APsaA's Winter 2008 Meeting, which inaugurates Henry Smith's term as program chair, promises to be a rich and satisfying experience and the beginning of a rewarding tenure.
The popularity of the two-day clinical workshops continues, and we have an excellent selection this year. Irene Cairo will chair a “Workshop in Analytic Process and Technique,” featuring Jorge Canestri, training and supervising analyst for both the Italian Psychoanalytic and the Argentine Psychoanalytic Associations. Ted Jacobs will be the featured discussant for a second “Analytic and Process Technique Workshop,” chaired by Nancy Chodorow. “Comparing Analytic Approaches” will be the format for a workshop moderated by Stefano Bolognini, training analyst from Bologna, with Fred Busch representing a contemporary Freudian perspective and Paul Ornstein representing a self-psychology position. Richard Fox will be the discussant in the “Psychotherapy Technique and Process Workshop,” chaired by Alan Pollack. Virginia Ungar, training analyst from Buenos Aires, will be the discussant for the “Child and Adolescent Workshop,” chaired by Ruth Fischer. Enrollment is limited, so, once online registration opens, it will be first come, first served.
We have five exciting panels to look forward to this winter. Richard Gottlieb has arranged a timely panel for Friday afternoon, “The Uses of Medication in Psychoanalysis: What We Know; What Is Uncertain,” with contributions by Stephen Purcell, from San Francisco, and Adele Tutter, from New York. Glen Gabbard will serve as discussant. Saturday morning's panel, “Guilt,” chaired by Irene Cairo, features Arnold Rothstein, Estelle Shane, and Virginia Ungar. “Do crises in treatment force analyst and patient to confront what neither has yet been able to tolerate?” This is one of the questions to be addressed in Saturday afternoon's, “The Analyst on the Ropes: Crises in Treatment,” chaired by Stanley Coen with contributions by Steven Goldberg, Joyce Slochower, and Shelden Bach. The “Loewaldian Legacy,” on Sunday morning, features Rosemary Balsam, Ted Jacobs, and Lawrence Friedman, with Nancy Chodorow as chair. Ruth Fischer chairs the Child and Adolescent Panel, “Parent-Infant Psychotherapy,” with guest panelists Tessa Baradon and Angela Joyce from the Infant-Parent Project at the Anna Freud Centre, with discussion by Alexandra Harrison.
Focusing on the interface of psychoanalysis, society, and related disciplines, the symposia offerings this winter will cover a number of pressing cultural issues. Drew Westen, author of The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation, will be the presenter for Friday's Presidential Symposium, “Clinical Work Writ Large: The 2008 Presidential Campaign.” Saturday afternoon's “Transforming School Climate: Educational and Psychoanalytic Perspectives,” chaired by Jonathan Cohen and Tillie Garfinkel, features a presentation by Kenneth Eisold. Also on Saturday, Alice Maher chairs, “Is Community Psychoanalysis ‘Real’ Enough to be Made Part of the Core Curriculum?” Prudy Gourguechon, Mark Smaller, and Stuart Twemlow will address the history of applying psychoanalytic thinking to community and social problems.
The University Forum is an exchange of ideas between academics in fields of relevance to psychoanalytic practitioners and theorists. January's University Forum explores the nature of mind and intelligence through dialogue with a developmental cognitive psychologist and a cognitive scientist. Susan Carey, professor of psychology at Harvard University, has published works on children's knowledge and conceptual development and is the recipient of many honors and awards. Carey will present her research on “The Minds of Infants.” Patrick Winston, Ford Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science at MIT, is the author of numerous publications and textbooks in his field. He will discuss his latest view of artificial intelligence from his collaborative work that integrates how vision, language, and motor facilities account for intelligence. Bonnie Litowitz and Nancy Chodorow will moderate and join in the discussion.
Psychoanalytic research will be well represented at the Waldorf. The Scientific Paper Prize is awarded annually for the conceptual and empirical research paper representing the most outstanding contributions to psychoanalysis. This year's prize has been awarded to Kenneth Levy, John Clarkin, and Otto Kernberg for their paper, “Structural Change in Borderline Personality Disorder: Lessons for Psychoanalytic Theory and Practice.” Glen Gabbard will chair their presentation Thursday afternoon and previous prize winner and honorary APsaA member Jonathan Shedler will serve as discussant. Barbara Milrod presents and Peter Fonagy, Stuart Hauser, and Robert Waldinger will participate in the Friday noon Research Symposium, “Psychoanalytic Research across the General Psychiatric Divide: Efficacy Studies of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for Panic Disorder.” The American Psychoanalytic Poster Session is designed to promote stimulating conversation and mutual learning between psychoanalytic practitioners, theorists, and researchers. This year's poster session, “Research Relevant to Theory and Practice in Psychoanalysis,” will take place on Friday afternoon. The 2008 Research Forum, “The Single
Gary Grossman, Ph.D., is a member and faculty at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis (formerly the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute and Society) and is a member of the Program Committee.
Case Paradigm: New Methods and New Results,” is a daylong program on Saturday sponsored by the Research Associates of the American Psychoanalytic Association (RAAPA).
We are fortunate to have two outstanding plenary lectures in January. Poet Robert Pinsky's Friday morning plenary address, “The Fate of the Modern,” will compare the work of psychotherapy with the work of art and the history of psychoanalysis with the history of modern poetry. The former United States Poet Laureate is the author of seven volumes of poetry and is the poetry editor for the online magazine, Slate. In her Friday afternoon plenary presentation, “The Missing Tombstone: Reflections on Mourning and Creativity,” Anna Ornstein addresses the unique challenges of mourning following multiple, traumatic losses. There are many other informative and thought provoking entries, including 90 discussion groups, an oral history workshop, Affiliates Forum, and a film tribute to Ingmar Bergman. I hope to see you at the historic Waldorf-Astoria in January.