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This event was organised jointly by the Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies of Latin America (FEPAL), the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association (APA), the Buenos Aires Psychoanalytic Association (APdeBA), the Argentine Psychoanalytic Society (SAP), and the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) Working Group on Family and Couple Psychoanalysis, and sponsored by the Journal of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis. It was chaired by members of the IPA working Group, David Scharff and Mónica Vorchheimer and the FEPAL Chairs of the Couple and Family Committee, Roberto Losso and Rodolfo Moguillansky. It proved to be not only a manifestation of the burgeoning interest in this mode of psychoanalysis, but it linked with the growing desire to learn from one another and to identify areas of convergence and divergence in psychoanalysis: a theme captured in the 2010 IPA Congress in Chicago. The Buenos Aires Congress also represented a milestone for the Working Group on Couple and Family Psychoanalysis.
As David Scharff, who has forged a place for couple and family psycho-analysis within the IPA noted, it was significant that the Congress was co-hosted by FEPAL, given the rich heritage of psychoanalytic theory and practice that South American psychoanalysts draw upon in their couple and family work. It was perhaps also symbolic that the Congress was held in the city that saw the development of the tango, a dance that—when the embrace of partners is broken—allows a view of the couple's intricate footwork. Presentations throughout the Congress stressed the value of participants bringing less familiar therapeutic steps into the psychoanalytic dance with couples and families, especially in their role described by Britton (1989) as the “analytic third”. For non-FEPAL members working with the link or vínculo was one such step, while the British, American, and Australian presenters highlighted object relations steps, especially that of working in the countertransference. One of