Analysts are a passionate breed, caring deeply about their craft and practices. So, it is not surprising that we do not always agree about how best to do things. The 103rd Annual Meeting has been no exception. Some colleagues felt strongly that APsaA should have only one meeting a year. Others felt that the nature of our work is such that psychoanalysts may need more contact with one another than other professionals and thus should meet twice per year. After much discussion (including several task forces), a resolution was reached to continue the Annual Meeting in June but to schedule the scientific program over two days and over a weekend to minimize disruption to clinical practice. This spring, we will convene in Chicago, from June 6-8, at the Palmer House Hilton, a venue that attendees favor because of its proximity to Chicago's many attractions (including the Art Institute and Magnificent Mile) and because the hotel offers many spots for old and new friends to gather for informal conversation.
The Program Committee, which I have been delighted to chair these last four years, opted not only to change the schedule of the meeting but also to introduce new formats, in addition to traditional sessions that members appreciate and enjoy.
We are very pleased to introduce a program of short talks modeled after the wildly popular TED Talks. We call our program Psychoanalysis Here and Now. Six psychoanalysts will each speak passionately about psychoanalysis for 12-15 minutes to foster learning, provide inspiration and provoke conversation. Our first Psychoanalysis Here and Now speakers will be Aisha Abbasi, Andrew Gerber, Peter Goldberg, Julie Nagel, Sally Weintrobe, and Joan Wheelis. Hans Agrawal will moderate. Following the program, all attendees are invited to a reception with a cash bar and music.
Alfred Margulies will give our inaugural Clinical Plenary, offering a sustained reflection on his work as a clinical analyst. His talk, “After the Storm: Living and Dying in Psychoanalysis,” explores the arc of an analysis and the patient's return years later. Nancy Kulish will chair this plenary session, which unlike other plenaries will include Shelley Orgel and Warren Poland as discussants.
The University Forum, for the first time, engages the topic of “climate change” and severe weather, bringing together the work of climate scientists, Rob Nixon and Chris Rapley, and a psychoanalyst, Sally Weintrobe. Stuart Twemlow chairs this session, which will focus on findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and psychoanalytic perspectives on the disputes about weather changes that persist in some scientific circles and in public conversation.
Kimberlyn Leary, Ph.D., M.P.A., is the chair of the APsaA Program Committee, chief psychologist at the Cambridge Health Alliance, and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School.
Leadership consultant and psychoanalytic candidate Stefan Reich joins us from Peru for this June's Innovations session, where he will share his work engaging “adaptive change” in contexts ranging from finance to educational non-profits.
Members let the Program Committee know they would welcome hearing from more psychoanalytic authors. We listened and have expanded the Meet-the-Author session to include three “One-Hour Engagements.” This June join R. Dennis Shelby to discuss 13 Ways of Looking at a Man with author, Donald Moss, Elizabeth Rottenberg to consider Forgiveness in Intimate Relationships: A Psychoanalytic Perspective with author, Shahrzad Siassi, and Dorothy E. Holmes who will engage Miriam F. Tasini on her memoir of her family's traumatic displacement and dislocation, Where Are We Going?
Christine Kieffer will be honored, giving the Ernst and Gertrude Ticho Memorial Lecture. Her talk on “Organizational Trauma: Narcissism, Scapegoating, Mourning, and the Problem of Succession” will be followed by a reception, open to all attendees, and sponsored by the Ernst and Gertrude Ticho Charitable Foundation.
Members have consistently requested that the Association devote more of its resources to helping members build their clinical practices and sustain them, especially as the health care environment in the United States shifts with the introduction of the Affordable Care Act. Our June conference features three practice-building workshops; each will be repeated twice over the course of the meeting to maximize the possibility for colleagues to participate in workshops and attend other sessions of interest.
Practice-Building Workshop #1 is focused on “Using Technology in Developing Clinical Practice.” William Braun and Geralyn Lederman, APsaA's director of public affairs, will focus on helping attendees use websites like APsaA's “Find-an-Analyst” and Psychology Today's “Find-A-Therapist” productively. For example, in this hands-on workshop, attendees will write (or revise) a description of themselves and their practices to generate referrals and orient potential patients to psychoanalytic treatment.
Practice-Building Workshop #2 features Stefan Reich offering an interactive immersion in the concepts of “Adaptive Leadership and the Challenges of Exercising Real Leadership” and his way of using these tools to consult with organizations and senior leaders.
Practice-Building Workshop #3 is aimed at “Developing a Footprint as a Public Intellectual: Using Tools from Old and New Media.” Also hands-on, in this workshop, Prudence Gourguechon and Jeffrey Leib, formerly of the Denver Post, will help attendees master the nuts-and-bolts of using Twitter and social media to comment psychoanalytically on issues of broad interest to communities and the public at large. The workshop will also provide guidance and coaching on writing op-eds and magazine articles.
The Program Committee is also pleased to announce an additional new format, Clinical Field Studies in Community Psychoanalysis, a two-session workshop, focused on developing a psychoanalytically sensitive program of community engagement and intervention to address bullying in schools. Stuart Twemlow chairs this new program. Frank Sacco and Mark Smaller will present innovations from several countries that have reduced school bullying. Marie Rudden will discuss their work. Attendees will also focus on the method of developing a study plan to include such work in one's analytic portfolio.
Our meetings would not be complete without our Discussion Groups. The 103rd Annual Meeting includes 32 Discussion Groups, with programs organized by the groups' chairs and with content ranging from “Deepening the Treatment” to “Intersubjectivity in the Work of Saul Bellow.” In addition to attending favorite groups, the Program Committee urges you to explore particular interests, whether that includes “Field Theory,” “Shame Dynamics,” or “Women and Leadership.”
The June meeting also spotlights our ever-popular Two-Day Clinical Workshops, which feature Rogelio Sosnik and Navah Kaplan (Irene Cairo, chair); Arnold Goldberg (Sharon Blum, chair); Fredric Busch and Larry Sandberg (Alan Pollack, chair); Robert Michels and Gavin Mullen (Richard Zimmer, chair); Jack Novick and Norka Malberg (Christine Kieffer, chair). We also have an additional new Two-Day Clinical Workshop on Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy with Elizabeth Feldman and Allison Smith (Ann Dart, chair).
Each cohort of the APsaA Fellows' groups has conceived the program for the Clinical Conference's Residents, Psychology and Social Work Trainees, and Students. Fellows present clinical material to faculty discussants, which this year include Jane Kite, Charles Amrhein, and Elizabeth Simpson. The content of these sessions (e.g., “This Couch Has Bedbugs!” and “Coercion in Psychotherapy”) take up public sector psychiatry and the role of courts—everyday contexts for psychiatry residents and psychology and social work trainees. While these clinical conference programs are designed for students, all attendees are welcome to join. If you do, you will have a chance to observe first-hand the next generation of clinical talent and the work of young clinicians who may become psychoanalytic candidates down the line.
This Annual Meeting also includes perennial favorites such as the Film Workshop (“The Gambler”) where Kerry Kelly Novick and Bruce Sklarew will explore the psychodynamics of addiction and the role of omnipotence.
Two Symposia offerings also bring innovative clinical models to APsaA members. Sandy G. Ansari, Nancy Blieden, and Gilbert W. Kliman, will include video to show the utility of “Reflective Network Therapy” and Neil Altman, Ann Marie Sacramone, and Molly Romer Witten will present a way of working within integrative, systemic psychoanalysis. APsaA committees will also present a full slate of Committee Sponsored Workshops.
Spring revitalizes all of us. The Program Committee invites you to spend a weekend of your spring in Chicago. Join us. Reinvigorate your practice, be a part of the future of psychoanalysis, and share your passion for the career we all share. There is more that unites us than divides us. Come to Chicago, meet at the center of our nation, honor our history, and redraw the map of what it means to be a psychoanalyst.