The San Diego Psychoanalytic Center welcomes you to APsaA’s 108th Annual Meeting, which will be held in San Diego, June 21–23 at the Intercontinental Hotel. Bienvenido a nuestra comunidad multicultural.
Twenty years have passed since we last had the privilege of hosting these meetings. During those years San Diego has undergone transformation. We lost the Chargers to L.A., while becoming an international hub for biomedical research and pharmaceutical development, as well as a center for entrepreneurship in the important area of craft beers. Now a city of 1.42 million, the second largest in the state, San Diego is generally known for its beaches, mild climate, the world-renowned San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park with its museums and attractions, both of which are accessible by Uber or cab as are other sites too far from the hotel to walk. The city is also home to significant U.S. military installations, including Marine Corps Recruit Depot, MCAS Miramar, nearby Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Naval Amphibious Base Point Loma, and Naval Base San Diego.
San Diego is known as the host of the annual Comic-Con International events, when the city overflows with all the bewildering excitement of multiple Wonder Women, Supermen, Batmen, Star Wars aliens, and Hollywood celebrities hyping their next releases.
With some 35,000 students, San Diego State University, founded in 1897, was recently ranked fifth nationally in its support of international programs and was just granted the right by public vote to develop a major public-private expansion on the site of the former Chargers stadium in Mission Valley. The University of California, San Diego (UCSD), with comparable enrollments, is home to many important research efforts, including membership in the National Microbiome Initiative, the Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute, the Tata Institute for Active Genetics, the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center, the J. Craig Ventner Institute, the Center for Brain Activity Mapping, among many others. The San Diego Psychoanalytic Center (SDPC) maintains a collaborative working relationship with the School of Medicine’s psychiatry residency training program. Other major institutions of higher education in the area include the University of San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Point Loma Nazarene University. These are the research powerhouses driving the explosion of biomedical and pharmaceutical efforts in this region.
San Diego has had a conflicted history. Originally a Kumeyaay area dating back some 12,000 years (the Native American lineage continues into the present day), Spanish explorers saw economic opportunity and claimed the land in 1769 when Gaspar de Portola established the first European settlement in what was to become California much later. Both the Presidio near the current Old Town and the Misión San Diego de Alcalá (first California mission) point to the colonizing efforts of the early Catholic Church. Traces of the Spanish influence can be seen everywhere in contemporary San Diego, from its architecture to its culinary and language customs.
To explore these culinary customs, the historic Gaslamp Quarter (within walking distance from the hotel), dating back to the wild west days, features many fine restaurants. Others can be found in nearby communities of Pacific Beach, La Jolla, the Golden Triangle near UCSD, Rancho Santa Fe, Del Mar, and environs. Golden Hill, just east of downtown, proudly displays many Victorian homes, some of which can also be seen in Heritage Park in Old Town, which is accessible by trolley. The original Temple Beth Israel, San Diego’s first synagogue is also in this area. For a wrap-around view of the entire city, visit the Mount Soledad Cross and war memorial in La Jolla.
In addition to its historic ties to indigenous and Spanish cultural traditions, San Diego, as with so many other communities in California, has become increasingly influenced by many more of the world’s cultures. For example, the area known as City Heights (formerly East San Diego) is now home to large concentrations of relatively recent immigrants from Africa, the Near East, and South Asia, as well as from the many Spanish-speaking cultures to the south. East county has seen a large influx of Iraqi Chaldeans. San Diego in many ways is a city of neighborhoods. South Park, Hillcrest, Ocean Beach with its pier (restaurant and bait shop) are several worth visiting. The old Naval Training Center near Lindbergh Field has become Liberty Station, a mixed-use area with shops, galleries, parks, restaurants, and residences. Nearby Point Loma features many fine views of the harbor, especially dramatic when seen from Cabrillo National Monument, which marks the landing of Juan Cabrillo at San Diego Bay in 1542 some 200 years before the first European settlements in the area. Nearby also is the island of Coronado, readily accessible either by car over the bridge or by a short ferry ride from the Broadway pier. In fact, this area along Harbor Drive in the downtown area near the hotel features a park, the Star of India sailing vessel and the USS Midway Museum at Navy Pier.
SDPC (formerly the San Diego Psychoanalytic Society and Institute) from its inception in the late 1970s has grown along with the changes in the city at large. Our location has shifted from La Jolla to Bird Rock (south of La Jolla on the coast) to our current home, with intermediate temporary stops in members’ homes. Current members include APsaA’s president as well as co-director of the Department of Psychoanalytic Education. We are excited and honored to be able to host this year’s meeting.