Facebook
X
LinkedIn
Forward
Passive Aggression: History, Theory, and Practice - Ben Kafka, PhD, LP (Webinar live online)
2026-27 Friday Night Guest Lecture Series
Continuing education information to follow
In 1944 a team of military psychiatrists, led by Brigadier General William Menninger, set out to investigate an epidemic of "pouting, stubbornness, procrastination, inefficiency, and passive obstructionism” that had broken out among the soldiers. The results of their research were unveiled the following year, in U.S. War Department Technical Bulletin, Medical 203. Alongside "Psychogenic Asthenic Reaction” and “Involution Melancholia,” a new condition was identified: Passive Aggressive Personality Disorder. The idea of “passive aggression” very quickly escaped the confines of TB MED 203 to become one of the first fad diagnoses of the postwar era—a fixture, even a fixation point, in the way we make sense of any number of maddening situations. As for TBD MED 203, it went on to become the first version of the DSM. This talk will consider passive aggression as a historical phenomenon, as a theory of interpersonality, and as a transference/countertransference dynamic in the consulting room.
Course summary
- 1.50 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™
ACCME - As a Jointly Accredited Organization, The Austen Riggs Center, Inc. designates this learning activity for a maximum of 1.50 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
- 1.50 APA
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, The Austen Riggs Center, Inc. designates this learning activity for 1.50 continuing education credit(s) (CE) for psychology. Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs.
Austen Riggs Center, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0115.
- 1.50 ASWB-ACE
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, The Austen Riggs Center, Inc is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organization, not individual courses, are approved under this program. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Austen Riggs Center maintains responsibility for this. Social workers completing this will receive 1.50 continuing education credit(s).Austen Riggs Center, Inc is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0843.
- 1.50 Contact Hours/ ParticipationA certificate of attendance for all Learners.
Ben Kafka, PhD, LP, is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Greenwich Village. He's also an associate professor of clinical psychoanalysis in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia and a fellow at the DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell. He previously spent nearly twenty years as a professor of the history and theory of communication at NYU, with visiting appointments at Princeton, the Institute for Advanced Study, and the Bauhaus-Universität in Weimar. He’s currently working on a book for Random House about how people drive each other crazy.
Austen Riggs Center Inc. adheres to the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Medical Education. All those at Austen Riggs Center involved in the planning of this activity, including the presenter(s) listed above, report they have no relevant financial relationships with an ineligible company*.
The views and opinions expressed in this presentation are those of the presenter(s) and do not necessarily represent the official policy or position of the Austen Riggs Center
Available Credit
- 1.50 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™
ACCME - As a Jointly Accredited Organization, The Austen Riggs Center, Inc. designates this learning activity for a maximum of 1.50 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
- 1.50 APA
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, The Austen Riggs Center, Inc. designates this learning activity for 1.50 continuing education credit(s) (CE) for psychology. Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs.
Austen Riggs Center, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0115.
- 1.50 ASWB-ACE As a Jointly Accredited Organization, The Austen Riggs Center, Inc is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organization, not individual courses, are approved under this program. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Austen Riggs Center maintains responsibility for this. Social workers completing this will receive 1.50 continuing education credit(s).
Austen Riggs Center, Inc is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0843.
- 1.50 Contact Hours/ ParticipationA certificate of attendance for all Learners.