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When I was about nine, I wrote a story called “The Winged Boat.” In it a boy builds a little boat out of wood and, with a twist of magic (or imagination) that I now don't recall, gives it the power of flying. He then loads it with what he thinks will be needed to sail across the ocean to Angola, where, he presumes, people will understand his Portuguese. I also illustrated it, with simple but effective (I believe) drawings. I put the story into an envelope and mailed it to what then was the most prominent publishing house in Brazil. Some weeks later the manuscript was sent back to
me, with a cordial message telling me I had not followed the proper procedure and would need an agent.
I kept reading and writing as much as possible. I also traveled—not yet to Angola, but to many other countries. Now, a few decades later, as a psychoanalyst, I have had the great pleasure of joining the IPA in Culture Committee (ICC), in its mission—as challenging as it is exciting—of thinking and sharing cultural elements with our colleagues around the globe, in a winged boat of sorts that reaches the vast number of peoples represented at the IPA.
It was June 2020, and the entire world was immersed in the pandemic. Cordelia Schmidt-Hellerau, chair of this committee, suggested launching a short story contest organized and conducted by our committee. A novelist herself (Schmidt-Hellerau 2019, 2020, forthcoming), she knew of the great number of analysts who privately write fiction and wanted to offer them an opportunity to share their passion with colleagues. The committee discussed the idea and enthusiastically agreed. By early October, we had received no fewer than 252 short stories, from forty countries, submitted by IPA members and analysts in training, in response to the call. The contributions, from countries including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Lebanon, Lithuania, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia