Live CE Webinar Open for Registration

Course Description

This seminar explores the dynamic interplay between Dorothy Tennov’s concept of limerance—the intense, often obsessive state of romantic infatuation—and the Lacanian notion of jouissance, that paradoxical blend of pleasure and suffering which exceeds the pleasure principle. Through psychoanalytic, existential, and phenomenological lenses, participants will examine how limerance might serve as a modern cultural expression of jouissance, revealing both the ecstatic and destructive potentials of desire. Readings will include selections from Tennov’s Love and Limerence and Lacan’s Écrits, with emphasis on how these concepts illuminate the structures of longing, fantasy, and the limits of satisfaction.

Curricular Notes

AION 410 occupies a psychologically and ethically delicate position within the 400-level curriculum, addressing forms of desire that resist integration, cure, or moral resolution. By placing Tennov’s descriptive psychology of limerence in dialogue with Lacan’s theorization of jouissance, the course reframes romantic obsession not as mere pathology, but as a site where fantasy, loss, and excess converge. Rather than offering techniques for extinguishing desire, the seminar equips clinicians to listen differently—to hear what longing protects, what suffering sustains, and where interpretation must yield to ethical restraint. In doing so, AION 410 extends the curriculum’s recurring return to philosophy: here, as the question of whether desire can ever be satisfied without losing what makes it human.

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CE Value

This event spans 4 clock hours and awards 4 hours of Continuing Education.

Fees

$280 for CE credit
$190 for non CE / auditing
$150 for pre-licensed students

course status

This course is a live webinar. It counts as Elective credit towards any of Aion's certificate programs.

faculty

To be announced.

Prerequisites

None

Discord Link

Discord Link

If you’re curious about this course, or enrolled in it, please join our Discord Channel dedicated to it.

Event
details

Upon completion of this seminar, participants will be able to:
  1. Describe Dorothy Tennov’s concept of limerence and Jacques Lacan’s notion of jouissance, and differentiate these constructs from normative desire, attachment, and pleasure-seeking behavior.
  2. Analyze limerence as a potential contemporary manifestation of jouissance, identifying how fantasy, repetition, and the pursuit of an impossible object organize both pleasure and suffering.
  3. Differentiate intense desire states from relational intimacy and mature attachment, enhancing clinicians’ capacity to formulate obsessional, addictive, or compulsive relational patterns without moralizing or pathologizing desire itself.
  4. Apply psychoanalytic and phenomenological perspectives to clinical material involving romantic fixation, longing, and erotic suffering, thereby clarifying the therapeutic task when desire exceeds symbolic containment and resists satisfaction.

Tennov, D. (1979). Love and limerence: The experience of being in love. Stein and Day.

Lacan, J. (2006). Écrits (B. Fink, Trans.). W. W. Norton & Company. (Original work published 1966)

Fink, B. (1995). The Lacanian subject: Between language and jouissance. Princeton University Press.

Phillips, A. (1998). On kissing, tickling, and being bored. 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.

✅ Introductory Level For those beginning the path or seeking reorientation. Courses at this level provide foundational knowledge in psychodynamic and integrative frameworks. No prior specialization is required—only a readiness to engage with depth-oriented psychological thought. These classes introduce core concepts, language, and philosophical underpinnings essential to the Aion curriculum.
Intermediate Level For those building structure upon the foundation. Intermediate courses deepen theoretical understanding and clinical application. Participants are expected to have prior exposure to psychoanalytic or Jungian concepts. These courses explore the evolution of major schools of thought, integrative approaches, and the emergence of relational and neurobiological paradigms, inviting greater complexity and case-based reflection.
Advanced Level For those prepared to engage with nuance, synthesis, and transformation. Advanced courses assume substantial familiarity with depth psychological theory and practice. Here, we move toward integrative models, complex case formulation, and contemporary theoretical frontiers. The focus is on synthesis, symbolic analysis, and the practitioner’s evolving stance as both healer and theoretician.
Hard Mode For those willing to be changed. Hard Mode courses are not merely advanced—they are initiatory. Designed for highly motivated participants, these offerings require deep reading, active participation, and a willingness to engage psychologically, imaginatively, and ethically. They are immersive, demanding, and transformational. These courses may involve longer sessions, seminar-style discussion, original writing or creative response, and the expectation that participants contribute to a shared field of inquiry. They are suited for those who seek to embody the work, not merely study it.

The Aion Institute reserves the right to cancel or re-schedule any event, for which registrants will receive a full refund or credit. Refunds for payment processed online via electronic means will be refunded back to the credit card within 2 weeks after the cancellation.

Participants who wish to cancel their registration and paid registration fees online may be eligible for refund.

Participants may cancel their registration through the self-serve page accessed via the link included in the confirmation email sent after registration.

Please keep in mind that canceling a registration on the self-serve page does not automatically process a refund. Aion will refund cancellations made at least 24 hours prior to the start of this event.

The Aion Institute is committed to providing an inclusive and accessible learning environment for all participants.

This event is conducted online using a virtual meeting platform (Zoom). We encourage all attendees to ensure that their technological setup—audio, video, internet connection, and device settings—meets their individual accessibility needs prior to the event.

If you require any additional support, accommodations, or accessibility considerations in order to participate fully, please don’t hesitate to contact us through one of the contact forms on this website. We will make every reasonable effort to ensure your learning experience is welcoming, respectful, and attuned to your needs.

There is no commercial support for this Aion Institute program, nor are there any relationships between the CE Sponsor, presenting organization, presenter, program content, research, grants, or other funding that could reasonably be construed as conflicts of interest.

Continuing Education (CE) Provider Approvals

The Aion Institute is approved by the California Psychological Association to provide continuing professional education for psychologists. The Aion Institute (AIO279) maintains responsibility for this program and its content.