Unknowing as Truth: Clinical Presence, Paradox, and Process
This CE presentation took place on July 24, 2026, as part of NPAP's 2026 Summer CE Series. Registration is closed.
Dr. Paldy shares this recap of NPAP's 2026 Summer CE Series presentation, part of the continuing education programming from his training institute. The talk addressed the place of not-knowing in psychoanalytic work — how clinical listening can deepen when analysts loosen their hold on mastery, quick interpretation, and tidy, linear narratives of meaning. The talk drew on Dr. Todd Anderson's writing on epistemic inversion and the recursive psyche to consider how clinical presence can stay open to what surfaces indirectly, belatedly, or beyond what a patient can yet put into words.
Presenter & Moderator
Presenter: Todd Anderson, PhD, PsyD, LP
Moderator: Thomas S. Taylor, PhD, LCSW-R
Dr. Todd Anderson writes and practices at the intersection of dissociation, symbolic form, and psychoanalytic epistemology, and is the author of four volumes in Routledge's Psychoanalysis in a New Key series. His most recent paper, published in the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, addresses Ferenczi's contributions to trauma theory and the tension between coherence and containment in clinical technique. He consults regularly with Nancy McWilliams and completed Otto Kernberg's Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) seminar in 2024–2025, focused on manualized treatment for severe personality disorders including Borderline and Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
What the Talk Covered
- How recursive process, paradox, and indirect approaches to experience can deepen psychoanalytic work.
- The difference between analytic approaches built around mastery and premature closure, and approaches that leave room for uncertainty and emergent understanding.