Previous Meetings

Our first public meeting, the information presented is foundational for the work of the Tomkins Institute. An overview of the major theories of emotion leading to the work of Tomkins, followed by a succinct explanation of affect theory and script theory. Introduction of the Affect Pattern Chart; links between affect and psychopharmacology; theory of personality; nature of empathy; disturbances of empathy, concept of intimacy. Speakers: Nathanson and Kelly.

The spectrum of emotions and behavior involving anger, demonstrating new approaches to the understanding of anger, violence, explosiveness, and the treatment of anger-based disorders. Speakers: Nathanson, Kelly, Abramson, Moore, Heath, Stone, Shapiro.

Psychotherapy patients fall into two groups - those with otherwise adequate life scripts but who have been dazed by affect; and those whose core scripts leave them able to handle only a limited range of situations. Approaches to "borderline" illness based on affect and script as seen in the Affect Pattern Chart, problems of intimacy, substance abuse, integration of psychotherapy and religion, introduction of image-oriented therapy and the use of the drawn image. Speakers: Nathanson, Kelly, Deppe, Klein, Wright.

Dedicated to the memory of master clinician and therapist Michael Franz Basch, and honoring his final book Doing Brief Psychotherapy, this meeting addressed the factors responsible for the duration of psychotherapy. Introduction of the Philadelphia System for psychotherapy; review of the Tomkins Polarity Scale; use of script theory in organizational management and workplace disorder; affect blocking in gay and lesbian psychology; psychopharmacology and affect. Speakers: Nathanson, McShane, Hill, Moore, McDonald, Desmond, Pfrommer, Hite; The First Michael Franz Basch Memorial Award Lecture presented by Leigh McCullough Vaillant.

The Philadelphia System represents the application of Tomkins's work to clinical practice. It is an approach to clinical practice based on an appreciation of the affects that have been experienced in one's past, the scripted methods of handling affect that color future experience, the cognitions through which these affective experiences are represented and interpreted, and the scripts that develop in each individual to manage those affect patterns. Nathanson on: his framework for the initial interviews through which we come to understand the core scripts of a new patient; a way of understanding EMDR on the basis of script theory; and the case of a celebrated transvestite whose episodes of cross dressing seem to have operated as part of an addiction script. Hill on new understanding of psychic trauma made possible by script theory. Donald Mosher, recipient of the Second Michael Franz Basch Memorial Award, offers a summary of his life work on sexual scripting. Workshops by Lauren Abramson, David Cook, Susan Leigh Deppe, Robert E. Desmond, Robin Dilley, Vick Kelly, Marsha Schwartz Klein, Marilyn Luber, Robert Most, Diane Ruch, Brett Schur, and Warren Wittreich.

We live in a climate of overload --- working more than one job, proud that anybody can reach us at any moment, handling whatever comes our way. All this "efficiency" comes at the sacrifice of privacy or any place for personal repair, and we live "pushed to the limit." Steady state overload triggers not "anxiety" (as it is usually mislabeled) but the affect distress-anguish. In this album Nathanson shows the ubiquity of ignored and overlooked distress, presenting a new Compass of Distress that complements his famous Compass of Shame, and explains the place of distress-anguish in a wide range of normal and pathological constellations. Wesley Novak offers innovative methods for the psychotherapy of distress; Jon Grindlinger shows the place of distress in several forms of music; Sue Deppe explains the way several major religions handle this affect; Jeanette Wright demonstrates the role of visual imagery in distress; Melvyn Hill explains how tragedy and comedy deal with the scripts through which people handle suffering; and further workshop presentations suggest the use of this knowledge in clinical work. The Third Michael Franz Basch Memorial Award Lecture is presented by Reverend David McShane as Distress: Bad News From A Friend.

This Colloquium on Connection dealt with the formation and maintenance of relationships. Nathanson discussed a nuclear script that afflicts all men and therefore bedevils all women. Terry O'Connell, recent recipient of the Order of Australia Medal, presented the 4th Michael Franz Basch Memorial Award Lecture on "The Bad Scene as a Doorway to Change," showing how even major crime can lead to societal improvement. Norman Brown discussed the process of dating from the affects involved in initial attraction to the scripts formed for the maintenance of love. Wes Novak unrolled "Clinical Maps for the Couples Therapist," and Vick Kelly discussed "Emotional Connection in Couples: Impediment Removal Therapy." Psychotherapist/jazz musician Gary David offered "Together We Are Sound," a stunning earful of recorded examples of how individuals join when they chant or sing together. Ted Wachtel and Lauren Abramson joined plenary speakers O'Connell and Nathanson for a symposium that applied these principles to heal groups larger than those usually seen by psychotherapists.

Psychotherapy is easy to “learn” and even easier to teach, but it takes a lifetime to perfect. During an “impasse” we feel most aware of our imperfect ability to facilitate the changes our clients seek. This meeting addressed the “us and them” of those moments when the work seems undoable. Jon Grindlinger said therapy often fails because the process itself does not encourage enough affect to cultivate the development of new scripts, and presented ways to destabilize such situations. Richard P. Kluft, recipient of the 5th Michael Franz Basch Memorial Award, described the steps between recognition of a hopeless predicament and the beginning of beneficial change. In their panel discussion, Drs. Desmond, Schur, Taylor, and Wofsey offered a new language to facilitate communication between psychotherapist and prescriber. Jeanette Wright explained that those who cannot phrase their inner world in words find it comforting to show it through clay or drawing. Drs. Kelly and Novak gave detailed maps for the repair of emotional connection through intervention strategies based on the psychology of affect and script.