What's in store for those attending APsaA's 100th Annual Meeting in San Francisco? Aside from the delights of visiting Everybody's Favorite City, here are some of the program's highlights.
Youngsters take center stage in the subject matter of two of this meeting's panels. The first one, “Babies in the Consulting Room: What Happens When Analyst, Mother, and Infant Meet?”, looks at the unique challenges and opportunities that arise when a patient brings her baby to treatment. Panelists Sharon Blum, Jane V. Kite, and Lynne Zeavin, together with chair Jennifer Stuart, will address the rich and largely unexplored potential of analytic work in this context. The second, “On Play and Playfulness: Developmental and Clinical Considerations in Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychoanalysis,” chaired by Christine C. Kieffer, includes clinical presentations by Monisha C. Akhtar and Philip A. Ringstrom, and discussions by Estelle Shane and Alan Sugarman.
A new look at the concept of objects is promised by a panel chaired by Irene Cairo, “What Do We Mean by Objects?” Henry J. Friedman, Patrick Miller, and Judith L. Mitrani will discuss the changing face of this concept and its clinical applications. The panel, “Analytic Listening and the Five Senses,” chaired by Nancy J. Chodorow, targets the contributions to analytic listening of sensual modalities and predilections. Each of the panelists—Peter L. Goldberg, Forrest M. Hamer, and Jonathan Palmer—as well as the recorder, Susan Yamaguchi, has a creative vocation or avocation in addition to a clinical practice. The Sunday panel on “The Effect of Unrealizable Technical Ideals” will consider our technical analytic ideals in light of our evolving understanding of the mind and then the implications for the use of the couch, frequency, and free association in the analytic setting. This session, chaired by Mary Margaret McClure, features panelists Stephen Seligman, Andrea Celenza, and Maureen Murphy. After discussion from each panelist, the audience will break into small groups.
“Dissecting Unconscious Attachment Processes: Rapprochement between Social-Personality Research and Clinical Psychoanalysis,” the University Forum, will be chaired by Anne Erreich. Phillip R. Shaver, a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Davis, will describe research that uses subliminal provocations to reveal systematic unconscious processes. Morris N. Eagle will discuss Shaver's presentation.
Join APsaA president Warren Procci in a session on immigration, which will consist of three presentations on immigration policy, the history of immigrants and psychoanalysis, and a psychoanalytic perspective on immigration.
The Gertrude and Ernst Ticho Memorial Lecture is given by an early to mid-career analyst who is currently making contributions to psychoanalysis and shows promise of making significant future contributions. In this year's lecture, “Teaching Psychodynamics in the 21st Century,” Deborah L. Cabaniss will tackle the future of psychoanalysis, and in particular how it should be taught. Cabaniss envisions a future in which the most valuable insights of psychoanalysis are offered to the widest possible audience.
Morris N. Eagle, who has published widely in such areas as academic psychology, philosophy, conceptions of the mind, views of psychopathology, and theories of treatment, will present “Psychoanalysis and the ‘Enlightenment Vision’: An Overview.” He will highlight some of the significant trends and developments in psychoanalysis during the last 100 years, and specifically the increasing disjunction between psychoanalysis and the Enlightenment Vision, as well as the shift in emphasis from the interpsychic to the interactional.
Nancy Sherman will discuss her book, The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers. Sherman advocates listening to soldiers not only as clinicians but also as ordinary civilians—as colleagues, neighbors, fellow students, and teachers—and finds such listening crucial to understanding the complex inner battle space of war. Jonathan Lear will be Sherman's respondent.
Chaired by Steven H. Goldberg, this symposium is presented in conjunction with a special exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art entitled “The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde.” In her presentation, “The Steins Collect: A Conversation between Art Curators and Psychoanalysts,” museum curator Janet Bishop will discuss the unique collection of paintings, drawings, and sculpture that unites the collections of Gertrude Stein and her brothers Leo and Michael Stein and Michael's wife Sarah.
A number of other offerings promise to intrigue meeting attendees. In the area of film and psychoanalysis, there will be workshops on The Tempest (Julie Taymor's 2010 version) and Los Olvidados (1950), as well as a discussion group on Frozen River (2008).
Gina Atkinson, M.A., is the managing editor of The Psychoanalytic Quarterly and the translator of Stefano Bolognini's latest book, Secret Passages: The Theory and Technique of Interpsychic Relations. She is a community member of the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis.
More than 40 discussion groups address such diverse topics as spirituality, patients who are adoptees, Wagner's The Ring, assisted reproductive technology, and Edgar Allan Poe. Two-day clinical workshops will feature discussions by Alfred S. Margulies, Patrick Miller, Shelley Orgel, and Robert A. Prosser.
A special highlight will be a presentation by Leo Rangell, one of the best-known and well-regarded analysts of our time, at Saturday morning's “Coffee with a Distinguished Analyst.”
As you can see, this program will capture your interest by addressing many topics at the forefront of psychoanalysis today. Join your colleagues this summer in San Francisco for what promises to be a stimulating and diversified meeting.