Ritvo Lecture: Engaging Loneliness in the Psychotherapy for Psychosis

Jointly sponsored by the Yale Child Study Center and the Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis, the 2024 Ritvo Lecture will be offered in a hybrid format, held in person in the Cohen Auditorium and available via Zoom.

Description & Learning Objectives

People with psychosis experience loneliness at higher rates than the general population and identify loneliness as one of the most significant barriers to personal recovery. While many researchers have called for psychosocial treatments to specifically target loneliness for people experiencing psychosis, there are limited treatment models that provide direct recommendations for therapists working with people with psychosis.

In this talk, the concept of loneliness will be explored through a review of psychological and philosophical literature and through first-person accounts of psychosis. Additionally, the correlation between specific psychotic symptoms and loneliness will be reviewed. Following this, four key practice elements will be outlined, including addressing barriers to accessing the patient’s longing for connection, the loneliness of psychotic experiences, internalized stigma, and loneliness within the therapeutic relationship, that can serve to engage and reduce loneliness through psychotherapy.

Schedule

10:30-12:30 Presentation in the Cohen Auditorium and via Zoom
2:30-1:30 Lunch provided for those in-person
1:30-3:30 Case Discussion in-person only in the Cohen Auditorium

Continuing Education

The 2023-2024 YCSC Grand Rounds series has been approved for eligibility for Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits. Yale School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Individual event designation details are provided at applicable live events.

Endowed by the first director of training in child psychiatry at Yale, Samuel Ritvo, MD and his wife Lucille Ritvo in 2007, the annual Ritvo Lecture focuses on bringing modern psychoanalytic and psychodynamic thought to child and adolescent mental health practice, with a particular focus on its trainees.