Second Day

After the completion of the workshop-group discussions in the morning of the second day the forum ended with a further plenary session, this time chaired by Prof. R. Wallerstein, and with a panel consisting of Dr L. Rangell, Mrs V. Mächtlinger, Prof. A. Solnit and Dr A. Gibeault, each representing his or her own group.

R. Wallerstein: I should now like to open this final plenary session of the Eighth Colloquium here at the Anna Freud Centre. For a number of years now I have had the task of chairing this last afternoon meeting, in the time allotted to us. This year it has been decided to have four participants on the panel, one from each of the groups, who will synthesize and give an account of the main themes discussed within their group and brought to expression here. After that there will be a period of discussion from the floor. I will then give my own summarizing of the weekend's proceedings, after which we will have a break for refreshment and to allow us time to consider those issues which have been brought up by the panellists.

So now, without further ado, I will call on the four fellow panellists in order of the groups they represent, which would make Leo Rangell of Group One first.

L. Rangell: We in Group One discussed the specific problems of sexual and gender identity, grafted upon, or stemming from, the general and more diffuse character pathology.

Proceeding promptly to the two cases, while all appreciated the sensitivity of the clinical material and what was accomplished psychoanalytically in both cases, specific questions and concerns about unknown and elusive areas remained in the minds of many.

The cases traversed wide age-periods, from direct observations in infancy, through adolescent pathology, to severe adult symptomatology. Perversion and neurosis, fetish and phobia, symptoms and character disorders of severe degree, were surrounded by quite normal behaviour and performances in the professional life of the adult patient, and in the first 18 months o