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From 23 to 26 June 2011, Berlin was the venue of the Twelfth International Neuropsychoanalysis Congress, attended by approximately 430 participants from many countries, with the theme of “Minding the Body.” The meetings took place at “radialsystem V,” which opened in 1996 as a new space for the arts on the River Spree in the former East Berlin and functions as a cultural centre “where new ideas ‘radiate’ out in all directions”—an appropriate venue indeed!
Very much appreciated was the current incarnation of the evolving conference structure, with a leading Educational Day, Research Workshops woven into the Congress schedule, and Poster Sessions easily available during intermissions.
The feeling continued at this Twelfth Congress of pushing forward an innovative intellectual frontier by means of an encounter between two rich communities, one—psychoanalysis—a well-established clinical profession and the other—neuroscience—a largely academic profession currently in explosive development. The idea that innovation stems from collaboration and knowledge-sharing across professional or organizational boundaries dates from the 1950s (e.g., Conway, 1995) and is certainly evident at our Congresses.
I cannot do justice in this brief piece to the enormous variety and depth of the presentations, much less to the extremely fertile associations among disciplines, presented and discussed inside and outside the Research Workshops. Here are just a few notes from the Educational Day and the main Congress, neglecting alas the many varied and interesting workshops:
Oliver Turnbull, Manos Tsakiris, Maggie Zellner, and Lisa Ouss conducted the Educational Day, which is a most useful introduction and background-setter for the main Congress. Turnbull reviewed the neuroscience by which the body is represented in the brain. Tsakiris discussed agency and ownership of the body (the right-hemisphere frontal/parietal mediation of own-body perception, illusion mediated by right posterior insula, etc.).