Conference Reflections

This year's IAPSP conference in LA seems to have been exceptionally thought-provoking and emotionally meaningful for those who attended. Recognizing that it sometimes takes a while for reactions to the conference to crystallize, and that some of us rather write than speak in large groups, we have set aside this space on eForum in the hope that you'll take a moment to share your thoughts, feelings, inspirations or questions. Even a line or two would be welcome. Send them to: .

Ronald R. Lee, Ph.D.

As 70% of the sessions left me feeling enriched, and as my many years of attending conferences, workshops etc would average at about a 33% "enrichment rate," I feel the L.A. Conference of IAPSP was an "outstanding success." - well worth the 15 hour flight from Australia. And because the issues of phenomenology, hermeneutics, and contextualism were prominent, I found myself looking towards the tasks of the "Forward Edge" of a post-Cartesian future. My projection is that Kohut would be "thrilled." Thank you and congratulations, Lucyann and Estelle, and the others who helped create the success.

Margy Sperry, Psy.D., MFT

In addition to the many incredible presentations at the conference this year, two things really stood out to me. First of all, the opportunities to dialogue with colleagues in large and small settings were terrific. I'm always impressed by the intellectual and creative capacities of our membership.

Secondly, I was grateful to see our community addressing some social issues that are often ignored within psychoanalysis. The panel on trauma with Russ Carr presenting his work with a war veteran was especially moving, as was Roger Frie's paper addressing our cultural embeddedness in systems that privilege rugged individualism. I hope we will continue to cultivate opportunities to confront and reflect on our individual and joint blind spots.

Thank you, all, for a wonderful conference

Ilene Philipson, Ph.D., Ph.D. Psy.D.

The first Self Psychology conference I attended was in 1981 to hear Heinz Kohut. Although I have not attended consistently since then, I can say without hesitation that the plenary with Russell Carr was the most moving, exhilarating experience I have had since hearing Kohut. In providing something so thoroughly unexpected, I think it enlivened the whole conference and made me feel very proud to be part of the Self Psych community. It was not only what was presented from the podium, but the audience's reaction, the intersubjective play between speakers and the rest of us. The stories told, the tears shed reflected a community that feels comfortable enough to be vulnerable with each other, that is, among some 250 people seated together.

The question for me is how to have similar experiences in future conferences. I'm not suggesting that we need to cry together or reach so deeply into our collective and/or individual traumatized experiences. Rather, I'm asking how we keep these meetings affectively alive. Phil Ringstrom refers to improvisation as a corrective to therapy situations that feel deadened or "scripted." And "scripted" is a word that I think has characterized a lot of our meetings. How can we think together to come up with ways that make our meetings enlivened, fresh with experiences that are new or unexpected?

In a small way I tried to do this in a discussion I gave of a paper on Saturday. Rather than reading a formal discussion, I engaged the presenter in a dialogue about the paper he had read. We had a conversation that was spontaneous, and I received positive feedback from the audience afterward for doing something that seemed new. I imagine we could come up with a number of ideas such as this to change what I am characterizing as the scripted nature of our meetings.