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The 20th Congress of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society took place in Brussels, Belgium, from July 18th to 20th 2019. The Congress was held at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and covered the topic “Satisfaction at last. Neuropsychoanalysis on sex, drive, and enjoyment.” People from many countries attended, including Lebanon, Japan, Austria, the United States, Portugal, Ireland, Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, Israel, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Turkey, Slovenia, Lithuania, Canada, Mexico, Spain, the Czech Republic, Peru, Romania, South Africa, Switzerland, Brazil, Norway, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, India, Finland, Republic of Korea, Poland, Puerto Rico, Greece, Latvia, Australia, New Zealand, and Uruguay. This report summarizes the main contents of the keynote talks. For further details, the reader is referred to the speakers' publications.
The Congress was preceded by an Educational Day to introduce the topic of sex, drive, and enjoyment with four talks. Oliver Turnbull was first and spoke about the neuroscience of sexuality. His talk was divided into two main sections. The first described the subjective experience of sex, and the second focused on the variations of sexual orientation and gender identity. The first part began with a description of the phases of the sexual cycle, following the work of Masters and Johnson (1966), which are (1) excitement or arousal, (2) plateau, (3) orgasm, and (4) resolution or refractory period. Turnbull suggested that the first two stages, i.e. arousal and plateau, could be put together. He emphasized that the study of the subjective experience of sex is neglected in the literature. He claimed that neuropsychoanalysis is ideal to discuss this aspect. Turnbull described the phase of arousal as desire and excitement triggered by thoughts and erogenous touch. Psychologically speaking, there is an increase of energy and enthusiasm, and other types of stimuli are neglected to focus on the ob