Aggression and the Nature of Symptoms

CPD courses & hours for psychologists in Australia

Australia: Learn about aggression, the death drive, and symptom formation. Enhance your clinical formulation and treatment planning with these CPD courses.

About this course in Australia

For Australian psychologists and counsellors interested in psychodynamic formulation, Dr Adrian Perkel offers an integrative view of aggression and symptom formation. The course explains the interplay between aggression, the death drive and symptoms, and how unmet needs and frustration contribute to defence mechanisms and implicit memory patterns. Practitioners learn to apply combined psychoanalytic and neuroscientific concepts to formulation and treatment planning, and to recognise underlying aggressive drives in psychopathology. The course is approved by the Australian Counselling Association for CPD hours.

In this thought-provoking webinar, Dr. Adrian Perkel integrates contemporary neuroscience with psychoanalytic theory to explore the concept of the death drive and its function within the human psyche. The course examines the role of aggression in both pathological and normative contexts, particularly how it serves to bind free energy when frustration arises from unmet needs. Dr. Perkel delves into defense mechanisms and their role in automatizing patterns through regression to encoded implicit memory, leading to symptom formation. This integrative approach offers clinicians a novel perspective on formulating symptoms and psychopathology, ultimately informing and modifying treatment strategies

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this talk, participants will be able to:

Guilt: A Psychoanalytic Exploration
Beyond Narcissism: A handbook for practitioners and clients dealing with narcissistic abuse
Deepening Change in Imago Relationship Therapy
Curatorship, Administratorship & Capacity: Ethical and Legal Considerations in South African Practice
Navigating Food Fights & Family Feuds: A Guide for Families Supporting Eating Disorder Recovery
Safety, Connection and the Autonomic Nervous System: Attachment Theory and Polyvagal Theory
Understanding ADHD Through an Executive Functioning Lens
Also available for: South Africa · United Kingdom · United States