The Fall Meeting of the Association will be held from December 13-17 at the Waldorf with a plenary presentation on Friday, December 15 by Noam Chomsky on “A Naturalistic Approach to Language and Cognition.” The plenary speaker will be Kenneth T. Calder, past-president of the Association, who will speak on Saturday, December 16 on “Self Analysis.”
In addition to the scientific paper sessions and thirty-five discussion groups on selected topics, there will be four panels. “Conceptualizing the Nature of the Therapeutic Action of Child Analysis,” a panel jointly sponsored with the Association for Child Psychoanalysis, will be chaired by Majorie Harley with Lawrence M. Sabot as Reporter and Samuel Abrams, Leroy J. Byerly and Samuel Weiss as panelists. Samuel Ritvo will be the discussant. The second panel on Friday, December 15 will be on “Adult Masturbation: Clinical Perspectives.” Irwin M. Marcus will chair this panel with Richard A. Isay as Reporter. The panelists are Virginia Clower and Steven Hammerman. Judith Kestenberg and George Pollock will be discussants.
The other two panels will be held on Sunday, December 17. “The Technical Consequences of Object Relations Theory” will have Ernst Ticho as Chairman with Arnold D. Richards as Reporter. Panelists are Otto Kemberg and Selma Kramer. The presentations will be discussed by Heinz Lichtenstein and James T. McLaughlin. The panel on “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Psychoanalytic Theories of Aggression” will be chaired by Eli Marcovitz; the Reporter is Joseph Slap. Panelists are Benson Ginsburgh of Storrs, Connecticut and Arnold Rogow (New York). Leo Stone will discuss the papers.
Psychoanalytic Classics Revisited is an addition to the format of the fall meeting. This year, Fenichel's “Problems of Psychoanalytic Technique” will be discussed by Merton Gill, Leo Rangell and Arthur Valenstein with Arnold Cooper as Moderator. There will be two Three-Day Clinical Workshops at this meeting: one on “Unexpected and Unexplained Failures in Psychoanalysis” with Victor Calef as Chairman and a second on the “Psychoanalytic Treatment of Depression,” chaired by E. James Anthony.
The Oral History Workshop, continuing the December 1977 presentation on the “History of Psychoanalytic Research in the United States,” will be chaired by Sanford Gifford. There will be a special seminar for psychoanalysts on “Brain Lateralization and Psychodynamics” presented by Michael S. Gazzaniga, Ph.D. of New York. Interesting audio-visual presentations, a film presentation of “Children of Paradise,” and an open forum on “Peer Review: Professional, Educational and Scientific Aspects,” chaired by Sol Altshul will also be included. A special workshop on linguistics, seven interdisciplinary colloquia and seven interdisciplinary seminars conclude what promises to be a most stimulating fall program.