YCSC Special Lecture: Grieving the Loss of Relentless Hope and Evolving to a Place of Serene Acceptance

Session Description

This special session will address relentless hope as a defense to which a patient clings in order not to feel the pain of disappointment in the object – the hope a defense ultimately against grieving. The use of optimally stressful, growth-incentivizing “disillusionment statements” – strategically designed to juxtapose what the patient “had hoped” with what the patient “is coming to realize” – will be discussed as a way to facilitate working through grief while beginning to confront the intolerably painful reality of the object’s limitations, separateness, and immutability. If all goes well, realistic hope and serene acceptance will arise in the context of the patient’s survival of her heartbreak and disappointment – the patient sadder perhaps, but wiser too.

The learning objectives for this session are for participants to be able to:

• Explain why relentless hope is a defense
• Summarize what the relentless patient is refusing to confront
• Construct a growth-incentivizing disillusionment statement designed to facilitate grieving
• Discuss the relationship between grieving and adaptive internalization
• Demonstrate the importance of relenting and evolving ultimately to a place of serene acceptance

Speaker Bio

Martha Stark, MD, a graduate of Harvard Medical School and the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, is a holistic (adult and child) psychiatrist and integrative psychoanalyst in Boston, MA. She is an HMS Lecturer on Psychiatry (part-time) at Cambridge Health Alliance. She is also the originator/developer of THE STARK METHOD of PSYCHODYNAMIC SYNERGY and the author of nine books on the integration of psychodynamic theory into clinical practice, including Modes of Therapeutic Action – 1999 recipient of Jason Aronson's prestigious "Book of the Year Award.” Several of her books have become "required reading" for candidates in psychoanalytic training institutes and students in psychodynamic psychotherapy programs in the US and abroad.

Continuing Education

YCSC Grand Rounds are reviewed for eligibility for Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits on an annual basis and most lecture-style sessions are approved for the year. This session has been approved for two CME credits. Yale School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Individual event designation details are provided at applicable live events.

Hosted by the Yale Child Study Center (YCSC) and Connecticut Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology (CSPP), this is the first in a new annual series, part of YCSC Grand Rounds and held as a special lecture outside of the usual day and time.