On behalf of the Program Committee for the IPA Congress 2011—the centenary congress—I invite you to the conference taking place in Mexico City on August 3-6.
Some of you may be thinking, “Mexico City, isn't that a dangerous place?” You may want to ask about security but are reluctant to mention the topic. You may be interpreting why I am even bringing up the issue of security. I am starting this communication by talking about security because it is on the mind of virtually everyone. Here are the facts, as I know them: Mexico City is no more dangerous in terms of crime statistics than Chicago or most major cities of the Americas. However, I realize that this is not reassuring due to the overwhelming publicity about the drug cartels in Mexico. These incidents have not taken place in Mexico City, and both crime rates and the living conditions in Mexico City have dramatically improved under the new internationally known mayor of Mexico City. But because of the anxiety about security, we are taking a number of steps to make the congress be secure and also to feel secure. When one comes off the plane at Mexico City's major international airport, there will be an IPA booth where a representative will direct the congress participant to an appropriate bus or cab. Official taxis are available, and the IPA has also arranged for a shuttle-bus.
We have excellent pre-congress groups and tours arranged particularly with delegates' interests in mind. In addition, there will be a post-congress film festival “Disrupted Worlds: The Unconscious in Cinema” with screenings of Los Olvidados, Babel, and Pan's Labyrinth followed by discussions by noted analysts and critics.
The main event—the congress, “Exploring Core Concepts: Sexuality, Dreams, and the Unconscious,” has two themes, one that will shape the mornings and the other the afternoon sessions. In the morning sessions we will explore three of the core concepts that have occupied psychoanalysts during the last 100 years: the unconscious, sexuality, and dreams. The afternoon sessions will be devoted to issues that involve disruptions in the analytic experience. The disruptions can be conceived of as occurring intrapsychically, between the analytic couple (enactments), or in the form of personal events such as illness and personal loss, natural events, societal events, and so on. The disruption may stalemate or impair the analytic process, or may eventually, if survived, further the analytic process. We will also feature the many outreach programs that have helped repair various types of disruptions.
In the morning sessions, the exploration of the core concepts will take place first in a plenary panel discussion. Each morning will feature a different panel discussing one of the concepts. Members of the panels will be asked to address four or five key questions that highlight the importance of the concept. These questions will provide the panelists an opportunity to discuss how or whether the concept is important in their clinical formulations. We have utilized this format to facilitate communication among the panelists. After the plenary panel the rest of the morning will be utilized for further exploration via group discussions. The congress participants will split up into discussion groups, which will each have a moderator and a facilitator: The facilitator will present a brief summary of the morning panel and then formulate issues and questions to stimulate group discussion. The intention is that all members will take an active part in exploring these core concepts. To promote discussion each group will stay together for the duration of the congress. It has been the IPA experience that intact groups both stimulate discussion and promote collegial relationships.
For more details about the congress, pre-congress working parties, tours, and the Post-Congress Film Festival go to .
The afternoon theme will serve to provide some continuity between panels and individual papers. There will be an attempt to look at social as well as individual factors that disrupt analytic treatments, including issues in a psychoanalytic society as well as issues in the society at large that affect a psychoanalytic treatment. In addition to the submitted papers, each afternoon will feature the contributions of an analyst whose work has strongly influenced psychoanalysis in her or his country or larger parts of the psychoanalytic world. There will also be panels that feature work from those of different nationalities and theoretical orientations. A variety of meet-the-authors sessions include those who have produced new and important work such as Peter Fonagy, James Gottstein, Sheldon Bach, and Arnold Rothstein, who are well known to North American analysts. There are, of course, authors from around the IPA world.
Steven J. Ellman, Ph.D., chair of the IPA Program Committee, is professor emeritus of the City University of New York and training and supervising analyst at IPTAR.