This term is a continuation of our Spring 2026 term, which was cancelled because of the unfortunate war and internet shutdown. Except for Dr. Eftekhar’s course, those who registered for Spring 2026 do not have to register again and, if they have already paid for the courses, will not have to pay again this term.
If you wish to take other courses that you did not register for and pay for in Spring 2026, you should register with the course instructor.
This semester, we are pleased to provide a range of online courses tailored for clinicians and psychoanalytic students. The sessions will take place on Zoom, with instructions delivered in Farsi and all reading materials provided in English. We trust you will discover a course that captivates your interest!
To register for any course, contact the course instructor directly. The registration fee is 2,000,000 Toman per course.
Registration closes on 20 Shahrivar (September 10). The maximum capacity for any course is decided by the instructor.
Fall 2026:
Continuation of Emotion and Affects in Psychoanalysis
Dr. Eftekhar
Wednesdays at 14:00-15:20 Tehran time, beginning September 23, (1 Mehr), and then every other week on October 7, October 21, November 4, November 18, December 2, December 16, and December 30, 2026. For registration in this course, please email Dr. Eftekhar at: <mehrdad.eftekhar@gmail.com>
Course Description: This course is a continuation of our previous discussions on emotions and affects. We will continue our examination of contemporary psychoanalytic perspectives on emotion and affects as central to psychic life and therapeutic change. Since there is no single theory of affect, and Freud’s definitions have evolved, we will consider how current psychoanalysis continues to develop these ideas. Using relational, field-theoretical, and post-classical approaches, we will study how affects arise, circulate, and change within the analytic setting. The course focuses on affective communication, enactment, and the shared creation of emotional meaning between analyst and patient, with an emphasis on clinical implications for listening, intervention, and therapeutic action.
On Ogden’s notion of Aliveness
Dr. Ganjavi
Thursdays 9:00-10:20 Tehran time beginning on September 27 (Mehr 2) and then every other week (October 8, October 22, November 5, November 19, December 3, December 17, and December 31, 2026. For registration in this course, please email Dr. Ganjavi: <anahita.ganjavi@gmail.com>
Course Description: Ogden asserts that experience comes before knowledge. He suggests that one must first experience (ontological psychoanalysis) and then understand that experience (epistemological psychoanalysis) to feel more alive, authentic, and imaginative, and to become fully oneself.
In his book “What Alive Means” (2025), which will be discussed in this course, Ogden describes how he helps patients reclaim aspects of life they could not experience due to pain, confusion, or danger. He also provides creative interpretations of four of Winnicott’s seminal papers and challenges traditional views of the unconscious and time in psychoanalysis.
Participants should have a basic understanding of Winnicott’s and Bion’s core theories, as well as clinical experience with patients. Please read the assigned chapters before each session and be prepared to share both clinical and personal experiences.
Continuous Clinical Case Seminar in Psychoanalysis
Dr. Movahedi
Wednesdays at 18:30-19:50 Tehran time, beginning September 16 (25 Shahrivar) and then every other week on September 30, October 14, October 28, November 11, November 25, December 9, and December 23, 2026. For registration in this course, please email Dr. Movahedi: <siamak.movahedi@umb.edu>
Course Description: This course continues the Clinical Case Seminars from previous semesters and is designed for practicing therapists. As before, we focus on developing your clinical psychoanalytic skills through ongoing case presentations and process notes. You are encouraged to discuss clinical situations as they unfold, drawing on readings, analyses, and your clinical experience. Our aim is to understand diverse perspectives, not to critique therapist performance or offer direct suggestions. Therapists may sometimes focus too narrowly on one aspect of a case. By sharing insights with colleagues from diverse backgrounds, you can gain a broader, deeper understanding. This collaborative approach helps identify overlooked factors and potential barriers to treatment.
To support our clinical discussions, I have prepared a reading list. We may briefly review the readings at the start of each class, but they are not meant to delay our focus on case material. The readings are intended as a guide to encourage further reflection and enhance our discussions.
Transference and Countertransference
Dr. Movahedi
Wednesdays at 18:30-19:50 Tehran time, beginning September 23, (1 Mehr), and then every other week on October 7, October 21, November 4, November 18, December 2, December 16, and December 30, 2026. For registration in this course, please email Dr. Movahedi: <Siamak.movahedi@umb.edu>
Course Description: This course reviews the theoretical and clinical foundations of transference and countertransference and develops listening skills for identifying them in analytic sessions. Transference and countertransference are closely connected and central to analysis. They are universal phenomena and often present the greatest challenges in analytic work.
Transference is common and largely unconscious, but the analytic setting allows for examination of its early forms, enabling analysts to engage more flexibly. Transference may appear as positive, negative, hostile, or erotic. While its core concepts have remained stable, the course will examine how transference is understood across theoretical models and treatment stages. Countertransference refers to the analyst’s emotional experience in sessions during treatment. Its definition has evolved, and it is now recognized as integral to analysis. Although analysts may not disclose or act on these feelings, countertransference can offer valuable insights into the patient’s unconscious. The course will address the development of countertransference theory and how to recognize and use these reactions effectively.
Donald Winnicott’s Psychoanalytic Perspective
Dr. Nohesara
Thursdays at 15:30-16:50 Tehran time beginning September 24 (2 Mehr) and then every other week (October 8, October 22, November 5, November 19, December 3, and December 17 2026. For Registration in this course, please contact Dr. Nohesara at: <shnohesara@gmail.com>
Course Description: This course presents the foundational theories of Donald Winnicott, a British psychoanalyst who argued that the development of the mind arises from interpersonal relationships, beginning with the early mother–infant bond. Key concepts addressed include the good-enough mother, the holding environment, the true self and false self, and transitional objects. The curriculum examines Winnicott’s perspective on psychological growth as a relational process, particularly during early childhood. The course further analyzes the impact of disruptions in early caregiving on emotional development and subsequent mental health. Clinical case studies illustrate the application of Winnicott’s theories in psychotherapy, especially with individuals experiencing challenges related to identity, feelings of emptiness, or dependency. This course is intended for students and clinicians seeking to deepen their understanding of psychodynamic and relational approaches to mental health.
Clinical Work with Psychosis in Psychoanalysis, II
Mr. Pouralibaba
Thursdays at 10:00 -11:20 Tehran time, beginning on October 1 (Mehr 9) and then every other week (October 15, October 29, November 12, November 26, December 10, December 24, and January 7, 2027. For registration in this course, please email Mr. Pouralibaba: <b.pouralibaba@gmail.com>
Course Description: This course continues our exploration of Clinical Work with Psychosis from the Fall semester. Previously, we examined Freud’s view that psychotic patients could not be treated through psychoanalysis due to their inability to establish object transference. Nevertheless, we also considered how many psychoanalysts persist in working with psychotic patients in both inpatient and outpatient contexts. In this course, we will illustrate how psychotic symptoms can be understood as inventive acts of imagination that process trauma, preserve psychological coherence, seek meaning amid chaos, and communicate experiences beyond conventional language. We will further investigate the creativity required to work analytically with both positive and negative psychotic symptoms.
Psychoanalysis and the Negativity of Language: From the Death Drive to the Sinthome
Dr. Taheri
Fridays at 17:30-18:50 Tehran time beginning September 18 (27 Shahrivar) and then every other week on October 2, October 16, October 30, November 13, November 27, December 11, and December 25, 2026. For registration in this course, please email Dr. Taheri: <dr.alireza.taheri@gmail.com>
Course Description: From the time of the pre-Socratics, negation, the nothing or “what is not” has been the object of painstaking philosophical scrutiny. Parmenides held that only Being is and that, as a result, nothing sensical could be said of the nothing or “that which is not”. In The Sophist, Plato returns to the question of the relations between being, nothingness and language. Much later, Hegel centered much of his thinking on the category of the nothing to establish the intricacies of his ontology. Later thinkers closer to our time such as Frege, Wittgenstein, Saussure, Heidegger, Virno and Ver Eecke continued to pursue this line of enquiry. Negation has thus been and continues to be an object of investigation for philosophy (traditional metaphysics), logic, linguistics, child development and experimental psychology (e.g. Jean Piaget’s work on the child’s recognition of negative statements and his/her ability to make use of the ‘not’). In this course, we will consider this long tradition focusing on the relation between language, being and negation with a view of uncovering its relevance for psychoanalysis. We will thus consider various aspects of language which are central for psychoanalysis such as insults, onomatopoeia, Lacan’s notion of lalangue, the difference between sign, signifier and signified, the centrality of metaphor, the function of the name, Lacan’s exploration of the expletive “ne”, the difference between symbol and idol and the relation between writing and the late Lacanian notion of the sinthome. The principal theme of the course will concern the ambiguity of language (akin to Plato’s pharmakon) as something which introduces a radical negativity into the natural life of homo sapiens (the death drive) thereby disturbing the natural relation with the Umwelt and, yet, also as that which counters this negativity by introducing novel and creative ways (the sinthome) to negate the negativity of language and safeguard, however precariously, the possibility of co-existence within the always fragile public sphere.
Immigration, Psychic Dislocation, and Cultural Mourning
Dr. Taj
Mondays at 20:00-21:20 Tehran time beginning September 21 (30 Shahrivar) and then every other week, October 5, October 19, November 2, November 16, November 30, December 14, and December 28 2026. For Registration in this course, please contact Dr. Mahshid Taj: <mahshidtaj88@gmail.com>
Course Description: This course explores immigration as a profound psychic event involving loss, dislocation, mourning, and transformation of identity. Drawing on classical and contemporary psychoanalytic literature, the seminar conceptualizes immigration as a form of psychic rupture that reactivates early developmental processes, disrupts the continuity of identity, and reshapes internal object relations. Particular attention is given to cultural mourning, language, symbolic loss, exile, transgenerational transmission, and the clinical implications of working psychoanalytically with migrants and exiles.
The course examines immigration from multiple analytic positions: the patient as immigrant, the analyst as immigrant, situations in which both patient and analyst are immigrants, and the ways these configurations shape the analytic field. Attention is paid to how different forms of migration—voluntary, forced, and politically imposed—affect the course of psychoanalytic treatment, with particular focus on migration and exile shaped by political violence and social repression.
Psychoanalysis and Gender
Dr. Zhaf
Mondays at 20:00-21:20 Tehran time beginning September 14 (23 Shahrivar) and then every other week, September 28, October 12, October 26, November 9, November 23, December 7, and December 21, 2026. For Registration in this course, please contact Dr. Zhaf: <mahrouzhaf@gmail.com>
Course Description: This course invites students to examine the dynamic interplay of sexuality, subjectivity, and the unconscious within the psychoanalytic framework, interwoven with insights from feminist theory. It offers a thorough exploration of the critical re-evaluation and re-envisioning of psychoanalytic thought, particularly through the perspectives of influential figures like Freud, as scrutinized by theorists in psychoanalytic feminism, including Julia Kristeva, Hélène Cixous, Judith Butler, and Luce Irigaray. The curriculum engages with academic discourses surrounding sexual identities, gender expressions, and sexual orientation, scrutinizing their portrayal in both psychoanalytic and social science literature. The course delves into the intellectual intersection between psychoanalysis and feminist theory, a focal point of cultural criticism since the 1970s. This intersection has evolved in diverse directions as scholars explore new perspectives on gender relations. Recent developments in feminist theory emphasize acknowledging the diversity within women and feminist practices, addressing issues related to masculinity and transnational and postcolonial gender challenges.
Persepolis Off the Couch
Psychoanalysts Examine Famous Films with Behzad Pouralibaba.
Once a Month on Sundays at 20:00-21:20 Tehran time. For registration, please email Mr. Pouralibaba: <b.pouralibaba@gmail.com>
Course Description: Every month, we will select a film for you to watch and discuss and try to examine it from a psychoanalytic perspective. We will try to understand the unconscious of the film’s writer, and director and what they project on fictional characters and subjects. Analyzing the unconscious and desires of the film’s audience is another aim of our monthly webinar. In addition to the course instructor, we often have other faculty members as a part of our critics for our analysis and interpretation of a movie.
Persepolis Psychoanalytic 