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Love, Sex
Desire, tenderness, and destructiveness coexist within the same person. Kernberg traces their development from their deepest psychological foundations to the way they emerge in clinical practice.
November 21
October 24
3 Workshops
and Aggression
Dr. Otto F. Kernberg
September 26
Language: English
12 Months of Access
Personalized e‑certificate
Early-Bird Fee Available Until September 9
YOU ARE ALREADY WORKING WITH LOVE AND AGGRESSION
IF YOU WORK WITH PEOPLE
Yet some of the forces that truly shape human behavior are rarely addressed in basic professional training.
Aggression is seldom understood as a clinical category or as a fundamental psychological drive within core motivational systems. More often, it is reduced to “destructive behavior” or simply an emotion.
Sexuality is frequently taught in simplified terms and avoided in clinical practice because of cultural sensitivities.
Love is reduced to attachment, with little attention paid to its conflicts and pathology.
These dynamics permeate every symptom, every transference and countertransference, every individual, and every couple. Without a deeper understanding of these processes, clinicians are left without an adequate framework for conceptualizing complex clinical situations and helping clients and patients work through their underlying psychological conflicts.
How are love and aggression connected, and what lies behind destructive aggression?
What do different syndromes of sexual dysfunction in women and men reveal, and how can they be addressed in psychotherapy?
How should erotic and aggressive transference — including eroticized transference—be understood, contained, and worked with in ways that benefit the patient?
This series directly addresses these questions:
Where is the boundary between healthy and pathological sexuality—and how can clinicians approach diagnosis with greater confidence?
Why do narcissistic patients devalue others, and how does aggression distort their capacity to love and to desire?
Why does sexual desire fade in long-term relationships? Is it a normal or a clinical symptom—and how should therapists work with it?
You Will Also Explore:
Questions Practitioners Ask Themselves
How should therapists work with eroticized transference when a patient’s desire and aggression are directed toward the therapist?
WHY THIS IS DIFFERENT
DEPTH. THEORY IN PRACTICE.
LEARN FROM THE PERSON WHO DEVELOPED IT.
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Depth, not surfaceKernberg moves from the biological and affective foundations of sexuality and aggression to their expression in love, intimate relationships, personality, and society—across the entire continuum from normal functioning to severe psychopathology. -
Theory in actionEach workshop includes a live public supervision of a real clinical case, together with numerous clinical examples drawn from Kernberg's more than 70 years of clinical practice. -
From the developer of TFPLearn from the person who developed Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP)—one of the few evidence-based treatments specifically designed for patients with severe personality pathology.
1-year access
Watch at your own pace for 12 months.
5
From Registration to Clinical Practice
How It Works
Register
Get access to your account and course materials.
2
1
Enroll in the full series for $599 or pay in three installments.
Choose
Live Workshops
September 26 • October 24 • November 21 — or recordings
3
Live Q&A
Ask Otto Kernberg your questions directly
4
Early-Bird Fee Available Until September 9
WHAT YOU WILL TAKE AWAY
Maps of Love and Aggression —
and a Framework for Clinical Practice
Transform the way you understand and manage these cases in your clinical practice— experience the depth in live supervision.
How love, sexuality, and aggression interact within the psyche
How this affective foundation is expressed in intimate relationships, symptoms, and transference
The nature of arousal, desire, inhibition, and promiscuity—from healthy functioning to pathology
Numerous clinical examples from Kernberg's practice
Eroticized transference, narcissistic transference, and affective storms
How narcissism and destructive aggression distort love and sexuality
PARTICIPANT FEEDBACK
“LEARNING FROM A LEGEND OF OUR TIME”
- “Dr. Kernberg’s supervision sessions are invaluable. The seminar structure (lecture – supervision – lecture – Q&A) is exceptionally well designed and provides a unique opportunity to see the approach applied in clinical practice.”Yuliia StadnikPsychologist
- “The most valuable part was watching how he supervises clinical cases—following his line of thinking and his approach to understanding the patient's difficulties. You simply cannot learn this from a textbook.”Liudmyla MezentsevaPsychologist
- “This is an exceptionally rich and valuable program. Studying with Dr. Kernberg allowed me to experience something truly significant—something that goes beyond knowledge alone. My heartfelt thanks to Dr. Kernberg and to the program organizers for making this possible.”Anna Lill-BezakPsychologist, University Lecturer, Philologist
- “Thank you for the opportunity to deepen my professional knowledge and learn from Otto Kernberg. It was a privilege to learn from one of the leading figures of our time. I would also like to thank the organizers for the outstanding organization of the program.”Iryna RozinaPhD in Psychology, Associate Professor, Psychotherapist
2071
323
students who have received professional training
hours of seminars conducted
years of Clinical Practice
Program Partner
70+
ISTFP
The Continuum of Sexual Pathology
Three Workshops with Otto Kernberg
Program
Pathology of sexual functioning, homosexuality, narcissism, perversion
seminar 1
Each workshop includes a lecture, a live public supervision of a real clinical case, and a one-hour live Q&A session with Otto Kernberg.
26
September
Narcissistic Sexuality
Malignant Narcissism
The Erotization of Pain and Hatred
Homosexuality Across the Continuum of Personality Organization
In particular, the seminar will address the following topics:
- The continuum of sexual pathology — from the neurotic level to the borderline level with the co-optation of sexuality by aggression
- The impact of identity diffusion on sexual pathology
- The psychodynamics of abandonment anxiety
- Differentiating polymorphous-perverse sexuality from genuine perversions
- A structural approach to perversions: distinguishing neurotic perversions (as a defense against castration anxiety) from severe perversions within borderline personality organization
- Aggression in perversions
- Sexuality in the service of aggression
- The specificity of narcissistic sexuality
- The pathological grandiose self in narcissism as a structural basis for disturbances in love
- Narcissistic sexuality: the role of unconscious envy and mechanisms of devaluation
- The narcissistic fantasy of “bisexuality” and the choice of a partner as a “mirror twin”
- Narcissistic fixation on partial objects
- Malignant narcissism and the infiltration of sexuality by aggression
- Narcissism and the erosion of boundaries
- The eroticization of pain and hatred
- Homosexuality in normal development
- Homosexuality across the continuum of structural organization: neurotic level, borderline level, narcissistic spectrum
- A psychodynamic perspective on polyamory, polygamy, open relationships, swinging, and related phenomena
Among the topics of the seminar:
- Primary sexual inhibition
- Secondary sexual inhibition
- Fear of annihilation in the context of sexuality
- Dissociation between tenderness and eroticism
- Radical splitting
- Sexual inhibition — a continuum from neurotic to borderline levels
- Reduced or absent sexual desire; sexual aversion disorder
- Delay or blockage of stages of arousal
- Difficulties achieving orgasm or absence of orgasm
- Sexual avoidance and phobic reactions
- Syndromes of male sexual inhibition (erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, absence of ejaculation, anorgasmia)
- Syndromes of female sexual inhibition (arousal disorder, sexual unresponsiveness, delayed orgasm, anorgasmia, dyspareunia, vaginismus)
- Severe sexual inhibition
- Asexuality — a norm or a consequence of sexual inhibition?
- Compulsive masturbation
- Promiscuity in men and women — psychodynamic origins
- The nature of sexual promiscuity in narcissism
- The dynamics of Don Juanism
The workshop will focus on the following topics:
- Assessment of the prognosis for couple therapy
- Erotic and eroticized transference and countertransference
- Specific features of narcissistic transference
- The syndrome of arrogance
- Negative therapeutic reaction
- Management of affective storms
- Management of countertransference
- Bringing sexual enactments into the analytic space
- Strategy of interpretation
- Indicators of structural change
- Integration of love, sexuality, and aggression
Your Participant Package Includes:
12‑month access to recordings of all three workshops, in Ukrainian and in the original English
a personalized digital certificate of participation
handouts and materials for the analysis of clinical cases
a 60‑minute Q&A session (a total of 6.67 academic hours per workshop, or 20 academic hours for the three workshops)
150 minutes of didactic lecture material
a 90‑minute clinical supervision
KERNBERG IS A LEGEND.
IF NOT NOW—WHEN?
IF NOT NOW—WHEN?
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This is a unique series that Dr. Kernberg conducts personally in live format. - Live sessions: September 26 • October 24 • November 21. Live Q&A with Otto Kernberg is available only on these dates. Special price: $599 until September 9.
FAQ
Answers to the Most Frequently Asked Questions
The current fee is $599—the lowest price offered for the entire series.
More importantly, this is an investment in your clinical practice rather than an expense. If the series helps you work more effectively with even a few complex clinical cases, it can quickly repay its cost through your professional practice.
More importantly, this is an investment in your clinical practice rather than an expense. If the series helps you work more effectively with even a few complex clinical cases, it can quickly repay its cost through your professional practice.
All seminars are available as recordings for 12 months, allowing you to learn at your own pace and revisit any session whenever you need.
Psychoanalytic theory has provided the foundation for the development of virtually every major psychotherapy approach. Even when later models challenge or depart from psychoanalytic ideas, many of the fundamental questions about motivation, personality, relationships, and psychological conflict remain rooted in that tradition.
This seminar series is not intended to replace your therapeutic approach. Rather, it offers a conceptual framework for understanding what is already unfolding in your sessions: basic motivational systems, dissociation, splitting, desire, transference, and aggression.
Whether you practice CBT, Gestalt therapy, systemic therapy, EMDR, or another modality, these concepts can deepen your clinical understanding and enrich your therapeutic work.
This seminar series is not intended to replace your therapeutic approach. Rather, it offers a conceptual framework for understanding what is already unfolding in your sessions: basic motivational systems, dissociation, splitting, desire, transference, and aggression.
Whether you practice CBT, Gestalt therapy, systemic therapy, EMDR, or another modality, these concepts can deepen your clinical understanding and enrich your therapeutic work.
Quite the opposite. Every workshop includes a live public supervision of a real clinical case, together with numerous clinical examples drawn from more than 70 years of Kernberg's clinical practice.
Rather than simply presenting theory, the series demonstrates how psychoanalytic concepts are applied in real clinical work.
Rather than simply presenting theory, the series demonstrates how psychoanalytic concepts are applied in real clinical work.
No. Each workshop is designed to stand on its own, so you can begin with this series even if you are new to Kernberg's work. Dr. Kernberg develops each topic from first principles, making the material accessible regardless of your previous training or clinical experience.
No. This seminar series is not a required component of TFP certification training. It is designed for any mental health professional seeking a deeper understanding of personality, love, aggression, sexuality, and clinical practice, regardless of therapeutic orientation.
START WITH KERNBERG — WHILE THE FEE IS STILL LOWER
Three workshops on what basic professional training often overlooks or simplifies: the nature of sexuality, love, and aggression—from healthy functioning to pathology, informed by more than 70 years of clinical experience.
Online • Language: English • 12 months of access • Personalized electronic certificate
Early-Bird Fee Available Until SEPTEMBER, 9