 

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 7:30 P.M.

NATIONAL PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION FOR PSYCHOANALYSIS

40 WEST 13 STREET, BUZZER # 216 (BETWEEN 5TH AND 6TH AVENUES)

 

Refreshments Following the Meeting

Pratt Alumni Art Exhibition

On Saturday, September 19, 2015, Pratt Institute presented an Alumni Art Exhibition featuring the work of more than 80 prominent graduates.

This juried exhibition included work of 80 alumni spanning over six decades.

I was excited to have been selected to show my work in the Fine Arts exhibition as a graduate and representative of Pratt's school of Art and Design. My contribution to the show was piece of contemporary stone sculpture:

DANCER”, 1999, 27”H x 9”W x 5”D, White Carrera Marble

I was honored to have Pratt President Thomas Schutte present at the Artist's Reception, seen here personally welcoming me back on the campus.

Solo Pop-Up Exhibition: Sculpture In Stone

This Solo Exhibition of my work in stone took place in Chelsea at a unique Pop-Up Gallery space at 290 Eighth Avenue on Wednesday, May 20, 2015 from 6-9 PM. The space at one time, had been a nightclub, bar and restaurant with a "Roman" theme and was in between ownership at the time of the event. My art representatives were able to secure the space of this one night only event. The unique space: a room with mirrored and marble walls and marble floors became a wonderful backdrop for my stone sculpture. Over 75 people, from the fine art, art therapy and psychoanalytic communities attended during the three hour time frame. Special thanks to my Art Representatives: Mueller+Jacobs, www.muellerjacobs.com for their effort in making this special event possible

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Unique Clinical Supervision Opportunity

I am pleased to offer the opportunity for new participants to join my ongoing clinical supervision group that meets on Wednesdays, from 7 - 8:30 PM in my conveniently located midtown Manhattan office. This group consists of a variety of clinicians, including creative art therapists, psychoanalysts and other clinical professionals interested in integrating creative processing into their work.

In this unique group, participants bring in one piece of artwork each week that they have created at home, to begin a creative exploration of supervisory issues, often focusing on countertransference and resistance. A variety of expressive techniques modalities are explored and demonstrated, including the therapeutic uses of photography, (Phototherapy) and the creative processing of dreams. I welcome this opportunity to offer my clinical skill and experience, having spent the past many years in private practice, teaching graduate art therapy students in a variety of settings and pursuing my own artwork as a photographer and sculptor, as I explored and defined the further integration of creative art therapy, fine art and psychoanalysis.

Please pass this information along to interested colleagues.

For further information please contact me directly at:

rwolfnyc@aol.com

Object Relations and Education

In a recent article in the New York Times, The author describes the importance of contact between teachers and students as being the central factor contributing to the success of any learning experience. 

We often forget the importance of interpersonal contact within the educational process. Newborn infants require extensive human contact or regress into anaclytic ( an often deadly 'failure to thrive syndrome) depression. According to research and theories developed by pioneers in the field of child development, like Margaret Mahler and D.W. Winnicott, mother/child interaction continues to be an essential factor in healthy emotional development, throughout the progressive stages of object relationships and ego development.

Why then is it so surprising that many of the newer educational designs, which are inspired by a business model that focuses only on content delivery, rather than a psychological model that stresses the importance of student/teacher interaction, are doomed to failure?

There are also interesting parallels in psychotherapeutic models for treatment of emotional dysfunction. We are learning that the treatment modalities that focus exclusively on medication or behavioral techniques are less effective, long term, than models that include an element of personal therapeutic contact. Interactive psychotherapies that embrace an understanding of ‘therapeutic alliance’ and ‘positive transference’ have been proven to be more effective in achieving long term, positive results. Clients are more likely to grow within this interactive format than those who simply take medication (often for the rest of their lives without an adequate understanding of long term consequences) or learn a few ‘techniques’ (through CBT or DBT) and are then considered ‘cured’ by their insurance companies!

 

Back Online: An Adventure in the Destructive World of Hacking

After several months of hectic work to reestablish my Website and Blog, I have finally arrived at a new format, one which hopefully will not get hacked and destroyed like my first Website and Blog that had on it over three years of carefully written postings and photographs. My unpleasant experience was with Hostingcheck.com, a hosting company originally called "Nomonthlyfees.com" (I should have trusted my instinct when it became clear that they charged an annual fee, not monthly, and therefore embraced deception as their corporate branding mantra)! I strongly recommend avoiding this hosting company.

Well, they were hacked by who knows who and all of their data, since it was poorly backed up, was destroyed. At some other time I will discuss the world of destruction looming out in cyber space by those individuals who clearly spend their lives dreaming up scams and ways to destroy other peoples lives; sometimes for their personal gain, and other times for simply the sadistic gratification they experience from feeling powerful through the destruction of others. But today it's suffice to say that I am pleased to be back online, with a new Website and Blog that I now hope to be able to use in an unobstructed manner to post my thoughts as seen "through the eyes of a psychoanalyst" (and of course artist). As the current President of the Institute for Expressive Analysis, and being a fully licensed creative art therapist and psychoanalyst with over 35 years of teaching and private practice experience, as well as being an internationally known fine art photographer and sculptor, I feel well qualified to offer this unique view.

My goal is to offer to those interested in my unique perspective, a way to see, process and understand the psychological and psychoanalytic, i.e. the unconscious component of many current events and cultural trends. In an ever changing world it is somehow reassuring to have a fundamental structure upon which you may understand cultural trends and world politics and events from a deeper, more consistent and solid vantage point.

Professor Robert Irwin Wolf, New York City, August, 2014