You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Reflecting on the 7th Annual IPA Conference on Couple and Family Psychoanalysis evokes a poignant, melancholic, and nostalgic state of mind because it elicits what feels like a lost world where international friends and colleagues could gather and share ideas without COVID fear. What an amazing, rich, and inspiring event it was! The 2020 conference, organised annually in different locations worldwide by the IPA Committee on Couple and Family Psychoanalysis (COFAP), took place in San Francisco on 6-9 February, and brought together 220 participants from at least fifteen countries, including presenters from nine countries and nine different states of the US. Every one of the forty-two unique and rich presentations investigated the clinical, philosophical, and theoretical breadth and vicissitudes of the conference theme: “Who is the couple? Who is the family? Creating new therapeutic possibilities”.
Although we were mostly unaware of what was to come globally, the tentacles of COVID impacted the conference as the China delegation were unable to attend. But for those able to attend, the year-and-a-half of hard work of the planning committee, chaired by Leora Benioff and David Scharff, and generously supported administratively and financially by the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis, resulted in a smooth and intricately organised and executed conference. The conference setting was ideal and provided frequent inspiring opportunities for presenters and attendees to connect professionally and personally. San Francisco, home to a vibrant and active psychoanalytic couple and family community, centred in the Psychoanalytic Couple Psychotherapy Group (PCPG), a growing training and professional organisation, proved a fertile location for the conference. Many participants' feedback emphasised the friendly, warm, non-defensive, and open-minded ethos of the conference. Right now, it's hard to imagine the richness of being together in close rooms sharing ideas and freely exchang