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The Fourteenth Congress of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society took place in Cape Town, South Africa, from 22 to 25 August 2013 at the Hiddingh Campus in the University of Cape Town. South Africa gave a very special feeling to many attendees, particularly given that the Congress took place in the homeland of Mark Solms, who welcomed us and expressed how meaningful it was to have so many people in South Africa for the first time to talk about neuropsychoanalysis.
The Congress addressed the topic “Clinical Applications of Neuropsychoanalysis,” which attracted colleagues from all over the world and created the space for long-needed discussion, representing an important and complex challenge in the dialogue between the neurosciences and psychoanalysis. Most attendees expressed the opinion that neuropsychoanalytic knowledge has indeed modified the way they work in their clinical practice, though a great deal of further work is still required, given the complexity of the matter.
Within this context, on the morning of 22 August the Congress featured its traditional Educational Day, opened by Oliver Turnbull, who talked about psychodynamic psychotherapy with neurological patients. He emphasized the importance of offering this sort of psychotherapy to this population, which has previously been thought not to benefit from any kind of psychotherapy. Because patients with brain damage are typically seen as having problems that arise from damage to a strictly physical object—the brain—the focus of treatment is usually only on physical rehabilitation. Therefore, the psychological life of these patients is typically neglected, notwithstanding that their inner worlds may be drastically altered by brain damage and that they may be in a lot of emotional distress about the changes they must now cope with. Turnbull sensitized the audience to the deep ethical need for this work, and he offered suggestions on how the psychotherapeutic technique can be modified in order to more ef