STRUCTURES OF PSYCHOANALYSIS
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A PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY IN CONVERSATION WITH CLINICAL WISDOM
A FOUR-WEEK ADVANCED SEMINAR SERIES
We will look at each school in detail, asking questions about its conceptual architecture to find the logic behind each particular school of thought. Our concepts organize our listening, interpretation, and technique; we ask, what assumptions and inspirations ground these perspectives of being as we listen to our patients?
Each session focuses on a core concept and asks how it functions structurally in clinical thinking and practice.
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Two ways to access: purchase the course as a stand-alone seminar, or join The Portal as a monthly/yearly member
This gives you access to 4 live events focused on structures of psychoanalysis led by Edie Hitchcock and in coordination with professional clinicians, plus access to the recordings indefinitely. All Sales Final.
Philosophy Portal is an online education platform opening space for the next generation of great thought, and cultivation of future philosophical mind. Philosophy Portal members get access to The Portal live event spaces, free access to courses. Couples are encouraged get a 2 for 1 deal. All Sales Final.
Meet Your Seminar Leaders
Edie Hitchcock
Hitchcock is a psychotherapist in private practice and an advanced candidate at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute. She received her doctorate from the European Graduate School in Philosophy, Art, and Critical Thought with a dissertation on the ethics of psychoanalytic listening. She teaches at the Institute for Clinical Social Work and in the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute’s Exploring Psychoanalysis program. She presents at philosophical conferences, and she was awarded the Lee Jaffe Candidate Paper Prize in 2024 by the American Psychoanalytic Association.
Leo Weinstein
Dr. Weinstein teaches courses on Freud, Ego Psychology and Modern Conflict Theory. In addition to serving on multiple committees, he has previously served as Associate Dean and as Director of Clinical Services. He is also on the the Board of Trustees, where he is a member of the Executive Committee.
Peter Shabad
Peter Shabad, PhD is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Northwestern University Medical School. He is on the Teaching and Supervising Faculty of the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis and he is on the Faculty of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. He is also Supervising and Training Analyst at the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis. He is the author of numerous papers and book chapters on diverse topics such as the psychological implications of death, loss and mourning, giving and receiving, shame, parental envy, resentment, spite, and regret. Dr. Shabad’s new book Passion, Shame, and The Freedom To Become: Seizing The Vital Moment In Psychoanalysis (2025) has just been published by Routledge.
Molly Romer Witten
Witten is a practicing psychoanalyst with activities that include Adult & Child Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalytic psychotherapy, Infant Mental Health supervision, and psychoanalytic supervision. She is the associate editor for the Journal of Psychoanalysis Self and Context, and teaches courses on development generally, and self development throughout life. She has provided consultation to both the legal and criminal justice systems regarding the needs of infants and young children.
Each session focuses on a core concept and asks how it functions structurally in clinical thinking and practice.
Examples:
Relational: mutuality, spontaneity, intersubjectivity, enactment
Object Relations: splitting, depressive position, internal objects, envy,
Ego Psychology: defense analysis, conflict, adaptation, regression in the service of the ego
Self Psychology: empathy, twinship, idealization, mirroring, restoration of the self
The guiding questions.
Examples:
What is the structure of this concept?
What does it explain well?
Where does it distort or overreach?
What do the other schools miss when they undervalue this concept?
What does the analyst listen for when listening in terms of this concept?
Session 1: Ego Psychology
Session 2: Relational Psychology
Session 3: Self Psychology
Session 4: Summary and Reflection
2026
Online
830pm CET (Central European Time)
Sunday March 1st / Session 1: Ego Psychology w/ Leo Weinstein
Sunday March 8th / Session 2: Relational Psychology w/ Peter Shabad
Sunday March 15th / Session 3: Self Psychology w/ Molly Witten
Sunday March 22nd / Session 4: Structures of Psychoanalysis Summary and Reflection w/ Edie Hitchcock
Check our reviews on
Start Today
Start Today
Two ways to access: purchase the course as a stand-alone seminar, or join The Portal as a monthly/yearly member
This gives you access to 4 live events focused on structures of psychoanalysis led by Edie Hitchcock and in coordination with professional clinicians, plus access to the recordings indefinitely. All Sales Final.
Philosophy Portal is an online education platform opening space for the next generation of great thought, and cultivation of future philosophical mind. Philosophy Portal members get access to The Portal live event spaces, free access to courses. Couples are encouraged get a 2 for 1 deal. All Sales Final.