The spring meeting promises to hold a number of attractions in addition to its special location. Not since 1965 has the American met in New York in the spring. The setting will bring welcome changes for those who travel to the city chiefly in the winter: more sidewalk and street life, more time in the Park, and baseball. In addition, there will be a scientific meeting.
The Program Committee continues to present us with innovative activities. There will be four new discussion panels, a continuation of the program for mental health professionals in training, and a “Meet the Author” panel.
This year, for the first time, the Plenary Address will be given at 9 am. on the Friday of the meeting (May 11). Speaking on the topic “Memory as Resistance and the Analysis of a Dream” will be Paul Gray, who since 1973 has worked persistently to develop an approach to the analysis of defense that, as Marianne Goldberger puts it, “may turn out to be a new ‘royal road to the unconscious.’ He has picked up where Anna Freud and Fenichel left off,” Dr. Goldberger says, “and has elaborated their more general concepts with detailed descriptions of how to use defense analysis to gain the deepest access to drive derivatives. While keeping strong roots in the mainstream of psychoanalytic thought he has emphasized the importance of patients' self-observing functions and relying as little as possible on their compliance. More recently he
Freudian and Kleinian Theory: A Dialogue for Comparative Perspectives
extended his approach to the analysis of the superego.“ In his plenary address, Dr. Gray will discuss his technique and will focus on the uses of memory as a defense.
Although there is no single theme for this meeting, an all-day panel on the first day, chaired by Sydney Pulver, looks to be exciting. The panel is entitled “Freudian and Kleinian Theory: A Dialogue for Comparative Perspectives” and will be steeped in presentations of clinical material by superb clinicians representing the two positions. The two groups will be able to talk to each other with a focus on clinical material that will be presented and distributed. The panel should allow clear theoretical distinctions to emerge, especially those differences in clinical technique inherent in the different models. Edward Weinshel will present clinical material from a Freudian perspective, and Hanna Segal from a Kleinian viewpoint. All members of the panel will respond to the clinical material. Dr. Pulver recommended two papers that might enhance the enjoyment of the panel: Otto Kernberg's “A Contribution to the Ego Psychological Critique of the Kleinian School,” in The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis (50:317, 1969) and Anne Hayman's “ What Do We Mean by ‘Phantasy‘?” also in The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis (70:105, 1989). The panel should pave the way for and stimulate interest in the upcoming meetings of the International Psychoanalytic Association, to be held in Buenos Aires in the summer of 1991.
Paul Dewald will chair a panel on “The Life Cycle of the Analyst: Pregnancy, Illness, and Chronic Disability.” There is surprisingly little in our literature about the vicissitudes of an analyst's life. The panel seeks to examine the effects of events in the analyst's life cycle on the analyst and on the analytic process. Susan Lazare will present a discussion of the effects of her pregnancies on her experience in analyzing patients. There will also be a presentation on an analyst's chronic and acute illness, resulting in the compromise of vision, and its effects on his analyses and analysands. As a summary paper, “The Superego Consequences of Illness” will provide a window on the conflict between the rights of the patient and the wishes of the analyst to work in spite of illness, to fulfill narcissistic wishes and to provide for his or her family.
The Psychoanalytic Dialogue panel topic is “The Value and Function of Theory in Clinical Work: The Relationship of Theory to Clinical Data Gathering” and will be chaired by Henry Smith. The two participants, Joseph Sandler and Evelyne Schwaber, will give brief presentations illustrated with clinical material. Theory helps us find a level of abstraction for clinical work, and the panelists will discuss how different analysts use theory to find the level that is most useful.
Colleagues attending the meetings of both the American Psychoanalytic and the American Psychiatric Associations will be especially interested in the panel at the latter chaired by Morton Reiser: “Psychoanalytic Process in Patients Treated with Psychotropic Medication.” The panel will explore indications and contraindications in the use of these medications for analytic patients, with case illustrations of the effects on analytic process. Questions to be probed include whether the analyst should prescribe or delegate the prescription of medication to another physician. Case presentations will be given by analysts who are experienced in consulting and prescribing for other analysts' patients as well as by those who have prescribed for their own patients. A special topic will be the effects on the transference of prescribing medications.
On Sunday morning a panel on “The Analytic Surface” will be chaired by Lawrence Inderbitzen. The panelists are Marianne Goldberger, Warran Poland and Henry Smith. The discussant is Dale Boesky.
The program for mental health professionals in training will focus on the value of psychoanalytic principles in overcoming impasses in psychotherapy. The program's four parts will be given by different speakers on various aspects of the use of psychoanalytic principles. Gerald Adler will speak on overcoming impasses in patients with borderline or narcissistic pathology. Glen Gabbard will discuss the use of psychoanalytic principles in hospitalized patients. The misapplication of psychoanalytic principles and the resulting impasses will be dealt with by David Hurst. David Sachs will also speak at this program, on a topic to be announced.
The “Meet the Author” panel, chaired by Edward Weinshel, will feature Leonard Shengold, discussing his book, Halo in the Sky.
On Tuesday, May 15, the joint session with the American Psychiatric Association is on “The Borderline Patient: Development Therapy, and Outcome.” Otto Kernberg, Fred Pine, Michael Porder and Michael Stone are the presenters. The joint session with the APA is traditionally arranged by the President-Elect of the American with the help of the Committee on Co-Sponsored Programs, Stanley I. Greenspan, M.D., Chairman.