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This is a report from not of the Pre-Congress Conference on Training. The latter has been excellently made by its Chairman, Dr R. S. Wallerstein at the end of the Conference and will be circulated in one way or another to the full I.P.A. Membership. My task is limited to giving a few impressions for those of you who have not been present.
In the first place I express the sincere regret of, I believe, all who were present that family circumstances prevented the Co-Chairman, Mme Evelyne Kestemberg who has played a major part in organizing the Conference, from attending. We all missed her. She would have made a perfect duo with Dr Wallerstein. It must be said, however, that, having been faced with the necessity of assuming sole responsibility, Dr Wallerstein made a perfect job of it.
As all previous conferences on training, this one, too, was a success from the social point of view—an opportunity for an interchange of ideas and problems common to all participants. It clearly fullfils a need of the international community and one would only hope that it might have a more lasting effect in its 'irradiation' back to the institutes.
The sequence of Conference events followed a different pattern this time: The introductory lectures were given in a plenary session at the beginning of the Thursday, 17 July, evening. The informal 'get-together' was held afterwards, not before as on previous occasions.
In this way the entire Friday, 18 July, could be devoted to the discussion groups. There were ten of them: seven English-speaking, one French, one German and one Spanish, thus allowing somewhat for language differences. Simultaneous translation could only be offered for the plenary sessions and only in English and French, because of the cost. But it was decidedly an improvement as compared to previous conferences. The translations were excellent.
The second and last plenary session was held on Saturday, 19 July, afternoon, after a free morning. Its first hour was taken b