This event will explore the link between childhood wounds and adult love, with a special focus on how disorganized attachment shapes later intimate relationships. Through a clinical tale, Atlas introduces The Frightened Child—a dissociated self-state that develops when a child learns that attachment figures can be sources of both love and harm. This state is characterized by the paradox of simultaneous longing for and fear of closeness. We will discuss toxic nourishment, the fantasy of reparation, the dialectic between safety and risk, and future struggles with intimacy.
Recommended pre-reading:
Bromberg, P. M. (1998). Standing in the spaces: Essays on clinical process, trauma, and dissociation. Analytic Press.
Kuchuck, S. (2021). The relational revolution in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Karnac Books.
Phillips, A. (2012). Missing out: In praise of the unlived life. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Karen, R. (2024). Becoming attached: First relationships and how they shape our capacity to love. Oxford University Press.
Dr. Galit Atlas is on the faculty at NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. She is the author of the books The Enigma of Desire: Sex, Longing and Belonging in Psychoanalysis and Dramatic Dialogue: Contemporary Clinical Practice (co-authored with Lewis Aron) and the editor and contributor to When Minds Meet: The Work of Lewis Aron. Her last book, Emotional Inheritance: A Therapist, Her Patients and the Legacy of Trauma, is an international bestseller, translated into 27 languages. Atlas serves on the editorial boards of Psychoanalytic Dialogues and of Psychoanalytic Perspectives. She is a recipient of the André François Award, the NADTA Research Award, and the Gradiva Award. She is a psychoanalyst and clinical supervisor in private practice in New York City and teaches and lectures throughout the United States and internationally.
Learn more about Dr. Atlas and her work: www.galitatlas.com
Cancellation Policy
For seminar cancellation by participant the deadline to receive a refund is 5 business days before the event. Registration cancellations received prior to the deadline may be eligible to receive a refund less a $10 service charge to cover our processing fees. Cancellations received after the stated deadline will not be eligible for a refund. Refunds will not be available for registrants who choose not to attend an event. Cancellations will be accepted via e-mail and must be received by the stated cancellation deadline. All refund requests must be made by the attendee or credit card holder. Refund requests must include the name of the attendee and/or transaction number. Refunds will be credited back to the original credit card used for payment.