September 19, 2011 - 8:15 pm
NYU Langone Medical Center - Alumni Hall B

Ninth C. Philip Wilson, MD, Memorial Lecture

Analysis of Psychosomatic Patients: Phil's Living  Legacy

Lecturer:  Phyllis L. Sloate, PhD

Synopsis:
Phil Wilson's insight into psychosomatic phenomena is a living legacy that has  influenced and enriched the clinical work of generations of his colleagues. My paper looks at his contribution in the context of psychoanalysis today. But it is also a personal journey. I will illustrate with a clinical case how my own  thinking was influenced by Phil during the years in which he led the national  and New York Psychosomatic Study Groups. I will touch on the usefulness of  several of Phil's clinical and technical ideas: the need for a more active and  flexible approach determined by the patient's ego strength; the centrality of  transference analysis and the crucial significance of countertransference; the  impact on the analyst of provocative and severely ill patients. My main focus,  however, is on Phil's seminal contribution -- his conceptualization of the  "sadistic superego" and its importance when working with psychosomatic  patients.