1. Describe the theoretical transition from classical object relations to self psychology and relational psychoanalysis, and explain how evolving models of self, other, and relationship alter psychoanalytic understanding of pathology and change.
2. Analyze the developmental scaffolding of anxiety states and formulate how early relational experience contributes to character structure, symptom formation, and patterns of affect regulation across different levels of personality organization.
3. Differentiate among object relations, self psychological, and relational perspectives on attachment and internalization, enabling clinicians to refine clinical formulations of dependency, autonomy, shame, and self-cohesion.
4. Apply intermediate-level psychoanalytic concepts—including contributions from Harry Guntrip, Heinz Kohut, Thomas Ogden, Wilfred Bion, and James Grotstein—to select therapeutic stance, interpretive focus, and relational timing in work with complex clinical presentations.

Bion, W. R. (1959). Attacks on linking. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 40:

308–315.

Bion, W. R. (1962). Learning from experience. Heinemann.

Grotstein, J. S. (1981). Splitting and projective identification. Jason Aronson.

Grotstein, J. S. (2000). Who is the dreamer who dreams the dream. The Analytic Press.

Guntrip, H. (1969). Schizoid phenomena, object relations, and the self. International Universities Press.

Kohut, H. (1977). The restoration of the self. International Universities Press.

Lingiardi, V., & McWilliams, N. (Eds.). (2017). Psychodynamic diagnostic manual (2nd ed.). The Guilford Press.

Ogden, T. H. (1994). The analytic third: Working with intersubjective clinical facts. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 75, 3–19.

Grotstein, J. S. (2007). A beam of intense darkness: Wilfred Bion’s legacy to psychoanalysis. Karnac.

Kirshner, L. A. (1991). The concept of the self in psychoanalytic theory and its philosophical foundations. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 39(1): 157–182.

Mitchell, S. A. (1988). Relational concepts in psychoanalysis: An integration. Harvard University Press.

Aion Institute courses are open to all licensed mental health professionals, residents, interns, and graduate students in training, as well as members of the lay public who have an interest in psychodynamic psychology. Please use the following descriptions of our instructional level to gauge your own comfort level with the content.

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