Relationships are among the most complex challenges we face as therapists. Most of our patients experience difficulties in this area. Some remain in unsatisfying relationships, others repeatedly destroy potentially healthy ones, and some structure their relationships in ways that cause suffering for everyone involved.

Our borderline and narcissistic patients are often convinced that the problems lie on the other side—that their partners are responsible for the failures in their relationships.

Unconsciously, these patients try to draw us into their inner world, inviting us to see relationships through their lens. At times, we may even begin to believe that the patient has simply been “unlucky” again.

How, then, can we learn to look deeper—to see the broader picture and help patients who are certain that the problem does not lie within their own field of experience?

In the program:

Love and Aggression: From Normality to Pathology

Trainer — Dr. Otto Kernberg, M.D.

Module I begins on 15 November 2025

We will learn to recognize these hidden dynamics in relationships where love intertwines with aggression in all its forms.

This program addresses real life — love that holds both passion and pain, aggression that contains fear and the need for connection. It explores what unfolds within each of us and within our patients. It explores erotic, sexual, and aggressive behavior—where our desires originate, what drives us to act, how we make choices in relationships, and how we defend ourselves against biological motives in ways that can turn the wish for love into fear, exploitation, sadism, guilt, or control.

Dr. Otto Kernberg, M.D., the author and trainer of the entire “Love and Aggression” program, will speak not about abstractions but about applied clinical understanding—the deep psychic mechanisms that shape sexuality, eroticism, and aggression. He will examine how love, desire, and aggression intertwine to form behavioral patterns we see daily—in our patients and, at times, in ourselves. We will consider how these processes shape not only intimate relationships but also how people love, attach, become jealous, devalue, abandon, or cling.

What may be especially valuable for therapists is that we will also address the boundaries of psychological health in today’s pluralistic world. This will not be a set of rigid prescriptions about what is “right” or “wrong,” but an inquiry into what underlies the diversity of sexual preferences and self-attitudes.

We are also certain that Dr. Kernberg will emphasize the importance of therapists maintaining a sense of satisfaction in their own sexual lives—an often-overlooked aspect of professional well-being. For many, this discussion may serve as a reminder to attend to personal happiness, since it is no secret that many therapists struggle with satisfaction in their private lives.

The “Love and Aggression” program is designed to help therapists understand the origins and complex trajectories of human sexual behavior. It explores how impulses manifest within the therapeutic space—between patient and therapist—and how to respond when erotic, aggressive, or destructive dynamics enter the therapeutic relationship itself.

Join the “Love and Aggression” program and open the path to a deeper understanding of yourself, your patients, and the forces that shape human relationships.

Module I begins on 15 November 2025

Details and registration: https://pd.borderline.institute

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TFP-Group Ukraine

Ukrainian Institute for Personality Disorders Studies

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