Our 2017 National Meeting in New York City is a particularly compelling one. This year we will have two outstanding speakers who will be giving plenaries: Salman Akhtar will focus upon the many dimensions of “Curiosity,” which, I suspect, has piqued your interest already. Our immediate past-president, Mark Smaller, will give the second plenary, which he has titled, “Have We Changed? Psychoanalytic Education, Treatment, and Diversity in a Changing World.”
We are honored to be able to bring Julia Kristeva to APsaA for the Special Symposium this year. Kristeva will examine the reasons for the particular attraction of young adults to apocalyptic violence. This program will be discussed by Rosemary Balsam and I will chair. Don’t miss a rare opportunity to hear an internationally recognized analyst and philosopher speak at our meeting about her latest ideas and about a topic of crucial significance for our times.
This year we will have five outstanding large panels and I urge you to put all of them on the must-see part of your calendar. Adele Tutter has organized a panel that examines “Disillusionment” in which distinguished analysts will consider the loss of illusions and the mourning process that it entails. There also will be a panel, organized by Judy Kantrowitz, on “Patients’ Illness: How They Affect Analysts and the Analytic Work.” A third panel offered in January will be one organized by Lucy LaFarge and Rick Zimmer on, “Multiple Models in Clinical Work.” This program will examine the ways in which models come together and may collide—and how they impact the working analyst. One question the third panel will take up: “Can and Should Models Be Integrated?” We are grateful to Jennifer Stuart for organizing an exceptionally scholarly panel on “How Freud is Taught.” Several outstanding teachers will be discussing some of the intricacies, delights and challenges of examining our founder’s seminal texts. The panel on child/adolescent psychoanalysis, submitted by Leon Hoffman, will focus upon, “Emotion Regulation and Developmental Trauma.”
We are delighted that the newly appointed head of APsaA’s Science Department, Mark Solms, with assistance from Charles Fischer, will be formulating a series of research based sessions at the 2017 National Meeting. This programming will be an excellent way to stay abreast of the latest research in our field and we urge you to attend.
We know that you are also anticipating the many fine discussion groups, symposia, two-day clinical workshops, as well as the latest University Forum and Meet-the-Author offerings and other events. There will be more information about this in my next column.
Meet you under the clock.