I Will Be Teaching A Course on Psychotherapy This Summer

During the next-to-last week of the summer (24-28 August), I'll be teaching a course in psychotherapy based on the principles and theories discussed in this Forum. It will, of course, begin with an intensive presentation of affect and script theory, so that we all begin on the same page. Then we'll look at the Blueprint, Tomkins's term for the rules for optimal living imposed by the sheer fact that we have evolved to own an affect system. Once you understand the hardware, firmware, and software associated with the Blueprint, psychotherapy may be approached far more easily.

Vick Kelly's model for intimacy is based on the idea that the Blueprint must also influence the way we get along as couples, and also implies an easily learned and remarkably successful form of treatment. I've expanded on these two aspects of the Blueprint to suggest that society itself is influenced greatly by the undeniable fact that the individuals within it must interrelate on the basis of the same principles. This has allowed the emergence of novel approaches to interpersonal problems within businesses, schools, and entire communities.

No doubt it is improper to make or imply any sort of guarantee, but in this era of dwindling financial rewards for the doing of psychotherapy, most of those who have studied with us have remarkably successful and sturdy practices. We encourage the use of all systems of therapy, suggest reasons why they work when they do, and provide systems of analysis that can allow therapists to shift methods as necessary.

I'd like this year's course for the Cape Cod Institute to be small and intimate so that a bunch of us may work together to learn as much as possible. Toward that end, I hope that the lurkers and larkers of this Forum will come out in the sunshine of Cape Cod so we may get to know each other's faces as well as words. Don't hesitate to contact me if you'd like to discuss the course.

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