Selected Facts, Fall/Winter 2016

Welcome to the Fall/Winter 2016 edition of Selected Facts: Newsletter of the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. As the new Managing Editor of Selected Facts, I would like to thank Maxine Nelson for her generous assistance, as well as David Parnes and Anna Delacroix for their tireless efforts, putting this valuable newsletter together. I hope you enjoy this issue.

In addition to a letter from NPSI President Caron Harrang, this issue includes letters from Director of Training Dana Blue and Candidate President David Parnes. As usual, we offer accounts of the endeavors of some of our members and candidates under NPSI Members and Candidates in Action. We also have committee reports from the NPSI Institute, in which you can learn about some of the accomplishments and goals of the dedicated NPSI committees.

In Regional and International News, we note the first COWAP conference, "Legacy and Innovation of Psychoanalysis" taking place in China in April, the 50th IPA Congress in Buenos Aires in July, and the NAPsaC Clinical Workshop at the APsaA meeting in New York in January. Also, we provide details on the new program allowing Board Certification in Psychoanalysis by CIPS.

In Society News, we are pleased to have Rikki Ricard's report of the very innovative and successful EBOR 2016 conference, along with a thoughtful reflection on the conference from attendee Drew Tillotson, PsyD.

If you have questions or comments about the articles we publish, or if you have an idea for a story you would like to see included in an upcoming issue, please email me at [email protected] . We are still looking for a Community Member to step forward and be Community Member Reporter, so if you are interested in joining our team, please get in touch with me. Also, feel free to forward the newsletter to colleagues. Forwarding directions are at the bottom of every issue.

Hollee Sweet

Managing Editor

NPSI Board of Directors

President: Caron Harrang

Secretary/Treasurer: Maxine Nelson

Director of Training: Dana Blue

Director: David Jachim

Administrator/Recording Secretary: Hollee Sweet (non-voting)

Candidate Representative: Julie Hendrickson (non-voting)

Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute is a non-profit corporation dedicated to educational and scientific activities based in Seattle, Washington. The primary mission of the organization is to provide the highest quality psychoanalytic education and training for individuals seeking to become psychoanalysts and psychoanalytically informed psychotherapists. The organization also supports the ongoing professional growth and development of our psychoanalyst, candidate, and community members. In so doing, the organization aims to contribute to the current regional, national, and international psychoanalytic understanding of mental life and to the emotional health, creativity, and well-being of those treated through the practice of psychoanalysis.

Letter from the President
Caron Harrang

Listen Observe Think Act

In June 2016 Maxine Nelson stepped down as Managing Editor of this newsletter after several years of service and for a time it looked like we would be without a means of reporting on the activities pertinent to the Society and the Institute. It was painful for our readers and everyone who had worked on the newsletter to see it go. Yet, with no one to assume the Managing Editor position we had to accept the loss and see what would evolve.

Since then the thought emerged amongst the Board of Directors to invite our very capable Administrator, Hollee Sweet, to expand her role and take over managing the newsletter. To our delight she accepted our request and this is the first issue under her leadership. We are fortunate that senior candidates Anna Delacroix (Copy Editor) and Dave Parnes (Reporter) will continue working on the newsletter. We also have an opening for a Community Member to report on the professional activities of our fastest growing membership group. If you want to join the newsletter staff, contact Hollee at [email protected] .

Other transformations within the organization include completion of our Eleventh International Evolving British Object Relations Conference on "The Feeling Mind and Lived Experience: Clinical Transformations in Psychoanalysis" (October 28-30, 2016) featuring plenary presenters neuropsychoanalyst Mark Solms, PhD FIPA and psychoanalyst Maxine Anderson, MD FIPA. There was great enthusiasm in the Seattle psychoanalytic and psychotherapy community for this conference and evaluations suggest it was very highly regarded. Nearly all members and candidates of NPSI contributed in some way to the conference along with a number of people from SPSI playing pivotal roles in the planning and implementing. Having attended all ten previous EBOR conferences, what stands out to me about this one was the high level of spirited yet thoughtful dialogue evident in both large and small group discussions as well as in the sold out pre-conference Master Classes conducted by Drs. Solms and Anderson.

We know from our recent national political cycle that dialogue does not always involve respect for difference amongst adherents of one point of view or another. Perhaps in light of the unusually acrimonious political situation, which I know is cause for concern to many of you, it is of crucial importance that we as psychoanalysts and psychotherapists endeavor to listen, observe, reflect on emotional experience, and take action based on this process. These are the core elements of a psychoanalytic approach in any situation. They are also values that inform strategic planning and policy decisions on the NPSI Board of Directors that oversees all of the activities of the Society and Institute. Let me give one example of what I'm talking about.

In May 2106 we conducted a membership survey to assess how our candidate, analyst, and community members experience their involvement with the Society and Institute and what we can do to be more responsive to the professional needs of our members. When we asked what events and programs we sponsor are most important to members, we learned that 63.64% felt scientific meetings were highly valued. For two years we've been without a committee to organize these meetings and without objective data it was unclear whether we should continue this program. However, the survey made it clear scientific meetings provide a valuable forum for our members to share original thoughts on evolving psychoanalytic theory and its application to clinical practice. The Board heard what our members were saying and decided to create a Continuing Education committee to oversee scientific meetings, study groups, workshops and special events. The Board invited Adriana Prengler, LMHC FIPA to chair the committee and we are happy to report that she accepted and immediately began working on a schedule of monthly meetings beginning in February 2017. Additionally, the Board created a policy allowing up to two Community Members who serve on the committee to attend scientific meetings on a pro bono basis. Individuals interested in joining Adriana's committee are invited to contact her at [email protected] .

In November NPSI held its Annual Membership Meeting to elect new officers and directors to the Board of Directors. Dana Blue, LICSW FIPA was elected to her first full term as Director of Training (after completing Maxine Anderson's term when she stepped down in July 2015). Maxine Nelson, LICSW FIPA was elected to a second term as Secretary-Treasurer, and I was elected to a second term as President. Adriana Prengler completed her term as a Director. David Jachim is continuing in his current term as a Director.

Full members voted to change our Bylaws to shorten a Director's term from three years to two years. Additionally, members voted to expand who may serve on the Board from 4 to from 4-12 Directors. In the coming year we hope to recruit a President-Elect and several Community Member Directors with expertise in marketing or fundraising. If you are interested in applying to become a Director or know of someone who has expertise in the aforementioned areas, we'd love to hear from you.

Finally, it gives me great pleasure to announce that our Annual Outstanding Community Member Service Award was this year given to Claudette Cummings, PhD for her outstanding work on the EBOR 2016 organizing committee. Thank you, Claudette, for being a valued member of our community and helping make this year's EBOR one of the best.

Warm wishes for the holidays,

Caron Harrang, LICSW FIPA

President, NPSI

Letter from the Director of Training

In this time of national upheaval, I (along with most) have been thinking about political life. I have wondered what is the best use of time, thought, advocacy and money in hoping to advance the betterment of the community, of our human society? How best to work for what we value? My initial post-graduate training was as a social worker, and this was the ground from which sprung an immediate impulse towards action. Should I join a protest? Should I volunteer with migrants? Should I offer to work with oppressed women? While all these practical efforts are needed for there to be even a chance to develop, I soon recalled that I had spent many years working that way and had found it to be too often demoralizing and ineffective in producing real change, too likely to focus on the problems as only external, and therefore apt to be depleting without recompense.

I thought about psychoanalytic thinking and the priority I and we have made to try to keep recognizing the psychic forces that threaten integrity as individuals and in groups. Like the wind, these forces may be invisible, but sometimes they howl through at gale force. We can learn to recognize these forces by the way they disturb, and by the dross left behind in the aftermath of the storm.

I recalled the words of David Brooks (The New York Times, 2/26/16) about the purpose of political life:

"We live in a big, diverse society. There are essentially two ways to maintain order and get things done in such a society - politics or some form of dictatorship. Either through compromise or brute force. Our founding fathers chose politics.

"Politics is an activity in which you recognize the simultaneous existence of different groups, interests and opinions. You try to find some way to balance or reconcile or compromise those interests, or at least a majority of them. You follow a set of rules, enshrined in a constitution or in custom, to help you reach these compromises in a way everybody considers legitimate.

The downside of politics is that people never really get everything they want. It's messy, limited and no issue is ever really settled. Politics is a muddled activity in which people have to recognize restraints and settle for less than they want. Disappointment is normal.

"But that's sort of the beauty of politics, too. It involves an endless conversation in which we learn about other people and see things from their vantage point and try to balance their needs against our own. Plus, it's better than the alternative: rule by some authoritarian tyrant who tries to govern by clobbering everyone in his way. As Bernard Crick wrote in his book, In Defense of Politics, 'Politics is a way of ruling divided societies without undue violence.' "

By this measure, serving as Director of Training is an essentially political act. With each meeting that is convened, we are striving to find the compromises between various points of view, to have the conversations that enlarge us, to allow our sometimes painful diversities, and to welcome the challenge of the natural tendencies toward isolation and even tyranny. When I was elected as Director of Training, I said that I needed all members, all hands on deck, to help steer our future course. This is not hyperbole or a lack of self-confidence. It is simple truth. Our strength depends on flexibility, effort and cooperation, our ability to maintain integrity while listening to one another. Together we can sail with these howling winds, charting a course into an uncertain future. Working from this model, we need not (and cannot) be in full accord. It is enough to be together.

I see traces of this listening, and this good effort, all around the Institute. Admissions has recently processed three applications and admitted and oriented two new candidates. Outreach events will increase the class size to begin didactic courses in Fall 2017. The candidate group has launched the NPSI referral service via our website, and are engaged and progressing learners. Curriculum is refining coursework, working on the integration of ethics principals into the program, planning for teaching assignments, and devising creative ways to support our committed faculty. Progression is upholding training standards while supporting candidates in specific and personal ways to meet them. All Training Analysts have been board certified, meeting the highest available standards for transmission of the psychoanalytic endeavor to future analysts. The Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program has launched a second year of Fundamentals with ten students. All of this accomplishment requires cooperation, compromise and excellent listening.

NPSI offers training, a future-oriented safeguard for psychoanalytic thought. NPSI also offers a professional home to hold each of us in the turbulence of clinical work. We share the value of trying to make meaning from experience, of using relationships to promote growth. It is of tremendous value, in difficult times, to attempt to keep thinking while steering ahead. I am grateful to NPSI for providing a well-wrought vessel, and to the lot of you fellow sailors, navigating in these uncertain times with thoughtfulness and respect.

Dana Blue, LICSW FIPA

Director of Training

Letter from the Candidate President

We live in uncertain times. And with uncertainty comes anxiety. Certainty, conversely, provides us with a feeling of reassuring predictability. Of course, as psychoanalysts, we also recognize certainty as a danger, a shutting down of curiosity and possibility. Analysts cultivate the ability to tolerate the unknown. But the urge to foreclose on the unknown is a powerful one, leading us to seek clear answers, reassurances, unambiguousness. Our recent presidential election provides more than one example of how the desire for unambiguous certainty and the avoidance of change can lead to trouble. But, in a fascinating example of reversible perspective, one can see the election of Trump as: an attempt to keep frightening change from happening; an attempt to create change; a catastrophe itself.

Change is frightening, in part because it denotes and ushers in uncertainty. Patients will hold tenaciously to old psychic structures and defenses out of a fear of catastrophic change. Patients will fortify their defenses, build walls, keep out alien ideas, all in an effort to avoid catastrophic change. Rosenfeld showed us how a frightened self will make a pact with an authoritarian, mafia-like internal gang in order to avoid frightening change.

All of us are responding to the election in idiosyncratic ways, based on our political views as well as the nature of our internal worlds. For those of us who see Trump's ascendance as catastrophic, we may respond by hiding, protesting, blaming, mourning, becoming depressed, isolating, seeking comfort, taking action, etc. As psychoanalysts, we understand that our internal world colors and transforms our view of the external world, and vice versa. And so we listen to our patients' responses to the recent election to see how the external situation is impacting the internal one, as well as how the internal situation impacts their perception of the external world.

Since the election, I've been recalling how Klein, in her analysis of the boy she called Richard, was able to interpret his thoughts and feelings about the war as unconscious reports on the state of his internal world. I find inspiration in her unwavering focus on his internal object relations and her ability to continue thinking, containing, transforming. And, in our current time of uncertainty and instability, we may need to call upon all our good internal objects to inspire and support us.

David Parnes, LICSW

Candidate President

Regional and International News

The NPSI Liaison Committee, which is a committee of the Board of Directors, facilitates a working relationship between our organization and key regional and international psychoanalytic organizations that include the Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies (CIPS), the North American Psychoanalytic Confederation (NAPsaC), and the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA). The committee is comprised of Caron Harrang and Maxine Nelson who sit on both CIPS and NAPsaC Boards of Directors and represent the interests of NPSI. As directors they also communicate with the North American representatives on the IPA Board of Directors charged with representing the interests of component societies not affiliated with the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA). North American representatives are Arlene Kramer Richards, William Glover, Beth Kalish, Lewis Kirshner, Jack Novick, Martin Gauthier, and Peter Lowenberg.

In each issue of the newsletter, we offer summary reports or news items we think will be of interest to our readers from CIPS, NAPsaC, and the IPA.

50th IPA Congress & 24th IPSO Conference

The 50th IPA Congress and 24th IPSO Conference will take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina on July 25-29, 2017. Perhaps because of the evocative theme, "Intimacy," the call for proposals garnered more submissions than all previous conferences, promising a rich, lively, diverse experience. The Congress is designed to facilitate opportunities for maximum interaction with colleagues from all regions. Plenary presenters include psychoanalysts Adrienne Harris, Ruggero Levy, and Bjorn and Maljis Salomonsen. For additional details go to www.ipa.world .

North American Psychoanalytic Confederation (NAPsaC)

by Maureen Murphy, NAPsaC Chair

NAPsaC and APsaA will jointly sponsor a Clinical Workshop at APsaA's Winter Meeting to be held in New York City on Saturday afternoon, January 21, 2017.

Using verbatim clinical material, the workshop is an exercise of spontaneous dialogue between different minds "dreaming" or thinking about the same material. The function of the workshop is to provide an opportunity for discussion among colleagues in an atmosphere free of supervisory dynamics. Specifically, an anonymous case will be presented by a reader who is not the treating analyst. A panel of three analysts from different geographical areas will hear the material for the first time with the audience and associate to the material as freely as possible. Following the response of the panel, attending participants will be invited to respond. This format is designed to give all participants an opportunity to observe how the mind of the analyst works in "real time," as close to an actual session experience as possible.

Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies (CIPS)

In September 2016, CIPS launched a new program allowing for Board Certification in Psychoanalysis available to qualified members. This project was successfully completed and up and running in just one year, thanks to the energetic and hard-working Certification Committee chaired by Leigh Tobias (PCC). Members of this ad hoc committee included Douglas Dennett (VPSG), Caron Harrang (NPSI), Andrea Kahn (PCC), Susan Light (CFS), Terrence McBride (LAISPS), Fredric Perlman (IPTAR), Marilyn Rifkin (IPTAR), Randi Wirth (IPTAR), and administrative consultant, Diana Daimwood.

The implementation of this project is in the competent hands of our distinguished Board of Examiners: Chair Charles Spezzano (PINC) and Co-Chair Jeannette Gadt (PCC), Michael Diamond (LAISPS), Danielle Knafo (IPTAR), Robert Oelsner (NPSI) and Joann Turo (CFS), and administered by Connie Stroboulis.

To date over 130 CIPS members have applied for and received board certification. This remarkable achievement in a short period of time attests to the value of board certification for psychoanalysts. Board certification is a requirement for training and supervising analysts in psychoanalytic institutes applying for accreditation by the Accreditation Council on Psychoanalytic Education (ACPEinc). Moreover it is widely seen as a step in the longer process of moving toward licensure for psychoanalysts in Washington and other states who do not yet have licensure.

For those who did not participate in the initial round of certification, another opportunity to be certified by CIPS is coming in Spring 2017. More specific information on how to apply for certification will be available on the CIPS website ( http://www.cipsusa.org) after the New Year.

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Committee on Women and Psychoanalysis

International Psychoanalytical Association

Psychoanalytic Committee of Chinese Association

of Mental Health

Logo: andreas bilger, ulm

First COWAP Conference in China

WOMEN MATTER - WOMEN'S MATTERS

April 19-20, 2017 in Wuhan, China

Pre-congress of 5th Chinese Psychoanalytic Congress, "Legacy and innovation of psychoanalysis" from April 21-23, 2017 in Wuhan

Contact: [email protected] or [email protected]

NPSI Society News

EBOR 2016 Report

by Rikki Ricard

The Eleventh International Evolving British Object Relations Conference

"The Feeling Mind and Lived Experience:

Clinical Transformations in Psychoanalysis"

Sponsored by Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society & Institute

October 28-30, 2016

The planning for EBOR 2016 began in May of 2015 with a request of Mark Solms to present on his concept of "The Conscious Id" and of Maxine Anderson to present on her concept of "lived experience" forthcoming in her yet to be published book, The Wisdom of Lived Experience. Shortly following the request, both accepted and the planning was underway. Early on it was decided to ask Mark and Maxine to be the discussants for each other's plenary presentations.

An organizing committee formed within the next few months, with Rikki Ricard as Chair and committee members Gina Balli, Margaret Bergmann-Ness, Claudette Cummings, Ken Cunningham, Lynn Cunningham, Anna Delacroix, Tony Hacker, Bruce Hall, Julie Hendrickson and Barb Sewell. We began meeting on an approximately basis in the summer of 2015. Gina Balli accepted the role of Art Planner for the Friday evening portion of the conference and we solicited Christian Swenson and Charlotte Dean to help her with planning and other details.

Several elements of the EBOR 2014 Conference were rolled into the planning of EBOR 2016: four pre-conference seminars; four Master Classes (instead of two): two with Mark Solms and two with Maxine Anderson; a pre-conference fund raiser featuring Ari Livne; and a spirited donation ask. The artistry of Sabah Al-Dhaher was also called upon to create the EBOR 2016 logo. Together with Rikki Ricard, artwork was created using the concepts of both entoptic images and phosphenes as an inspiration for the final piece.

Friday evening of the conference focused on the concept of "the playful mind." An interactional event was created that ended up being called, "Dlala: A Night with the Playful Mind" (Dlala being the Zulu word for play), utilizing an impromptu jazz ensemble, The Morganics; two visual artists, Charlotte Dean and Orion Misciagna; and two performance artists, Christian Swenson and his partner, Spring.

The conference followed a traditional format in the sense of offering two individual paper sessions and two small group discussions following the plenary presentations. Sunday's offering, following an individual paper session, was a video presented by Mark Solms on his work with a woman suffering a right lobe brain injury. This moving video was followed by discussion with Mark and the attendees.

There was great enthusiasm in the Seattle community for this conference and the final product was well received. The Master Classes were attended by over 100 clinicians. The Friday evening event hosted approximately 20 guests. The final conference attendance was 125. Nearly all members and candidates of NPSI contributed in some way, along with a number of people from SPSI also playing pivotal roles in the planning and implementing.

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Reflections on EBOR 2016

by Drew Tillotson, PsyD

I want to congratulate all who participated in the creation and organization of this year's EBOR conference. I've attended and presented in several conferences locally and internationally, and I was truly impressed with how organized, efficient and well run this conference was, both as an attendee and a pre-conference Master Class case presenter to Mark Solms and Maxine Anderson. Everything from the venue to the structure of events to the provision of food and beverages coalesced into a thought provoking, highly educative, collegial and scholarly experience.

My experience as a case presenter in the Master Classes doesn't get much better. Both Mark and Maxine were so respectful, supportive and helped deepen my thinking about the analysis, a case that has been difficult and challenging yet highly rewarding. While different, I appreciated both of their perspectives, which only enhanced my learning and the learning of the participants as well. Case presentations can be varied in tone, structure and audience participation. Being held so carefully was rewarding; space was created to work with Mark and Maxine's comments, as well as participants' comments, towards the best interest of the patient, assisting me in learning from the working group, while the working group learned more about the work with a particular patient. As I said, it doesn't get much better than that!

Being from the San Francisco Bay Area, an 'outsider' so to speak, I felt welcomed by the vibrant community of NPSI. It was refreshing to leave my local community and venture north to find a stimulating collegial community I had no in-depth knowledge of beforehand, other than through conversations with colleagues at NPSI. Of note, all weekend I noticed the comments and questions from the audience at each event were thoughtful and only moved the larger conversation forward, which was impressive.

I left Seattle inspired and most importantly moved, indicative of how meaningful the conference was. I've taken more of an interest in learning more about neuro-psychoanalysis, a new terrain for me but inspired by the richness of EBOR. So thank you NPSI and the EBOR cast and crew for giving me an experience I will always remember fondly and with much respect for what you created there! I plan to return for future EBOR conferences and look forward to connecting more with NPSI colleagues. Congratulations on a rich conference.

Drew Tillotson, PsyD is a graduate member and Past-President of PINC, Past-President of the Northern California Society of Psychoanalytic Psychology, and Past Vice-President of IPSO. He sits on the CIPS Board, the NAPsaC Board, and the IPA's Committee on Psychoanalysis & Culture. He has a private practice in San Francisco, seeing adults in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, consultation and supervision.

NPSI Institute News

Education Committee

Dana Blue, Chair

Psychoanalytic training is the primary activity of NPSI, and the Education Committee (EC) is the primary locus for its cultivation and maintenance. The EC is comprised of the Director of Training (Dana Blue, LICSW FIPA) who also serves as EC Chair, the Chairs of the Institute's various subcommittees, the Candidate President, and our Recording Secretary (Connie Sais, LMHC). Following are some of the tasks and activities overseen by the EC:

Admissions Committee

Maxine Nelson, LICSW FIPA (Chair)

Dana Blue, LICSW FIPA

Margaret Bergmann-Ness, LICSW, Candidate Representative

The primary task of Admissions is to process applications for admission to the training program at NPSI. To accomplish this, several Clinical Open Houses are held throughout the year. Once applications have been received, the Admissions Chair arranges for interviews with the applicant, which are discussed by a team that includes the reviewers and the Committee (without the candidate representative).

Progression Committee

Judy Eekhoff, PhD FIPA (Chair)

Mirta Berman-Oelsner, PsyA LMHC FIPA

Barb Sewell, LMHC FIPA

Lynn Cunningham, LICSW, Candidate Representative

The Progression Committee (PC) meets on a monthly basis. Candidate training case reports are reviewed every other month (with reports due two weeks prior to the meeting), while meetings to review policies and procedures of the Committee occur in alternating months. The Candidate Representative attends only policy meetings. The Committee strives to have personal contact with each candidate, holding the uniqueness and individual needs of each in mind while helping them to meet the established requirements of training. Individual meetings with each candidate occur during the first term of the academic year; meetings with supervisors are arranged as needed throughout the academic year.

PC provides ongoing evaluation of the Candidate Handbook and makes recommendations to the EC regarding policy changes. The Committee also reviews requirements, supporting candidates to meet them while being open to altering them on a case-by-case basis.

Curriculum Committee

Barbara Sewell, LMHC FIPA (Chair)

Esti Karson, PhD FIPA

Anna Delacroix, LMHC, Candidate Representative

The Curriculum Committee (CC) is responsible for arranging teaching assignments, regularly evaluating the training curriculum, reviewing syllabi for didactic courses, supporting faculty facilitators, reviewing and discussing evaluations completed by candidates, and providing written and/or verbal feedback to faculty. PC also worked on the following issues during the past year:

We discussed how to include ethics as an ongoing part of training and how to standardize the Oral Examination. We brainstormed ways of generating teachers for teaching assignments that have been difficult to fill and combined the candidates for clinical seminars to make a more robust class. We revised the NPSI working policy regarding auditors for NPSI didactic classes. We considered ways to encourage, inspire and motivate teachers to fill teaching needs, including paying instructors. We surveyed the faculty to assess interest in teaching 6-week blocks of our 12-week academic terms; and based on feedback, decided to keep terms at 12 weeks but to enlist two instructors for each class who will determine whether they will teach together the entire term or teach sequentially in two 6-week blocks. Finally, w e helped organize a faculty appreciation potluck dinner in September 2016.

Candidates

David Parnes, LICSW, Candidate President

For a list of current candidates see http://npsi.us.com/society/member-roster

Candidates meet as a group once a month. The Candidate President provides support to the candidates during their training, coordinates candidate communication with analyst members and committees, and advocates for candidates within the context of the Institute. Candidate Representatives participate as members of various subcommittees (Admissions, Progression and Curriculum) and report back to the candidate group at its monthly meetings.

Other EC News

The Education Committee currently has three openings: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program Chair, Training Analyst Chair, and Dean of Students. The EC and NPSI Board of Directors are actively involved in filling these positions. Additional information about the activities of the Education Committee and its subcommittees can be found in the NPSI 2016 Annual Report at http://npsi.us.com/uploads/2016-11_NPSI_Annual_Meeting_Minutes_and_Committee_Reports.pdf

NPSI Members and Candidates in Action

by David Parnes, Reporter

NPSI sponsored its eleventh International Evolving British Objects Relations Conference (EBOR) on October 28-30. The conference was titled, "The Feeling Mind and Lived Experience: Clinical Transformations in Psychoanalysis." Plenary presenters were Mark Solms, PhD FIPA and Maxine Anderson, MD FIPA. Dr. Anderson was the discussant for Dr. Solms' paper, "The Conscious Id: Current and Evolving Thoughts," and Dr. Solms was the discussant for Dr. Anderson's paper, "A Creative Conversation with Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience."

Of the many excellent individual paper presentations offered during the EBOR 2016 Conference, Judy K Eekhoff, PhD FIPA presented her paper titled, "Affective Bridges Between Body and Mind." Earlier in the Fall, she presented an individual paper titled, "Finding the Spark of Life" at the 2016 Bion Conference in Milan, Italy (September 30-October 2), and another paper titled, "The Silent Transference: Clinical Applications of Ferenczi, Klein, & Bion" at Seattle Psychoanalytic Society & Institute (October 18). On January 15, 2017 Judy will present her paper, "Finding the Center of Gravity" at a conference titled, Contemporary Psychoanalytic Couple Therapy, in New York City.

Caron Harrang, LICSW FIPA also participated in the 2016 Bion Conference in Milan, presenting an individual paper titled, "Presence and Absence in Bion's Italian Seminars" and as a member of the panel presentation titled, "Reading Bion's Meanings in a Group Context: An Inter-Regional Dialogue on Bion's Italian Seminars," along with Joe Aguayo (Chair), Susan Finkelstein, Marie Murphy, and Luca di Donna (Moderator and Interpreter). Her panel presentation, addressing a portion of Bion's ninth and final seminar given in Rome (1977), was titled, "The Analyst's Responsibility to Speak Truthfully in the Face of Danger."

Jeff Eaton, LMHC FIPA, along with Gerald Fogel, MD of the Oregon Psychoanalytic Center in Portland, OR discussed the presentation, "Bringing Meditation into Psychoanalysis: Free Association, Meditation, and Bion" by Axel Hofer, MD, held at OPC on November 12. On December 3, Jeff presented his paper, "Making a Scene: Reflections on Anxiety in Child Therapy" at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, as the Beata Rank Memorial Lecturer in Child Analysis for 2016.

In September, NPSI hosted a book party for From Reverie to Interpretation: Transforming Thought into the Action of Psychoanalysis (Karnac, 2016), the collected papers from the 2014 EBOR conference. The book was edited by Dana Blue, LICSW FIPA and Caron Harrang, LICSW FIPA . The celebratory event was held in the home of David and Jeanne Jachim and office of David Jachim, PhD FIPA . The book marks the first time the collected papers from an EBOR conference have been made available to the public.

September also saw another book launch party for The Wisdom of Lived Experience: Views from Psychoanalysis, Neuroscience, Philosophy and Metaphysics (Karnac, 2016) by Maxine Anderson, MD FIPA. An excellent introduction to the book can be found on Karnac's website at https://karnacology.com/2016/07/11/the-wisdom-of-lived-experience-by-maxine-k-anderson/

Adrian Jarreau, LHMC FIPA has a book chapter titled, "Intuiting the Unknown: Listening with the Unconscious Mind" in the recently published Emotional Presence in Psychoanalysis: Theory and Clinical Applications (Routledge, 2016) edited by John Madonna. The chapter was originally written as Adrian's graduation paper (Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute) and first published in Modern Psychoanalysis (2012, V.37, No.1).

Marianne Robinson, PhD FIPA has co-authored a paper, titled, "Supervisory Countertransference and Impingements in Evaluating Readiness for Graduation" that will appear in an upcoming issue of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis . Co-authors include LT Ehrlich, NM Kulish, MA Hanley and A Rothstein.

Adriana Prengler, LMHC FIPA is pleased to announce that she is running for the position of North American Representative to the Board of the IPA by Petition.

Maxine Anderson, MD FIPA had donated The Journal of Melanie Klein and Object Relations to the NPSI library.

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Candidate News

Carolyn Steinberg, MD was a presenter and member of a panel at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry this past October. The presentation was titled, "Applying Infant Research to Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents."

Selected Facts Next Issue Deadline:

The next issue of Selected Facts will be published in late May 2017. The deadline for submissions is April 30, 2017.

Please feel free to contact Hollee Sweet with general questions or our reporter with news items or ideas for stories.

Hollee Sweet Managing Editor [email protected]	Anna Delacroix Copy Editor [email protected]
David Parnes Reporter [email protected]