The first regional meeting of the Mid-Western Psychoanalytic Societies was held on February 24, 1979, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dearborn, Michigan. The theme of the meeting was “Clinical Perspectives on Regression and Regressed States.” An estimated 280 persons attended. Two invited addresses were delivered, and 22 workshops were scheduled.
Melvin Bornstein, chairman of the Faculty Council of the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute, opened the meeting on behalf of the program committee and the host, the Michigan Psychoanalytic Society. He traced the origin of the meeting to the decision of the American Psychoanalytic Association not to have a scientific program this spring, when the International Psychoanalytical Congress will be in New York City. Five years ago a program committee was formed, composed of representatives of the Mid-Western Psychoanalytic Societies, namely Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Michigan, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Topeka, and representatives of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society (London, Montreal and Toronto), to put into operation a concept for regional meetings “whereby analysts and mental health professionals could meet, work and learn together, especially in small group settings.” Initially, the Topeka Society volunteered to serve as host, but as interest ebbed and flowed, the initiative somehow passed to Detroit. Under the guidance, perseverance and dedication of Marvin Margolis, president of the Michigan Psychoanalytic Society, the idea firmed up and plans became reality.
Because of adverse weather conditions that made travel from the East Coast problematic, the major plenary speaker, Hans Loewald, could not deliver his presentation in person, and Melvin Bornstein read it on his behalf. Loewald's presentation had the title “Regression—Some General Considerations.” The list of workshop leaders and their topics included Paul Dewald on “Working with Fixed Versus Reversible Regression,” Anna Ornstein on “Therapeutic Regression in the Analysis of Patients with Self-Pathology,” George Moraitis on “Negative Therapeutic Reaction,” Gerald Sarwer-Foner on “Working with Hospitalized Patients in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy,” and Nathan Segel on “Narcissistic Characterological Problems.”
Paul Ornstein closed the meeting by summarizing Loewald's paper and the subthemes of the day's workshop that dealt with various aspects of the general theme. Ornstein argued that an ever-increasing number of patients with pre-oedipal psychopathology and an ever-widening gap between analytic theory and practice have led to an heightened awareness of anomalies in the major paradigm (in Kuhn's sense) of the psychoanalytic science in the past 20 years, ego psychology. He underlined Loewald's view of regression as being dual in nature—an expression of pathology or deviation from the normal, and a state through which restoration may be achieved with the help of the analyst's “non-reactive neutrality,” his “empathic responsiveness” validating the patient's regressive responses and mobilizing his developmental potential. What Ornstein found missing from Loewald's presentation was the recognition of the concept of “self-object” as part of the developing self and the regressive process.
The morning following the scientific program there was a business meeting of representatives of the various Mid-Western Societies devoted to professional issues, such as the interface of psychoanalysis with organized psychiatry, medicine and the insurance industry; peer review and the demand of accountability; the problem of confidentiality; and the implication of national health insurance for psychoanalytic practice.