CE: “Untangling: What Patients Can Tell Analysts About Psychoanalysis” – Joan Peters
Sponsored by
The WILA Alumni Association
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
What if the most important perspective in psychoanalysis is the one we rarely hear? Lay patients—those without theoretical training or professional community—make up the vast majority of analysands, yet their authentic voices remain largely absent from our field’s discourse. Unlike analyst-patients who can contextualize their experience through theory and collegial exchange, lay patients navigate analysis without a map. Their accounts offer raw, unfiltered insights into what truly matters in the therapeutic encounter—insights with the potential to transform our understanding of the analytic process.
This talk invites attendees to join a pioneering project exploring the place and value of patient narrative in psychoanalytic discourse. Together we’ll consider excerpts from Joan K. Peters’ own memoir Untangling: A Memoir of Psychoanalysis, alongside narratives she is collecting for a forthcoming special issue of Psychoanalytic Inquiry on The Patient Experience. The unique data you’ll hear marks a striking departure from the “nightmare analyst” novels of popular culture—which we’ll briefly review—as well as the handful of accounts written by analysts in the early years of the profession.
By the end of the discussion, we will reflect on whether granting patients their own voice can deepen our understanding of the intersubjective relationship emphasized by Winnicott, Kohut, and others, and advance the vision of true “two-person therapy” articulated by Jay Greenberg and Stephen Mitchell in The Relational Revolution.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of the program participants should be able to:
- Utilize patient narratives to inform their practice and deepen their connections with their
patients. - Formulate clearer ideas about what matters to patients most during an analysis, what
builds trust, what can weaken it. - Discuss the challenges for patients undergoing analysis in the absence of an analytic
community or theoretical foundation that most candidate/analysts have.
PRESENTER
JOAN K. PETERS is a Professor Emerita of Literature at CSU Channel Islands, is the author of Untangling: A Memoir of Psychoanalysis” (Roman & Littlefield), which she’s discussed at APsA 2025 and was the subject of an APsA panel in 2026. Her essay, “Bad Dreams (Are Made of This)” will appear in Psychoanalytic Inquiry where she is also guest editing a special issue on “The Patient Experience.”
CE INFORMATION
- 2 CE credits
- This CE is at the intermediate level
- To receive CE credit you must attend the entire event
Rates go up on 6/26/26!
Licensed Clinician – $100
WILA Alumni Member – $80
Student / Pre-licensed Clinician – $60
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