Moderator: Gavriel Reisner, PhD, LP

Sunday, April 6, 2025
4pm – 6pm

Live Online via Zoom: Workshop
(Registration is required in order to receive the zoom link)
Registration will close
Friday, April 4, at 1pm

YOU WILL RECEIVE THE ZOOM LINK
BETWEEN 1PM AND 2PM
FRIDAY, APRIL 4

Register Here

In response to physical or sexual assault or emotional abandonment by her parents, a child becomes hyper-vigilant and senses with uncanny accuracy what she must “become” to stay safe and insure her place in the family. This happens instantaneously and instinctively—and not just in outer behavior but in inner experience. To do this, she must dissociate her real emotions and her will, which could be dangerous distractions from her desperate task of becoming exactly how she needs to be, in order to survive and belong. Part of her submission is to take the blame for being assaulted or abandoned, and to feel guilty and ashamed. All these elements become entrenched as her default way of being when a child chronically experiences her family as threatening. Sandor Ferenczi, who discovered this reaction in his traumatized patients nearly a century ago, called it identification with the aggressor. The phenomenon of identification with the aggressor suggests that certain elements are essential to treatment, not just for people who have been victims of child abuse, but for our patients more broadly. Research in evolutionary biology, as well as systematic clinical research, makes clear that identification with the aggressor has evolved as people’s reaction when they can neither flee nor fight off a threat. Further, this reaction helps us understand people’s surprising mass enthusiasm for authoritarian leaders.

Learning Objectives: After attending this presentation, participants will be able to
– Describe the different aspects of identification with the aggressor, the situations that trigger it, and its evolutionary basis.
– Discuss the implications that identification with the aggressor has for conducting psychotherapy.

Open to:
NPAP Members I $25
Other Professionals I $40
Other Candidates/Students I $15
Contribution I Strongly Encouraged

2 CE contact hours will be granted to participants with documented attendance and complete evaluation form. It is the responsibility of the participants seeking CE credits to comply with these requirements. Upon completion, a Certificate of Attendance will be emailed to all participants.

National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0139.

National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts. #P-0010.

The National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0137.