Seminar Series 1

Seminar Series 1

Chapter 1 – Introduction

Essential Human Nature: How the Quality of Intrapsychic Caregiving
Determines Both Healthy Development and Psychopathology

with Applications to Childrearing and Clinical Practice

Marian Sharkey, Ph.D.

Member Rates: Regular: $60 | Early Career Professional: $50 | Student: $40
Non-Member Rates: Regular: $65 | Early Career Professional: $55 | Student: $45

2 CEs for Psychologists, Social Workers, and Professional Counselors

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Seminar Series Description

This continuing education seminar provides mental health professionals at all levels of training with an introduction and overview of the theory of Intrapsychic Humanism: An Introduction to a Comprehensive Psychology and Philosophy of Mind (Pieper & Pieper, 1990). The theory sets forth a psychology and philosophy of mind, and a comprehensive, unified theory of child development, psychopathology, and Inner Humanism® psychotherapy. We describe how the quality of intrapsychic caregiving shapes both healthy development and psychopathology. We examine effects on child development of accurate and informed caregiving, as articulated by the authors, as well as uninformed and inaccurate caregiving. We discuss the role of these contrasting caregiving experiences in forming a person’s self-worth. In particular, we explore how misidentifying uninformed, inaccurate caregiving with optimal caregiving leads to confusing unhappiness with happiness and underlies unstable, conflicted personal meaning. We discuss how this understanding of psychopathology can be applied in clinical work.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of the program participants will be able to:

  1. Describe how intrapsychic humanism conceptualizes mutuality in the intrapsychic caregiving relationship
  2. Describe how children misidentify unhappiness with happiness in psychopathology
  3. Describe two consequences of the misidentification of unhappiness with happiness in psychopathology
  4. Describe how parents and therapists can help children and clients continue to feel care and pleasurable self-worth when experiencing external losses

The seminar consists of a series of four video presentations by an experienced clinician featuring in-depth discussion of the milestones of the specific developmental stage with the use of examples to bring the core concepts of Intrapsychic Humanism to life.

Reference for the Seminar Series
Pieper, M.H., & Pieper, W.J. (1990). Intrapsychic Humanism: An Introduction to a Comprehensive Psychology and Philosophy of Mind. Chicago: Falcon II Press. Chapter 1, pp. 11-36; Kindle pp. 18-45.

Webinar 1: Mutuality and the Intrapsychic Caregiving Relationship, Part 1 
We will consider how parents and therapists can become more informed about the intrapsychic motives of their children and clients through an understanding of the mutualized process of the intrapsychic caregiving relationship. We will contrast the theory’s concept of intrapsychic caregiving as a way of knowing another’s mind with other ways of knowing, such as empathy and introspection.
Reading Reference: page 11-16; Kindle pages 18-23

Webinar 2: Mutuality and the Intrapsychic Caregiving Relationship, Part 2 
We will consider the theory’s articulation of intrapsychic caregiving as an act of psychic structure building versus an act of understanding, and we will discuss how accurate or informed intrapsychic caregiving builds intrapsychic structure and advances the child’s or client’s sense of pleasurable inner well-being or self-worth.
Reading Reference: page 11-16; Kindle pages 18-23

Webinar 3: A Closer Look at Personal Meaning and the Perceptual Identity Process 
We will examine more deeply the process by which the child’s intrapsychic motive is responded to by the parent’s caregiving motive and we will consider how the quality of the intrapsychic caregiving informs this process. We will consider the effects of accurate or informed caregiving and inaccurate or uninformed caregiving on the development of personal meaning or the child’s sense of self-worth.
Reading Reference: page 16-23; Kindle pages 23-31

Webinar 4: Personal Meaning in Psychopathology and Inner Humanism Psychotherapy, and the Search for Certainty 
We will continue our discussion of how the personal meaning that is generated through the intrapsychic caregiving relationship shapes a person’s sense of self-worth, with a focus on how this process unfolds in psychopathology. We will explore how the personal meaning acquired in psychopathology comes from a misidentification of inaccurate or uninformed caregiving with optimal caregiving and how this confusion of unhappiness with happiness creates an unstable experience of inner-well-being. We will consider the theory’s understanding of human development in the context of human beings’ search for certainty and security.
Reading Reference: page 32-36; Kindle pages 40-45

Seminar Leader

Marian Sharkey

Marian Sharkey, Ph.D., LCSW

Dr. Marian Sharkey is a psychotherapist in private practice with over 25 years of clinical experience working with individuals of all ages in a variety of inpatient and outpatient community mental health and psychiatric hospital settings. She is the Director of Training at Smart Love Family Services where she provides clinical training and supervision.  Dr. Sharkey received her M.S.W. and Ph.D. from the School of Social Work at Loyola University Chicago where she was the founding editor-in-chief of the school’s journal, Praxis: Where Reflection & Practice Meet. She has been an adjunct faculty member in the School of Social Work at Loyola University and serves on the Board of the Intrapsychic Humanism Society. Dr. Sharkey has presented at local and national conferences on the topics of the reflective use of theory in clinical practice and the theoretical principles and practice of Inner Humanism®.

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