The Fall Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association in New York City, December 15-19, will offer a program that is both extensive and varied. It will also contain some new features. The format of the three-day clinical workshops has been extended so that at this meeting three such workshops will be held. Dr. Otto Kernberg will repeat the workshop on “Treatment of the Borderline Personality” that was so popular at last spring's meeting; Dr. Stanley Lesser will lead one on the “Hysterical Character,” and Drs. Anna and Paul Ornstein will conduct such a seminar on the “Manifestations and Working Through of Narcissistic Transferences.” The membership has expressed much interest in these workshops, which allow for discussions in depth of important clinical issues.
Dr. Kernberg's recent book, Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism will also be the topic of discussion at the Meet-the-Author session Friday afternoon. Drs. Kenneth Calder and Leo Rangell will be the discussants, with Dr. Nathan Segal as moderator.
Two Panels will be offered on Friday morning, one on “Nonverbal Aspects of Child and Adult Psychoanalysis,” chaired by Dr. Robert Wallerstein and a second entitled “Current Concepts of Normality,” with Dr. Arthur Valenstein as Chairman. On Sunday, Dr. Charles Brenner will lead a panel discussion on the topic, “Psychic Change in Psychoanalysis.” Small group workshops will follow the first and third of these panels.
The Psychoanalytic Dialogue at the forthcoming meeting entitled “Alternatives to Metapsychology,” will discuss the work of Roy Schafer. Participating as proponents of different points of view will be Dr. William Meissner and Dr. Roy Schafer with Dr. Michael Basch as moderator.
Two plenary presentations are included in the Fall Meeting. On Friday, E. James Anthony will speak on “The Stuff of Modern Consciousness: The Difficult Analysis of Prosaic and Commonplace Minds.” He will be introduced by Albert Solnit. On Saturday, Dr. Francis McLaughlin, recent Past-President of the Association, will address the membership on the topic, “Perspectives on Psychoanalysis Today.” He will be introduced by Dr. Edward M. Weinshel.
Two unusual features of the Program are the Workshop on Oral History #6: “European Refugee Psychoanalysts Come to the United States,” Chaired by Dr. Arcangelo D'Amore, to be held on Thursday morning and an Open Forum on Peer Review: “Professional, Educational and Scientific Aspects,” led by Dr. Sol Altschul, which will be offered on Saturday afternoon.
A sizeable number of scientific papers will be presented on Friday and Saturday afternoons as well as a large selection of Discussion Groups and Interdisciplinary Seminars, Interdisciplinary Colloquia on Questions and Methods in Anthropological Fieldwork, Problems of the Psychoanalytic Theory of Aggression, and the question of Health Insurance Coverage of Psychoanalytic Treatment will allow for a number of analysts and their colleagues in allied disciplines to pursue these topics in depth.