President-Elect
With the triple sponsorship of the Latin-American, North-American, and Canadian psychoanalytic organizations, the Third Pan-American Congress for Psychoanalysis opened at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York on February 23. When it came to an end on February 27, the concluding speakers voiced satisfaction with the scientific exchanges that had taken place and expressed regret at having to interrupt the warm associations developed in four days of work and entertainment.
The Congress was notable for sessions which had been devised for a direct confrontation of “classical” Freudian theory with the divergent views of Melanie Klein, espoused
by many Latin-American analysts. The sessions devoted to presentations of “The First Analytic Hour” provided an ideal clinical vehicle for contrasting the “Freudian” with the “Kleinian” conceptions of analytic technique, since much of the Kleinian approach is visible in the management of the first hour. The divergent theories came up for discussion in a variety of ways in the workshops, and formed the central topic of one, “A General Re-evaluation of Kleinian Contributions from an Ego-Psychoanalytic Viewpoint.” It was generally agreed that however sharp the differences of opinion, the discussions at no point departed from the level of objective scientific presentation.
In the closing session, visiting colleagues expressed their gratitude for the warm hospitality shown by members of the psychoanalytic community in New York. Enthusiastic tributes were paid to Dr. Marcel Heiman, Chairman of COLLAC, for his outstanding work in organizing the Congress, and to Mrs. Helen Fischer and her Central Office staff for their indispensable and skillful assistance.
ADDRESSING PAN-AMERICAN CONGRESS