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In keeping with the general theme— change —of the 29th International Congress, the design of the forum was itself an innovation. The Programme Committee suggested that the forum members not read prepared statements, in order to foster flexibility and freedom of discussion and to facilitate the collective participation of both the audience and the panel.
Attendance was large and the contributions of the many who spoke were discerning, moving and at times eloquent. Many aspects of the topic were explored and proposals for consideration by the International were made. A Portuguese analyst related his clinical observations and conclusions about the impact of the sudden political change in his country upon the analytic process. Two others, originally from the U.S.S.R., spoke out against the use of psychiatry by the Soviet government for political purposes. That the participation was active and that the forum moved coherently at a brisk pace can be attributed to the Chairman's skill in integrating the proceedings and to his effectiveness in ensuring those who wished to speak the opportunity to do so. He insisted in a firm yet compassionate manner that all adhere to necessary time allotments.
Most of the panel members had met for several informal discussions prior to the actual forum. As they explored the topic, three broad areas emerged.
The first was that of the changing morality, the mores and customs in a rapidly evolving modern world, in relation to such issues as norms of sexual behaviour, patterns of drug use, plasticity of life styles, and the impact of these changes upon the ego and superego development of patients. Considered was whether such changes require the altering of both the conceptions and definitions of sexual deviation, of promiscuity, of drug misuse or abuse, and of what constitutes acting out.
Robert Wallerstein proposed a second topical area for the panel, the changing social reality, a topic which encompasses b