The 31st Congress of the International Psycho-Analytical Association, which will be held from July 30-August 3, 1979 in New York City at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, is the first International Congress to be held in North America. The theme of the Congress is “Clinical Issues in Psychoanalysis.” Erik H. Erikson will give the plenary address on a topic related to the “life cycle.” The President of the Association, Edward D. Joseph, will give a major address on a topic relevant to the congress theme on Monday, July 30.
The Chairman of the Program Committee, Albert J. Solnit, has announced the provisional program for the Congress, the titles of the major panels and the panelists. Six panels, with panelists from Latin America and Europe, in addition to analysts from North America, will be held on Monday and Tuesday, July 30 and 31. On the panel, “The Closing Phase of the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Adults and the Goals of Psychoanalysis” Herbert Gaskill (Denver) and Leon Grinberg (Buenos Aires) will present papers. Serge Lebovici (Paris) will be the respondent and Annastina Rilton (Stockholm) will moderate. Phyllis Greenacre (New York) will moderate a panel on “The Value of Reconstruction in the Psychoanalysis of Adults,” where Harold Blum (Roslyn Estates) and Eric Brenman (London) will present the papers. Waldemar Zusman of Rio will be the respondent. A third panel on “The Handling of Resistances in Adult Psychoanalysis” will have papers by Paul A. Dewald (St. Louis) and David Rosenfeld (Buenos Aires) with Daniel Widlocher (Paris) as respondent and Janice de Saussure (Geneva) as moderator.
Tuesday panels include “External Reality as a Facilitating and Interfering Force in Clinical Psychoanalysis.” James T. McLaughlin (Pittsburgh) will be the respondent to papers by Luis Feder of Mexico and Paul Claude-Racamier of Paris; Raphael Moses of Israel will be moderator. “The Psychoanalytic Treatment of Patients with Physical Illness or Handicaps” will have Pietro Castelnuovo-Tedesco (Nashville) responding to panel papers by André Lussier of Montreal and Clifford Yorke (London). The moderator will be Helmut Thomä of Ulm. Paul H. Ornstein (Cincinnati) will present one of the two papers on the panel, “Formulating Interpretations in Clinical Psychoanalysis.” The other paper will be presented by John Klauber (London). The respondent to these papers will be Daniel S. Jaffe of Washington. The panel moderator is Carlos Plata-Mújica of Colombia. These Monday and Tuesday panels will be followed by discussion groups designed to give those attending the panels the opportunity to pursue in small groups, under the leadership of distinguished psychoanalysts from throughout the world, subjects of interest raised in the panel papers.
On Tuesday morning, July 31, there will be a plenary panel on “The Life Cycle as Indicated by the Nature of the Transference
in the Psychoanalysis of Children, Adolescents, the Middle Aged and Elderly,” moderated by David Zimmerman of Brazil. Peter Neubauer (New York), Peter Blos (New York) and Pearl King (London) respectively will present these major papers. These addresses will again be followed by small group discussions of the issues raised by the speakers.
Other features of this 31st Congress include the presentation of approximately thirty-two scientific papers on Thursday morning. The moderators of the paper sessions will introduce the authors, comment briefly on the papers and introduce discussion from the floor. There will be no formal discussants. The Program Committee views the presentation of the scientific papers as a most important aspect of the program, and there will be no other Congress activities during these times.
On Thursday afternoon there will be twenty discussion groups led by psychoanalysts who have been invited to present either an analytic case for discussion or aspects of their current or past work that would be of special interest to the international psychoanalytic community. Included among those analysts from North America invited to lead discussions are Jacob Arlow, Ernest Hartmann, Milton Jucovy (with Judith Kestenberg and Martin Bergmann), Hans Loewald, Margaret Mahler and John McDevitt, Paul and Anna Ornstein, Samuel Ritvo, Roy Schafer. Attendance at these groups will be by advance registration only.
The plenary address on Friday morning by Erik Erikson will be followed by an informal dialogue between Professor Erikson and the “life cycle” speakers, Drs. Neubauer and Blos and Miss King. The Plenary Session and dialogue will be moderated by Edward M. Weinshel of San Francisco. The Report on the Congress will be made Friday afternoon by Sydney Furst of New York.
The Program Committee Chairman stresses that the clinical theme is designed to enable analysts from throughout the world to discuss together issues of mutual interest and concern. The innovation of small group discussions following the large panel presentations is designed to enhance informal discussion, an exchange of varying points of view, and greater participation in the Congress. There will be no prior publication of panel papers for this Congress.
The Organizing Committee, under the Chairmanship of Milton Jucovy with Mervin H. Hurwitz as Committee Secretary, has announced that the opening reception, sponsored by the American Psychoanalytic Association, will be held Sunday evening, July 29, probably at the Waldorf. There will also be a party on Tuesday evening sponsored by the International Psychoanalytical Association, which will be held at a site of historical and cultural significance. Friday evening will be the farewell dinner and dance. Beyond these social events a series of interesting projects is being planned by A.R.T. D'Amore of Washington, including a display devoted to the history of the development of psychoanalysis in the United States.