In order to promote the development of psychoanalysis as a science and clinical practice in the treatment of children and adolescents, a psychoanalytical center, the W.R. Bion Center, is being created in Maracaibo City, Venezuela. Although 60 percent of the city's population of 7 million is children between the ages of 1 to 15 years (compared to 14 to 20 percent in North America and Europe), Maracaibo does not presently have an organized psychoanalytical institution offering psychoanalytical treatment for children. The nearest IPA institute is in Caracas.
Contact with analysts in Latin America who apply Bion's ideas to working with children is being promoted with the aim of organizing conferences, seminars, and training. Another goal of the center is the creation of a study group as a therapeutic preschool for children that would include infant observation and research. A cybercafe within a communication center is also planned where adolescents can meet and share virtually with other adolescents, and learn over time to run the cafe, thereby developing a sense of being able to contribute socially.
In addition to offering psychoanalytical training and treatment for children and families, the center would like to develop special attention to promoting community awareness of trans-generational effects of trauma.
After initial aid from the IPA, the center aims to be self-sustaining within five years through contributions from local businesses and governmental organizations and internal projects such as the cybercafe.
The W.R. Bion Center's webpage is on line in Spanish, English, and French at: bion-center.org.
It is hoped that by creating a psychoanalytic center that addresses the particular psychological needs of the Maracaibo community an increase in patients seeking a full analysis and candidates seeking psychoanalytic training will be achieved.
The International Psychoanalytical Studies Organization (IPSO) was established in 1973 to provide analysts-in-training with opportunities to come together as peers to discuss issues of training, theory, and practice, as well as to provide a social context for candidates' cross-cultural engagement. IPSO is committed to the belief that exposure to the pluralism and diversity of psychoanalytic traditions is an important part of a candidate's education. Recently this commitment has stimulated a wide variety of activities, including IPA pre-congresses where candidates present clinical, theoretical, and research papers; regional programs for candidates; e-lists in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian; a multisited research project on psychoanalytic training; two new paper prize competitions; and our new candidate exchange program.
IPSO's exchange program, which offers a candidate a one-week immersion in the life of a host institute, is intended to be stimulating for both the individual candidate and the institute community that invites him or her into the local psychoanalytic culture. It is through immersion in such collegial partnerships that IPSO hopes to extend and develop linkages and dialogues within the wider international psychoanalytic community. Ideally, such exchanges will generate research, international collaboration, and educational creativity, as well as foster participants' own individual integration of theory and practice. IPSO is especially happy to welcome our new members from Australia, Turkey, Eastern Europe, and France.
Candidates are encouraged to contact Robin Deutsch, IPSO president-elect (), to submit papers for presentation at the IPSO pre-congresses, or for the Tyson or Sacerdoti prizes. The Tyson Prize, established by Robert Tyson, was awarded for the first time at the IPA/IPSO Congress in Rio in 2005. This award is for the best clinical paper submitted to the IPA by a candidate. The Sacerdoti prize will be awarded to an analyst or (for the first time) a candidate under age 50 who has not previously presented at an IPA Congress. IPSO information can be found at .
Kate Schechter
Chicago, IPSO vice president-elect for North America
Yulia Aleshina and her husband, Pavel Snejnevski, came to Washington, D.C., in 1993 from Moscow to begin psychoanalytic training and to establish their practices as clinical psychologists. In Moscow, they were leaders in promoting a psychodynamic understanding of treating patients through clinical meetings in what eventually became the Moscow Psychoanalytic Society.
Perestroika made it possible for them to attend an international psychoanalytic conference in Budapest. There they met David and Joann Reisse who invited them to Washington, D.C., in 1990 to present their work. They were also welcomed in Denver, Boston, and San Francisco to talk about psychotherapy training and treatment in Moscow. With the help of the Reisses, Aleshina and Snejnevski then emigrated. Aleshina completed her psychoanalytic training at the Baltimore Washington Psychoanalytic Institute while Snejnevski completed his training at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute.
The Moscow Psychoanalytic Society now has official psychoanalytic study group status through the International Psychoanalytical Association. In preparation for becoming a psychoanalytic training institute as well, members are undergoing analysis in Germany and other countries. Aleshina and Snejnevski travel to Moscow about twice a year where their colleagues present psychotherapy cases to them for supervision. They also spend a day teaching the students enrolled in the two-year psychotherapy course of the Moscow Psychoanalytic Society and conduct ongoing individual supervision by telephone.
Since there are no insurance companies, fees are arranged individually and typically run about $30 per treatment or supervisory session. It is clearly a labor of love and professional commitment. Many of the younger students are now joining the Moscow Psychoanalytic Society to further their training.
Christine Ury, D.Ps., is associate editor and international editor of TAP.