As the new year approaches, I suspect you are anticipating APsaA’s 2017 National Meeting—thinking about seeing old friends and colleagues, meeting intriguing new ones under the clock. But wait…sadly, this January will mark our last meeting at the grand old Waldorf Astoria, a place that for many of us has come to seem almost like a second home. As you now know, the Waldorf will be shutting down for three years shortly after our meeting, to reemerge as a mix of condos, plus a boutique-style hotel. Thus, our next meeting is likely to be suffused with sadness and an impending sense of loss, even as we gather to reaffirm and celebrate our beloved profession and, of course, deepen our knowledge of our discipline.
As I promised in my last column, I will use this section to highlight some of the other fine programs offered at the January meeting, all of which make unique contributions to the conference.
The University Forum will feature a program on “Racism in America,” chaired by Dionne Powell, with speakers, Darryl Pinckney, Lawrence D. Bobo and Jeffrey Prager. The Meet-the-Author program, chaired by Henry Friedman, will feature books by Steven Cooper, Margaret Crastnopol and Adrienne Harris. Don’t miss this opportunity to join the conversation with these esteemed authors.
There will be two particularly compelling Symposia offered at this meeting. The first is “Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the Orthodox Jewish Community: The Interface between Culture, Religion and Psychoanalysis,” chaired by Alison Felt and Alan Slomowitz, with presenters, Mark Blechner and Rabbi Mark Dratch. The second symposium will examine “Poetry and Psychoanalysis,” a program chaired by Carol Snow. The presenters for this symposium will be Forrest Hamer, Alice Jones and Susan Kolodny.
The Presidential Symposium on Research, chaired, of course, by Harriet Wolfe, will examine “The Scientific Standing of Psychoanalysis.” We are delighted that Mark Solms, the new head of APsaA’s Science Department, will give this presentation.
As always, we have an exciting group of featured discussants and presenters at the Two-Day Clinical Workshops, which afford the opportunity to hear a case in depth. This January, Irene Cairo has invited Navah Kaplan to present to Jorge Canestri her featured discussant. Joseph Lichtenberg has invited Elizabeth Carr to present a case and Frank Lachmann to serve as discussant. Sharon Blum has invited Joseph Wise to present a case to Frank Summers. This year, David Bell will serve as the featured discussant for Donald Moss’s clinical workshop. Darlene Ehrenberg will be inaugurating a new two-day clinical workshop. She has invited Lisa Citrin to present a case and Rosemary Balsam to serve as her featured discussant. And for the Child/Adolescent Clinical Workshop, chair Monisha Nayar-Akhtar has invited Christie Huddleston to present a case to featured discussant, Norka Malberg. As regulars at these popular
programs can attest, there is always plenty of time for participants to add to a lively dialogue inspired by these workshop chairs and their esteemed guests.
As usual, we will have a fine array of Discussion Groups, many of which have become hardy perennials, with participants coming back each year to deepen their understanding and share their views of the topic. I would like to call attention to three new discussion groups that will be making their debut at this meeting: “Altered States of Awareness” with Fonya Lord Helm and Maurine Kelber Kelly; “Dreaming, Imagination and Psychoanalytic Process” with Howard M. Katz and “Italian Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Models of Theory and Technique” with Andrea Celenza, John C. Foehl, and Christopher G. Lovett. Be sure to come to one, or several of these new programs.
In closing, I would like to congratulate my colleagues on the Program Committee for their creativity and dedication in organizing what will be a terrific meeting.