Irwin Z. Hoffman, Ph.D.,a
faculty member and supervising analyst at the
Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis, is in private
practice in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and
psychoanalysis in Chicago. He is a lecturer in
Psychiatry at the University of Illinois College
of Medicine, and served on several editorial
boards including the International Journal of
Psychoanalysis. In his book Ritual and
Spontaneity in the Psychoanalytic Process: A
Dialectical-Constructivist View (1998), the
central theme of “dialectical thinking,” emerged
in which many apparent opposites (ritual and
spontaneity, meaning and mortality, construction
and discovery) are seen as
complementary and interdependent. Since the
publication of the book, Dr. Hoffman has
challenged the way we think about free
association, and the interplay of the analyst’s
and the patient’s responsibility in the
co-construction of meaning and of moral
choices that bear upon the patient’s life—inside
and outside of the analytic relationship.
Margaret Grau, LCSW,
has been in private practice in Park Ridge for
over 25 years. She was a school social worker
for 10
years and was the social worker for her
district’s gifted program for 6 years. Ms. Grau
received her MSW from the University of
Illinois at Chicago.
Ruth Sterlin, LCSW,
maintains a private practice in Buffalo Grove,
focusing on individuals, couples and families
and specializing in relationships and attachment
issues. Ms. Sterlin leads a social work
consultation group. She recently retired from
the Jewish Child & Family Service after many
years of service. She is the President of the
Illinois Society for Clinical Social Work and is
the Editor of the ISCSW Newsletter. She received
her MSW from the University of Illinois at
Chicago.
