This December's Fall Meeting will feature an increasingly varied selection of scientific sessions. At present 54 discussion groups are scheduled for six time slots spread over Wednesday and Thursday of the meeting week. A new format, Psychoanalytic Courses, will also be featured. The first of these, Psychoanalytic Technique and the Developmental Point of View, will be chaired by Michael Franz Basch.
An innovative format that was greeted with enthusiasm last year will be revived at the December meeting. There will be a panel discussion of a scientific paper by Charles Brenner entitled Modern Conflict Theory or Beyond the Ego and Id. Jacob A. Arlow will chair the panel discussion, which will feature commentary by three discussants: Dale Boesky, Eugene J. Mahon, and Morton Shane.
Two Plenary Presentations are slated for the meeting. The Plenary Address will be given Friday morning by George H. Allison, whose topic is The Homogenization of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: A Review of Some of the Issues. The second Plenary Presentation, Psychoanalysis and the Maltreatment of Children, will be delivered on Friday afternoon by Brandt F. Steele.
Subjects for the four panels on the program are wide-ranging. On Friday afternoon Panel I, Interpretive Perspectives on Interaction, will be chaired by Morris L. Peltz. Panelists include Edgar Levenson, David L. Raphling, Owen Renik, and Evelyne A. Schwaber. Dale Boesky will serve as discussant. Panel II on Saturday is an all-day program entitled Agoraphobia/Panic Disorder: Nature and Treatment. Chaired by Allan Compton, the panel will include presentations by Michelle Craske, Donald Klein, Jerrold Rosenbaum, and Martin A. Silverman. Discussants are Jon K. Meyer, and Theodore Shapiro.
On Saturday morning Panel III, Love in the Analytic Setting, will be chaired by Henry F. Smith. Presenters are Glen O. Gabbard, Otto F. Kernberg, and Estelle Shane, and Theodore
J. Jacobs will be the discussant. Finally, on Sunday morning the Classics Revisited Panel will focus on Kurt Eissler's 1953 article, “The Effect of the Structure of the Ego on Psychoanalytic Technique.” Lawrence Friedman will chair a panel that includes Roy Schafer, Shelley Orgel, and Paul G. Myerson. Arnold M. Cooper will serve as discussant.
The Meet-the-Author format this year reflects an increasing interest in the influence of feminism on psychoanalytic thought. Nancy J. Chodorow, author of Feminism and Psychoanalytic Theory, will be featured on a panel moderated by Harold P. Blum. Two discussants, Philip J. Escoll and Ethel S. Person, will share their views on Chodorow's contribution. In the Psychoanalytic Forum, designed for Associate and Affiliate Members, Herbert J. Schlesinger will be the featured speaker with Burton A. Lerner as moderator.
A three-session film workshop, Gay/Lesbian Representations and Representability, will be chaired by Ilsa J. Bick and Bruce H. Sklarew. On Thursday evening a showing of Victor/Victoria will be followed by a discussion including Micheline Frank, Peter Lehman, and William Luhr. On Friday afternoon Paris Is Burning is the featured film, and discussions will be provided by Ilsa J. Bick and Sydney Steward. On Saturday afternoon Damned If You Don't and Tongues Untied will be screened. Discussion will follow by Christine Holmlund, Joyce McDougall, and Christine Straayer.
The Seminar for Psychoanalysts format presents speakers from outside disciplines. This year Professors Eli Sagan and Marvin Zonis present a seminar on The Charismatic Relationship. Jerome A. Winer will chair. The Psychoanalytic Dialogue format will feature Joseph D. Lichtenberg and Robert S. Wallerstein presenting their views on a topic of considerable interest in contemporary psychoanalysis: Perspectives on the Mode of Therapeutic Action. Melvin Bornstein will serve as moderator.
For many years now, the Oral History Workshop has provided members a sense of continuity with the psychoanalytic past. This year Jorge Schneider will chair a session on Psychoanalysis in Latin America. Panelists are R. Horacio Etchegoyen, Otto F. Kernberg, Else Pappenheim, H. Gunther Perdigao, Ana-Maria Rizzuto, and Rogelio Sosnik.
In recent years an increasing demand has come from psychiatric residents and from graduate students in psychology and social work for special programs tailored to their needs. With the collaboration of the American Psychoanalytic Association Fellows, the Program Committee has designed four presentations especially for these students. Helen C. Meyers will chair a session on Theoretical and Clinical Implications of Forced Termination, Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer will present on Clinical Issues for the Pregnant Therapist, Arnold M. Cooper will discuss Panic Disorder: The Psychodynamic Perspective, and Steven Roose will chair a session on Affective Disorders: The Psychodynamic Perspective.
At a time when many consider psychoanalysis a beleaguered profession, the Scientific Program for the December Meeting reflects the continued vitality and intellectual ferment in the field. As always, members with suggestions for future meetings should feel free to submit them to any member of the Program Committee. Feedback on the program, both during the course of the meeting and afterward, is encouraged and appreciated.