For those of us on the West Coast, January may not seem like the most desirable month for traveling to Manhattan, however the diverse program of APsaA's Winter Meeting promises to make it worth the trip. With five clinical workshops, six symposia, five panels, five programs for residents and students, four seminars/courses, three research programs, two plenary addresses, a University Forum, and a Meet-the-Author among the highlights, in addition to the discussion groups and paper presentations, attendees will be faced with an abundance of compelling choices.
The popular two-day clinical workshops offer a variety of options. Christopher Bollas, Stephano Bolognini, and Michael Feldman will be our guests at the Process and Technique Workshops. Peter Blos, Jr., chairs the Child and Adolescent Workshop, with special guest, Majlis Winberg Salomonsson, and the Psychotherapy Workshop features Alan Pollack and Nancy McWilliams.
We are fortunate to have two special symposia featuring talented artists from theater and film. The first of these, “Psychoanalysis and Theater: The Inner World in Christopher Shinn's Dying City—A Drama of Violent Aftershocks from the War in Iraq,” on Wednesday, will include a presentation by the playwright. A success at London's Royal Court Theatre, Dying City tells the story of Kelly, a therapist and widow of the Iraq war, and a surprise visit from her deceased husband's twin brother. Writer Daniel Menaker and director Oren Rudavsky will be on hand for Saturday afternoon's presentation of their film, The Treatment.
Bruce Sklarew chairs the two-session film workshop, “Psychoanalysis and Film,” beginning with Thursday evening's, “Brokeback in the Consulting Room,” and concluding with “Cinema and the Rise of Nazism: The Psychoanalysis of Propaganda” on Friday afternoon.
January's symposia cover a broad range of contemporary topics impacting psychoanalysis. Friday's noon offerings include: “Working Parents and Their Children: Psychoanalytic Perspectives and Public Policy,” featuring presentations by Anne C. Dailey from the University of Connecticut, Ellen Galinsky, president and co-founder of Manhattan's Family and Work Institute, and Leon Hoffman; and “Scanning the Brain for Transference?: Using fMRI to Explore the Neurobiological Underpinnings of the Core of Psychoanalysis,” with Columbia University Research Fellow Andrew Gerber, Kevin Oschner, director of Columbia's Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, and Glen Gabbard. The Saturday noon symposium, “Shame, Disgust, Violence, and Ethics,” presents University of Chicago's Martha Nussbaum. Also at noon will be “Hurricane Havoc: Educators and Psychoanalysts Working Together to Respond to Natural Disasters,” with Stephen Kerzner, Gilbert Kliman, and New Orleans analyst Joy Osofsky.
Attendees will also have a variety of panels to choose from, beginning with Friday afternoon's, “The Action in Therapeutic Action: Non-Verbal Interventions,” featuring Dale Boesky, Jodie Messler Davies, Alexandra Harrison, and Judith Chused, followed by one-hour small group discussions. Henry Smith chairs the Saturday morning panel, “When Analysis Makes Patients Worse: The Negative Therapeutic Reaction Revisited,” featuring the diverse clinical perspectives of Michael Feldman, Shelley Orgel, and Anna Ornstein. Also on Saturday morning is the child and adolescent panel, “The Silent Adolescent: Thoughts on Technique with Implications for Adult Analysis,” with Ruth Fischer, Theodore Fallon, Jr., Steven Luria Ablon, and E. Kirsten Dahl. Saturday afternoon's “Courage” panelists include Theodore Jacobs, Joan Wheelis, and Charles Spezzano, with Warren Poland as chair. Sunday morning's panel, “How Much Can Analysis Be Discovery, Not Suggestion?”, features Lawrence Friedman, Elizabeth Auchincloss, Robert Michels, and Owen Renik.
We are fortunate to have two distinguished members of the Association for Friday's plenary presentations. Past president Jon Meyer's morning address is entitled “Analysis and Re-Analysis.” Irwin Hoffman's “Doublethinking Our Way to Scientific Legitimacy: The Desiccation of Human Experience,” will be the afternoon's plenary presentation.
Cultural critic and historian Sander Gilman and Princeton University professor Elizabeth Lunbeck are the invited speakers for the “University Forum: Historians of Science Contextualize Psychoanalysis.” Roger Frie and George Makari will chair this exciting interdisciplinary program.
Research in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic informed research is thriving and is well represented at the January meetings. Wednesday's research seminar, “Constructing the Enemy-Other: Anxiety, Trauma, and Mourning in the Narratives of Political Conflict,” features Jeffrey Murer, assistant professor of political science at Swarthmore College. Linda Goodman, Stuart Hauser, and Linda Mayes are the co-chairs for the fifth annual poster session, “Research Relevant to Theory and Practice in Psychoanalysis,” on Friday afternoon. Saturday's daylong program is sponsored by the Research Associates of the American Psychoanalytic Association (RAAPA).
Gary Grossman, Ph.D., is a member and faculty of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute and a member of APsaA's Program Committee.
Candidates, students, and trainees will be particularly interested in these highlights: the Affiliates' forum, “‘Power to’ Versus ‘Power Over’: The Dynamics of Power in the Consulting Room,” with Beverly Betz, Susan Jaffe, and Ethel Person. Wednesday's daylong senior analyst presentation program features Muriel Dimon, editor of Studies in Gender and Sexuality. Other programs of interest include “Boundaries of All Kinds,” “Going Deeper: Intensifying Psychotherapy,” “Race, Culture, and Treatment,” and “Play and Mentalization.”
Herbert Schlesinger will talk about his newest book, Endings and Beginnings: On Terminating Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, at Saturday afternoon's Meet-the-Author session. Judy Kantrowitz will be the discussant.
As you can see, we have much to look forward to, with plenty of stimulation to warm us during Manhattan's unpredictable winter.