The Thirteenth Congress of IPSO, the international candidates organization, was held in San Francisco July 29–30 and August 2 in conjunction with the IPA congress. By all accounts it was a tremendous success. Two hundred fifty candidates attended a rich and varied scientific program comprising seventy papers and case conferences. The theme of the meeting, Psychic and External Reality, elicited many papers that sought to bring a psychoanalytic perspective to the understanding of social phenomena and a cultural dimension to clinical experience.
The topics of plenary presentations ranged from the clinical significance of psychoanalytically informed infant observation to totalitarianism and corruption. More than forty-five papers were presented to smaller groups, a format that gave many candidates who had never before presented their ideas in public an opportunity to gain such experience. These small group “parallel” sessions were chaired by local San Francisco candidates who ensured that the environment was supportive and respectful, an atmosphere that many candidates found missing in the larger IPA sessions.
Finally, fifteen case conferences were offered in which candidates had the opportunity to hear one another present clinical material and share widely varying ideas about the psychoanalytic process. These conferences were led by training analysts from around the world, including such well-known figures as Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel, Joyce McDougall, Anton Kris, and Haydée Faimberg. IPSO experimented here with a new format in which training analysts from different regions and orientations were paired as cochairs for several of these sessions.
The social program was also rich and varied. Participants danced all night Saturday to rock, blues, and salsa, and on Monday evening local candidates hosted over a dozen dinner parties in their homes for the out-of-towners.
Michael J. Bader