Ellen Handler Spitz is a writer, lecturer and scholar who hold the Honors College Professorship of Visual Arts at University of Maryland, where she teaches interdisciplinary seminars in aesthetics, literature, psychology, and the visual arts. She attended the University of Chicago, Barnard College (A.T.), Harvard University (M.A.T.), and Columbia University (Ph.D.). She also studied at the Art Students League in New York; the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; SUNY; and at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Dr Spitz has held fellowships, among others, at the Getty Center for History and Art and the Humanities; the Radcliff Institute at Harvard University; the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France.

The Belgian Surrealist artist Rene Magritte (1898-1967) has left us a body of work that is distinct, wondrous to see but simultaneously mysterious and unsettling. Thinking of those images might be as baffling as waking in the midst of a labyrinth facing the Minotaur or having fallen asleep and awakened in the trenches of Verdun during an artillery barrage. Nothing could have prepared the Continental Bourgeois gentleman for the mechanized slaughters of World War I save perhaps the rats racing about the flooded trenches in which he stood.

World War I destroyed the idea of rational government, leaving behind fragmented political and economic systems. From that fragmented world, Surrealism (1920 +), an  outgrowth of the Dada (1915- 1923) movement, produced works of art that deliberately defied reason. Surrealism was a reaction against the destruction of the traditional patriarchal system of monarchial alliances of nations coupled with the pre-Victorian notion of valor that dominated and which they believed was caused by a rational way of thinking, primarily in European politics and culture. One of the goals of Surrealism was to reunite the unconscious and conscious experiences of life so that the dream and fantasy would unite. Thus, the rational world would be in the minds of people not as an absolute reality but as surrealism.

The relationship between psychoanalysis and surrealism has played a greater importance to the art historian than to psychoanalysts. There is very little reference to Surrealism in the psychoanalytic literature compared to the numerous references of Freud in the writings about Surrealism. Many Surrealistic artists had read Freud and had knowledge of his theories including the unconscious, dream theory and repression. For instance, Mundy in his book entitled Surrealism: Desire Unbound cites Freud at least twenty times, cites eighteen of his writings and provides a listing of French translations of his works from 1896 to 1969 (Esman).

Ellen Handler Spitz has created a work of art to "negotiate a labyrinth of paintings by means of tangled psychoanalytic threads." Magritte's Labyrinth analyzes paintings of Magritte through the lens of psychoanalytic thought and personal projections. One could easily contend that this book uses the work of Rene Magritte to demonstrate the psychoanalytic method and the power of psychoanalysis. Like psychoanalysis, the reader may experience frustration, illumination and gratification. 

Dr. Spitz has undertaken the task of connecting many of Rene Magritte's painting with psychoanalytic thought and her personal associations. The body of this book is written without chapter numbers and weaves in, out and between aesthetics, art history, visual art, psychoanalytic interpretation, criticism and projection. Psychoanalysis is the means for her exploration.

In analysis, the often disorganized words of our patients mingle with our own reverie as we travel together through the tunnels of our minds to find together a "third space" in the same way we might wander through the halls of a museum noticing themes that appear and disappear.

The author has mirrored the psychoanalytic model of not always pointing out the themes the analyst is observing with the goal of not "stifling the patient." Magritte's Labyrinth is written in a free association style that allows the reader, through the art of Magritte and the spirit of psychoanalysis, to ponder and associate at their own pace.

Exasperation and frustration were my initial response as I began my journey into the work of Magritte and the mind of Ellen Handler Spitz. Magritte's Labyrinth was originally published under the title Museums of the Mind: Magritte's Labyrinth and Other Essays in the Arts (Yale Press, 1994). The current edition, which covers Part 1 of "Museums of the Mind" is only available in e book form. This was my first encounter with an "e book" and I yearned for my familiar habit of caressing and establishing a special relationship with a hand held book. Instead of my comfortable companion I was confronted with a strange object that I did not know how to navigate. Adding to my frustration was my discovery that there were no illustrations of Magritte's paintings on which I could gaze and study. At one point I felt compelled to pull out some of my books on Surrealism, if just to touch, view and taste Magritte by myself. I wanted tosee illustrations of the paintings Professor Spitz was addressing and allow the "magic" of Magritte's art and my relationship to them to be enhanced. The author notes that, for financial and technical reasons, the images were not included and that she feels apologetic. Magritte's art is accessible on the internet and would greatly enhance the readers experience. Nevertheless, Spitz's conviction and sensitivity persuaded me to suspend my own bias. I was resolved to be open to her thesis and to tolerate my own discomfort. Thus, I accepted her invitation to find the space between the reader and the art through psychoanalytic thought. My discomfort was rapidly transformed into a freely suspended state of trust where she, Magritte and I were encased in a new space.

Psychoanalysis allows us to move through our own intrapsychic spaces with the knowledge of our own fragility and resistance to once again know what we have attempted to forget. These are the museums of our mind. The author questions if, as we pass through the museums of Magritte's art, there are links between the "abstract and personal, the paradoxical and the perverse."

Dr. Spitz analyses and associates to Magritte's disjunctive visions of his mother's suicide by drowning when he was 13 years old.  The sensitive and critical eyes of an artist and gifted writer explore the labyrinth of his paintings. She notes that we all lose our mothers symbolically. Magritte lost his to maternal depression and suicide attempts before emotionally naked, he is transfixed by the corpse of her reclaimed body from the river clad only in a nightgown. In his art we are permitted to reflect on, project onto and feel his intense attempts to work through this loss. We cannot view his paintings, as they are not presented to us to regard, yet we can feel in her writing the cold, hard and dead essence in his expressions. Handler Spitz summons the reader to consider whether Magritte denied his loss and pain and/or contained his rage while reenacting his drama on the canvas again and again. This she brings to us through the lens of psychoanalysis, her impressive scholarship and her heartfelt sensitivity.

Handler Spitz impels the psychoanalyst to bring her "delicacy, depth, and directness to bear on actual works" (of art) while "safeguarding our distinctive approach to the powerful impact on the viewer of the arts."

Ellen Handler Spitz shares with the reader that she has the same experience as Marion Milner when looking at and experiencing Magritte's paintings; they make her feel 'strangely mixed up with his paintings'. As Professor Spitz herself says, "this book asks whether and how psychoanalysis might whisper in our private moments with works of art." I have come to feel Magritte's presence in me in a different and more profound way as well as feeling I have a relationship with Spitz and her passion for the power of the arts. Just like the ambivalence one experiences during the termination phase of an analysis, I was ambivalent about ending my relationship with Spitz, Magritte and a now not so strange "e object." The reader may find that she too will discover that her journey through the maze can produce a knowing of the centrality of the arts to her being.

 Spitz introduced this book with an analogy of the Greek chorus to psychoanalysis; in both we must look forward, but we can always look back to the recurring patterns of our lives. The writing of Magritte's Labyrinth, she says, has "occasioned many returns" for her. The reading and experiencing of this dense and beautifully constructed book has occasioned many returns for me.  I recommend this enlightening experience to all analysts, artists and thinkers who are willing to travel beyond their own limitations in a maze of intellectual, emotional and spiritual growth.

This is not a "Book Review" and "This is not a Pipe" are a result of the mechanized slaughter of a generation that came to recognize that nothing was as it seemed and nothing could be trusted. The rise of thinkers such as Newton, Darwin, Freud and Einstein impacted the arts and the arts communicated the pain, confusion, disillusionment and loss of and to the people. Rene Magritte's art was influenced by the times he lived in and his traumatic psychological development. It is through the writings of Freud and the development of psychoanalysis that we can attempt to understand the labyrinth of Magritte's life and work, as well as have an opportunity to explore our own museums of the mind. Ellen Handler Spitz, in an e mail to me, hopes that this e volume will "prod and remind skeptics of the irresistible power of psychoanalytic thinking...and about the strange confluences of art and life."

Magritte's Labyrinth

Ellen Handler Spitz is the author of numerous books and reviews and this book can be purchased on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Magrittes-Labyrinth-Ellen-Handler-Spitz-ebook/dp/B00LZ5RQF6/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414150002&sr=1-10&keywords=ellen+handler+spitz

Claudia Eskenazi, PhD, is a psychotherapist in private practice in Encino, California and a senior candidate at LAISPS. She is also an art psychotherapist and Assistant Managing Editor of the CIPS News Brief. 

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CIPS MEMBER BOOK RELEASES

The Editors of Frances Tustin Today have done a wonderful job of bringing together an exciting collection of some of the most important writings illustrating Tustin's extraordinary influence on contemporary psychoanalytic work, particularly regarding the entire autism spectrum. 

The book may be likened to a string of pearls. Each single pearl, like each single article, is precious in its own right, yet when strung together they form an entirely new and even more valuable reality.

This book, in my view, presents an invaluable harvest of ideas which will inspire and motivate future developments in a field as controversial as it is important. Indeed there is a growing awareness that we all experience autistic trends to one degree or another.  In short, Frances Tustin Today is highly recommended to anyone wishing to delve more deeply into primitive mental states in the directions pointed out by Bion.

-Antonino Ferro, Italian Psychoanalytic Society

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Judith Mitrani's Psychoanalytic Technique and Theory: Taking The Transference provides that rare opportunity to listen in on psychoanalytic thinking and practice at its most exquisitively sensitive to the inner life of a patient and analyst as they attempt to talk with one another about the most fundamental truths of the patient's experience. The book builds upon the work of Freud, Klein, Bion and Tustin, but goes well beyond that body of work to offer a conception of analytic theory and technique that is uniquely Mitrani's. It is a pleasure to learn from this very fine teacher.

-Thomas Ogden

EBOR is always stimulating, gathering creative psychoanalytic authors from around the globe to continue the work of advancing psychoanalytic theory. International participation and leading edge scholarship are its hallmarks. To celebrate this 10th anniversary of EBOR, the organizers added several innovations in design. For example, we developed and offered a study group titled "Pre-Conference Reveries" that convened at NPSI in Seattle for six sessions in the year leading up to the conference. This series assured that Seattle based attendees would have a solid theoretical understanding of the conference theme-from reverie to interpretation-that fueled enthusiasm for the upcoming event and increased participation at the conference.

The conference was located at the four-star Pan Pacific Hotel in the South Lake Union neighborhood of downtown Seattle. The sophisticated, comfortable setting provided a stylish and intimate environment to hold the conference. For the first time, the organizers solicited conference sponsors and are pleased to be able to thank them for their support. Jean Tarbox, Doug Ulrich, CFP, The Cunningham Family, Fran's Chocolates, and the American Association for Psychoanalysis and Social Work all made significant monetary or in-kind contributions ensuring the financial success of this international event. We were also pleased that one of the nation's leading psychodynamically informed inpatient psychiatric hospitals, The Menninger Clinic, accepted our invitation to become our first ever conference exhibitor. Additionally, we were fortunate to receive a generous travel grant from the IPA's CAPSA program assisting us to bring plenary presenters from Europe and Latin America by paying for a portion of their airfare. Without the support of these individuals and organizations, an event of this scale would be impossible for a small psychoanalytic society to produce.  

After selecting our theme, we invited plenary presenters based on their writing and teaching in the area of reverie, with different theoretical and technical emphases. We were very fortunate in our choices of Giuseppe Civitarese, MD FIPA of Italy, and Clara Nemas, MD FIPA of Argentina. From our initial contacts, the plenaries were gracious and generous, granting interviews to post online (http://npsi.us.com/news-media/associations-psychoanalytic-essays/), sharing electronic copies of papers they had written, and helping us to promote the conference in their home countries. The call for individual papers generated a similarly enthusiastic response, with submissions arriving from the US and abroad, extending the concept of reverie to interpretation in novel directions; applying it to new ways of understanding the contributions of historical psychoanalytic luminaries such as Strachey and Fairbairn, to work with couples, to child psychoanalysis, to infant observation, and to the supervisory dimension of analytic work. The overall conference program, with its interweaving themes and emphases were gathered into a wonderful bouquet of offerings for presenters and attendees alike.  

Another advance in event planning was in the creation of a fundraiser aimed at offsetting expenses associated with producing an international conference. This event titled "Midsummer Revelry," took place in June 2014 and featured a classical music program offered by Julliard-trained pianist Ari Livne. It was a masterful performance enhanced by Mr. Livne's scholarly commentary on his impressions of the composer's use of reverie evidenced in the compositions chosen for the concert. Midsummer Revelry offered a seed of thought, the notion of reverie as a matrix for creativity of various sorts that blossomed at the fall conference.

Approaching the conference theme through the lens of creativity, the organizers developed a two-evening integrated program, titled "The Art of Reverie" for conference participants and open to the general public. The aim of this portion of the conference was both to engender an experience of reverie for psychoanalyst and psychotherapist attendees and enhance appreciation of a psychoanalytic view of creativity and other aspects of human experience for the general public.

The Friday evening portion of "The Art of Reverie" opened the conference and included presentations by Iraqi-American sculptor Sabah Al-Dhaher ("Reverie as Key to Escape Within") and Shierry Nicholsen, PhD FIPA ("Working with Stone, Working with Psyche: Reverie in Art and Psychoanalysis"). Saturday night, conference attendees and general public guests enjoyed a film (The Hedgehog, USA release 2011) and subsequent discussion by Adriana Prengler, LHMC FIPA. This emphasis on art helped to enhance the experience of reverie that pervaded the conference. Sculptural work by Sabah Al-Dhaher was exhibited in the conference meeting areas throughout the weekend, offering conferees a visual echo to his powerful opening talk at Friday night's "The Art of Reverie" panel.  

For clinicians, the EBOR conference proper began on Friday afternoon, where each of our distinguished plenary presenters taught a Master Class, another first. Each Master Class featured clinical material presented by an experienced analyst that served as a springboard for illustrating the theoretical and technical uses of reverie as understood by our master instructors. Leigh Tobias, PhD FIPA, a Training Analyst and current President of the Psychoanalytic Center of California (Los Angeles, California), presented analytic material to Dr Nemas. Nancy Winters, MD, FIPA, a graduate and faculty member at the Oregon Psychoanalytic Institute and Center (Portland, Oregon) presented a psychoanalytic case to Dr. Civitarese.

If a conference is like a garden, the full harvest of ideas lies in the plenary presentations. Dr Nemas offered a warm and thoughtful plenary presentation on Saturday morning, titled "Courage and Sincerity as a Basis for Reverie and Interpretation," followed by discussant remarks from Robert Oelsner, MD FIPA. The large group divided into smaller discussion groups to mull over her ideas; then moved on to attend morning individual paper presentations. Along with the luncheon, NPSI hosted a well-attended "Candidate Curious" meeting for those germinating a desire for future analytic training.

The afternoon plenary session began with Dr Civitarese's very stimulating paper titled "Reverie and the Aesthetics of Psychoanalysis." Jeffrey Eaton, LMHC FIPA acted as discussant and facilitator for the hour-long discussion of Dr Civitarese's contributions with the large conference group. The afternoon concluded with a second series of individual paper presentations.

NPSI senior candidates, full members, and community members facilitated the following individual paper sessions:  

"The Primacy of Reverie in Making Contact with a New Couple" by Carl Bagnini, LCSW BCD

"Come On Hold a Baby's Hand: Psychoanalytic Reverie and Infant Observation" by Margaret Bergmann-Ness, LICSW, Judy K Eekhoff, PhD FIPA, Kerry Ragain, PhD, Barbara Sewell, LMHC FIPA, and Carolyn Steinberg, MD

"The Magnetic Compass of Reverie" by Diletta La Torre, MD FIPA (read by Rikki Ricard)

"Spiraling Transference: Strachey's Mutative Interpretation and Reverie" by Shelley Rockwell, PhD FIPA

"From Fairbairn to the Planet Neptune" by Mark Gundry, MA PhD LPC

"Infant Observation as a Pathway to Experience Reverie and Learning to Interpret" by

Gisela Klinckwort, FIPA

"The Couple" by Donatella Lisciotto, FIPA (read by Julie Hendrickson)

"Beta Elements in Search of Meaning or Little Hans Went Alone into the Wide World" by Robert Oelsner, MD FIPA and Carolyn Steinberg, MD

The final design innovation took place in the programming for Sunday morning. Montana Katz, PhD, FIPA offered her paper "The Timing of the Use of Reverie" as part of a final plenary titled, "Selected Short." Acting as discussants, Drs Civitarese and Nemas shared their responses to Dr Katz's paper in an integrating discussion that illustrated their respectfully differing and individually inspiring perspectives on reverie. After reports from the small group discussions the previous day, conferees returned home, invigorated by new ideas and filled with nascent understandings from the conference.

EBOR 2014 was a highly successful conference, enriching the sponsoring organization with new ideas and tangible resources. We expanded theoretical discourse in evolving British Object Relations theory, strengthened long-standing bonds, and forged new connections with colleagues from around the world. The forum was a project with communitywide support. Nearly everyone in the NPSI Society-analysts, candidates, and community members-participated in some way in the creation and production of this memorable event. The organizers also wish to acknowledge the contribution of our new Administrator, Hollee Sweet, who skillfully managed registration and many other details during and after EBOR.

For those that could not attend, we are happy to report that professionally produced very high quality DVDs of the plenary presentations by Giuseppe Civitarese and Clara Nemas are now available as a gift with a charitable donation to NPSI. For details, please check the organization website:  http://npsi.us.com/society/evolving-british-object-relations-international-conference/.

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REFLECTIONS ON EVOVING BRITISH OBJECT RELATIONS

(EBOR) 2014

By Leigh Tobias, PhD, FIPA

The Northwest Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (NPSI) has been mounting this International Conference every two years since 2004. The hallmarks of this conference are its international character: it draws presenters and participants from all over the globe, and its structure: presenters stimulate thinking that is then further refined in small groups.

This year's theme was "From Reverie to Interpretation: Transforming Thought into the Action of Psychoanalysis." The plenary speakers were Giuseppe Civitarese, MD, FIPA (Italy) and Clara Nemas MD, FIPA (Argentina).

The conference structure provided an opportunity for the concept and experience of reverie to develop over the weekend. Friday's pre-conference offered two master classes, each with one of the plenary speakers, discussing clinical material. This experience allowed conference attendees to get to know one another a bit, as well as more close contact with the plenary presenters and their clinical process. In the evening there was a panel of two artist-participants, Sabah Al-Dhaher, and Shierry Nicholson PhD, FIPA, addressing the topic of reverie in the creation of their art-work. Both are sculptors. Sabah's sculpture was on view throughout the conference, though on Friday evening he presented a deeply moving drawing in coffee and ink along with the story of its creation. Shierry works in soft stone, and presented a slide show, at the pace of 1 minute per slide, along with her commentary on creating the works. Both were very moving presentations, and deeply evocative of the process of being gripped by a feeling, allowing it to take shape, and come into form.

Saturday brought the first plenary presentation in the morning, Courage and Sincerity -- Reverie and Interpretation, by Clara Nemas; discussant Robert Oelsner, MD, FIPA. She developed the themes of maternal and paternal forms of reverie and containment, ideas that sparked a detailed response from Dr. Oelsner during the plenary discussion. Then the members of the conference adjourned to pre-assigned small groups, with two facilitators, and discussed the paper further. Many comments and questions emerged in that setting.

Immediately following the conference, members attended smaller groups again of pre-selected Individual Paper sessions, each of which had another paper on the topic presented and discussed. The conference then broke for lunch, served on site, with lots of informal buzz during that time. Following the lunch was the second plenary presentation of Dr. Civitarese: Reverie and the Aesthetics of Psychoanalysis, discussed by Jeffrey Eaton, LMHC, FIPA. Dr Civitarese emphasized the tools of transformation in hallucinosis to transformation in dreaming to interpretation, via Bion's grid. Dr Eaton provided interesting discussion and case material associations that were very helpful.

Saturday evening brought the screening of the French film The Hedgehog, discussed by Adriana Prengler. Sunday brought a final paper, The Timing and Use of Reverie, presented by Montana Katz, PhD, FIPA, and discussed by Nemas and Civitarese. By this time the conferees had been steeped in this rich idea all weekend. The conference concluded with the small group recorders presenting a summary of their group's discussion of the topic and the final discussion showed further development of the experience of transformations, of expression, and timing.

I understand it was the most ambitious EBOR conference to date. I found it very satisfying intellectually, colleagially, and experientially. It was respectful, meaningful, well-planned, and intellectually stimulating. I heartily recommend attending the next one.

Institute for Psychoanalytic Training & Research (IPTAR)  

•  On October 17 - 18, 2014 IPTAR hosted Mourning and Loss: Emerging from a Psychic Retreat. Understanding Primitive Mental States (UPMS), an independent study group dedicated to learning London Kleinian Object Relations Theory, now in its sixth year of study and programming, brought John Steiner, MD, FIPA to NYC for this conference. Steiner, led a discussion of, "The Conflict Between Mourning and Melancholia" from his book
  Seeing and Being Seen: Emerging from a Psychic Retreat

  .

  Everyone was asked to read the chapter in advance. Rather than reading his paper out loud, Steiner and the audience were able to talk together about the problems of seeing and being seen as one emerges from a psychic retreat. He discussed how coming into view exposes the patient to the problems of humiliation and shame, which being seen can give rise to, and then cause a return to the retreat as a defense. If the shame can be survived and worked through in the transference, countertransference situation, progress to face the guilt and make reparation becomes possible. In the process of facing loss, and in particular, facing the loss of one's own omnipotence is central, can allow working toward reparation and mourning. If the shame cannot be endured, he remains stuck in a melancholic situation.
   

  John Steiner, is a training analyst of the British psychoanalytical Society. He is the author of Psychic Retreats (1993) and Seeing and Being Seen (2011) and many psychoanalytic articles. He is also a member of Understanding Primitive Mental States, NYC where he consults annually. This study group/program is organized by Susan N.Finkelstein.
   

  Catherine Andersen, a training and supervising analyst from the Contemporary Freudian Society in Bethesda, MD and Debbie Zatz, a member of the Contemporary Freudian Society in Washington DC were the two case presenters. These clinical presentations allowed for an integration of theory and clinical application.
   

• Joseph Aguayo presented: Bion's Clinical Seminars in Los Angeles and New York City on November 21and 22, 2014.

  In November the Program Committee (under the leadership of Carolyn Ellman) hosted Joseph Aguayo, PhD, FIPA. Aguayo discussed the only two clinical seminars ever given by Wilfred Bion in the United States: the Los Angeles Seminars and Supervision in 1967 and the IPTAR Seminars in New York City in 1977. For many IPTAR members, this was a historic event since they didn't know that Bion had been at IPTAR. On Friday evening Aguayo took up the clinical and technical implications of Bion's ideas (especially his ideas in his paper "On Memory and Desire") and how difficult it was for the audience in l967 to hear these ideas. For classically trained audiences who were unfamiliar with any of Klein's ideas from England, they found Bion's language and technique quite foreign. Aguayo pointed out how surprised and disturbed Bion was at these reactions. On Saturday morning, the panel moderated by Susan Finkelstein heard two analysts who had been at the l977 lectures (William Fried and Bennett Roth). It was quite refreshing to hear from them the awe, outrage and complicated reactions that occurred during that week of meetings wherein Bion wouldn't respond to many of the questions asked. However, they both remembered the meetings as if it was yesterday. 

  
  Aguayo then presented case material that highlighted how he works with near psychotic patients. His openness to questions and ideas helped the audience to feel they were truly participating in an unusual event and helped us all to understand some differences between Freudian, Kleinian and Bionian technique.
   

• Nuar Alsadir, PhD has published "Neighbor," Labor Day. Ed. Eleanor Henderson and Anna Soloman. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2014. 199-206; "The Hug Machine: A Review of Anne Carson's Red Doc," The Poetry Review (Spring 2014), 122; "Night Fragments: 3:15 a.m.," Provincetown Arts (Summer 2014), 107.

   

• An interview with Alan Bass, PhD, FIPA has been published in the journal of the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies of Porto Alegre (Brazil). In November he delivered the keynote address at the conference 'Philosophers Since Freud' in Mexico City; and in December he presented at IPTAR's Developing Analyst Series (with Richard Grose) and at the CFS event for the CIPS book on sadomasochism.

   
• Fred Busch, MD, FIPA was an invited discussant of two clinical presentations with  Stefano Bolognini, PhD, FIPA and Virginia Ungar at the meetings of the Latin American Psychoanalytic Societies (FEPAL), Buenos Aires, Argentina, September 2014. He was also the discussant of David Bell's paper,  "Knowledge as Fact and Knowledge as Experience." Contemporary Freudian Society, New York, November 2014.
   
• Chris Christian, PhD, FIPA was appointed to the Editorial Board of PsychoanalyticPsychology. He presented a paper, The Piano Teacher: A Case Study in Sadomasochism at the Brill Library Film Series, New York Psychoanalytic Institute along with a screening of the film, Le Pianiste. Most recently, he, along with Richard Reichbart and Michael Moskowitz, obtained a grant from PEP for the development of a video to be entitled Psychoanalysis in El Barrio.
   
• Steven Ellman, PhD, FIPA presented "Intersubjectivity and the Analytic Third." to the Oklahoma Society of Division 39 in October 2014. He also presented at the CIPS and New York Freudian Society (NYFS) Sadomasochism Conference in December 2014. He also published the article Ellman, S. (2014). "Traversing Narcissistic Pathways: From Freud to Present Times." Psychoanal. Inq., 34:394-407.
   
• Erwin Flaxman, PhD, FIPA presented, "Psychoanalysis and the Endings of Shakespeare's Plays" at the biannual meeting of the British Shakespeare Association, University of Stirling, Scotland, July 5, 2014; and "Mourning and Melancholia: Henry James in Francois Truffaut's" 'The Green Room,' " annual meeting of the Henry James Society, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, July 17, 2014.
   
• Geoff Goodman, PhD, FIPA has published: Goodman, G. (2014). Mentalization: An Interpersonal Approach to Mindfulness. In J. M. Stewart (Ed.), "Mindfulness, Acceptance, and the Psychodynamic Evolution: Bringing Values into Treatment Planning and Enhancing Psychodynamic Work with Buddhist Psychology" (pp. 111-132). Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.
   
• Goodman, G. (2014). [Review of "Restoring Mentalizing in Attachment Relationships: Treating Trauma with Plain Old Therapy"]. Psychodynamic Psychiatry, 42, 324-328.
   
• Goodman, G., Anderson, K., & Diener, M. J. (2014). "Processes of Therapeutic Change in Psychodynamic Therapy of Two Inpatients with Borderline Personality Disorder." Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 24, 3-45.
   
• Goodman, G., Edwards, K., & Chung, H. (2014). "Interaction Structures Formed in the Psychodynamic Therapy of Five Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder in Crisis." Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 87, 15-31.
   
• Dent, V. F., Goodman, G., & Kevane, M. (2014). "Rural Community Libraries in Africa: Challenges and Impacts." Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
   
• Janice Lieberman, PhD, FIPA published "The Skin You Live In" in the Body Gallery of the new online Virtual Psychoanalytic Museum.
   
• Batya R. Monder, MSW, BCD, FIPA presented a paper, entitled "Childhood Sexual Abuse and Shame: Reverberations Through a Lifetime" in Mexico City on October 11, 2014. The presentation was sponsored by the Asociación Mexicana para la Práctica, Investigacióny Enseñanza del Psicoanálisis (AMPIEP).
   
• Orna Ophir, PhD presented, "On Loneliness, Belonging, Strangers and Otherness - Klein in America" at the Shalvata Mental Health Center which is affiliated with Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University on December 24, 2014. "The Apprehension of Beauty - The Kleinian School of Aesthetics." Invited lecture at the "Psychoanalytic Turns in Art History and Literary Criticism" seminar, Department of Art History and Archeology, Princeton University, December 5, 2014.
   
• Ellen Sinkman, LCSW, FIPA presented a paper entitled "Heroines and Mythology of Contemporary Girls" at IPA's Committee on Women and Psychoanalysis (COWAP) Conference: "Myth of the Mighty Woman," October, 2014. She also has an exhibit entitled "Beauty" in the online Virtual Psychoanalytic Museum.
  On the 18th of September, 2014, Tuba Tokgoz, PhD, FIPA and Alexandra Petrou co-led a workshop for international students at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (Office of International Studies & Programs) on adjusting to studying and living in the US.
   
• Isaac Tylim, PhD, FIPA participated in the panel "The Many Faces of Pain" at the Federation of Latin American Psychoanalysis Congress in September 2014 in Buenos Aires. In November 2014 he was invited by Denver University and the Denver Psychoanalytic Institute to present "The Freud and Ferenczi Letters." His recent publications include "Home Sweet Home. A Psychoanalytic Reading of the TV 'Homeland "" - American Journal of Psychoanalysis; and "Technology and the Future of Psychoanalysis" - Psychoanalytic Inquiry.
   
• The Contemporary Freudian Society sponsored a conference on December 7, 2014 based on the book published by Karnac as part of the CIPS book series, entitled Battling the Life and Death Forces of Sadomasochism: Clinical Perspectives. In addition to the three editors - Harriet Basseches, Paula Ellman, and Nancy Goodman - there were presentations by many of the East Coast book writers including, Sheldon Bach, Alan Bass, Andrea Greenman, Steve Ellman, and Richard Reichbart.  The conference was well attended.
  
  For more information on all IPTAR events visit www.iptar.org.
   

Los Angeles Institute & Society for Psychoanalytic Study (LAISPS)    

• On January 10, 2015 Brazilian child and adolescent psychoanalyst Sergio Nick, PhD presented a lecture on "Approaching Sexuality in the Psychoanalytic Setting." The talk will focused on the appearance of infantile sexuality and how to distinguish between and address its different forms in sessions.       
   
• On February 7, 2015 as part of the Cross Currents in Psychoanalysis series, Jeffrey Prager, PhD and Professor of Sociology at UCLA will present a lecture entitled, "'Mourning Becomes Eclectic: Racial Melancholia in an Age of Reconciliation." The Cross Currents series links psychoanalysis with a variety of other topics such as art, politics, and literature.       
   
• On April 25, 2015 LAISPS will present a workshop entitled "The Times they are A-Changing: New Perspectives on European Psychoanalysis," with Martin Teising, PhD and Ingrid Moeslein-Teising, PhD. Martin Teising is the president of the International Psychoanalytic University Berlin, and will present his paper on "The Contact Barrier in Psychoanalysis." Dr. Moeslein-Teising is a member of COWAP (the IPA committee on Women & Psychoanalysis) and editor of an IPA collection of essays entitled "The Female Body Inside & Outside." The workshop is made possible by a grant from the CAPSA fund of the IPA.  
   
• The LAISPS Affiliate Society held its third clinical meeting of the year on January 15. Pam Dirham, PhD presented on the topic "Sadomasochism and The Negative Therapeutic Response."
   
• The LAISPS Student Society will hold its third meeting of the year on March 1, 2015.

Upcoming LAISPS Extension Courses include: 

• "The Process of Interpretation: Art and Science" taught by Alan Spivak, PhD, FIPA, on 5 Fridays January 16-February 13, 2015.
   
• "How Romantic Love Can Change a Life" taught by Daniel Paul, PhD, FIPA, on 2 Saturdays January 10 & 17, 2015.
   
• "Children and Families of High-Conflict Divorce: Psychodynamic Perspectives and Attachment Issues" taught by Janet Woznika PhD, FIPA, on 2 Fridays, January 16 & 23, 2015.
   
• "A New Era Ahead With Alcohol and Drugs: Reconsidering Our Desires and Redefining Our Problems" taught by Margaret Ann Fetting, PhD, LCSW, on 2 Saturdays, January 24 & 31, 2015.
   
• "Medication and Its Meaning: Adjunctive Psychotropic Drugs in Psychoanalytic Treatment" taught by Jacqueline Lichtenstein, MD, FIPA on Saturday, February 7, 2015.
   
• "The Unconscious At Play: The Dream in Clinical Practice" taught by Sandra Garfield, PhD, FIPA, on 2 Saturdays, February 21 & 28, 2015.
   
• "Treating Primitive Mental States" taught by Daniel Paul, PhD, FIPA, on 2 Saturdays, March 7 & 14, 2015.
   
• "Theory and Technique of Working with Couples" taught by Vanessa Bell, PhD on 4 Thursdays, March 5-26, 2015.
   
• "Girls to Women, Boys to Men: Gender in Psychoanalytic Treatment" taught by Michael Diamond, PhD, FIPA on 4 Fridays, March 13 - April 3, 2015.
   
• "Victory in Defeat" taught by Alan Spivak, PhD, FIPA, on 3 Fridays, April 10 - 24, 2015.
   
• "The Fragmented Self: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Dissociation" taught by Jacqueline Lichtenstein, MD, FIPA and Roberta Mirsch, LCSW on 2 Saturdays May 2 & 9, 2015.
   
• "Psychopathology and Literature: The Internal World of Franz Kafka and The Desire for Nothing" taught by Valerie von Raffay, PhD, on 2 Saturdays May 16 & 23, 2015.
  
  For more information on all LAISPS events visit  www.LAISPS.org 
   

Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (NPSI)    

• Maxine Nelson, LICSW, FIPA became managing editor of Selected Facts: Newsletter of the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute as of the special fall/winter 2014 issue dedicated to a wrap-up of the tenth International Evolving British Object Relations Conference (October 17-19, 2014) and once yearly committee reports.  She takes over from founding managing editor, Caron Harrang. Senior candidate Anna Delacroix, LMHC continues as copyeditor. Candidates David Parnes, LICSW and Lynn Cunningham, LICSW continue as reporters.
   
• NPSI is pleased to report that a number of our members will be participating as discussants and in panel sessions at the 49th IPA Congress in Boston (July 2015). The following is a list of session titles with our members' names indicated in bold:
  
  Maxine Anderson, MD, FIPA has been invited to be a co-discussant, along with Giovanni Battista Foresti, of one of the keynote presentations at the Congress. The paper, by Altamirando Andrade, is titled, Recovering the Psychic Apparatus.
  
  Female Homosexuality: There and Then, Here and Now
  Mirta Berman Oelsner
  Judy K Eekhoff
  Adriana Prengler
  Samuel Zysman (Chair)
  
  On Reverie: Tools of the Trade in Evolving Process and Technique
  Dana Blue
  Caron Harrang
  Maxine Nelson
  David Jachim (Chair)
  
  Destructiveness: New Paths and New Tools for Understanding
  Cláudio Eizirik (Chair)
  Robert Oelsner
  Marilia Aisenstein-Averoff
  Clara Nemas de Urman
  
  Working with Transference and Countertransference: Special Learning Moments in our Psychoanalytic Journey
  Robert Oelsner (Chair)
  Franco Borgogno
  Theodore Jacobs
  Jorge Maldonado
  
  Second Thoughts on Meltzer's Explorations in Autism: The Clinical Importance of Psychic Dimensionality Forty Years Later
  Jeffrey Eaton (Chair)
  Didier Houzel
  Suzanne Maiello
  
  The Mind of the Supervisor: Impingements and Countertransferences
  Lena Ehrlich
  Margaret Ann Hanly
  Nancy Kulish (Chair)
  Marianne Robinson
  Arden Rothstein
   
• Karnac Books Ltd. has offered a publishing contract to EBOR 2014 Organizing Committee Co-Chairs Dana Blue, LICSW, FIPA and Caron Harrang, LICSW, FIPA. The book, titled "From Reverie to Interpretation: Transforming Thought into the Action of Psychoanalysis", will be a collection of the papers presented at this year's EBOR. Dana and Caron will serve as book editors along with chapter authors (in alphabetical order) Sabah Al-Dhaher, Carl Bagnini, Margaret Bergmann-Ness, Giuseppe Civitarese, Judy K. Eekhoff, Mark Gundry, Montana Katz, Gisela Klinkwort, Diletta La Torre, Donatella Lisciotto, Clara Nemas, Shierry Nicholsen, Robert Oelsner, Kerry Ragain, Shelley Rockwell, Barbara Sewell, and Carolyn Steinberg.     
   
• NPSI is proud to announce that DVDs of EBOR 2014 plenary presentations by Drs. Giuseppe Civitarese and Clara Nemas are now available for purchase from the NPSI website (see link below).
   
• Giuseppe Civitarese, MD, FIPA is a training and supervising analyst in the Italian Psychoanalytic Society. He lives and maintains a private practice in Pavia, Italy. He lectures in Italy and internationally and publishes widely on various subjects including the theory of the analytic field, Bion and the post-Bionian psychoanalysis, and psychoanalytic criticism. His EBOR paper titled Reverie and the Aesthetics of Psychoanalysis focused on reverie as compared with other aesthetic experiences and illustrates with numerous clinical vignettes how it can be utilized as a precise technical tool within a particular theoretical frame.
   
• Clara Nemas, MD, FIPA is a training and supervising analyst of the Buenos Aires Psychoanalytic Association. She maintains a private psychoanalytic practice in Buenos Aires and is the current Scientific Secretary of APdeBA. She is involved in teaching Kleinian and Neo-Kleinian theory as well as Infant Observation seminars in psychoanalytic societies throughout Argentina. She has authored numerous papers on ethics, psychoanalytic theory, and clinical technique in work with adolescent patients. Her EBOR paper titled Courage and Sincerity as a Base for Reverie and Interpretation examines the qualities necessary for psychoanalytic work and what she calls the "reverie function" of the analyst's personality or sense of self.
   
• The DVDs of each plenary presentation are exceptionally high quality and will be of interest to conference participants as well as others who were not able to attend EBOR. Click the link below for additional information and to order your copy of either or both presentations: http://npsi.us.com/society/evolving-british-object-relations-international-conference/

Psychoanalytic Center of California (PCC)   

• The 19th Annual Frances Tustin Memorial Trust Lecture took place at PCC on Saturday, November 8th.  Mark Howard, MD, FIPA of Sydney, Australia was the keynote speaker.   
   
• On Sunday, November 9, 2014, Mark Howard supervised candidate Honey Pietruszka, PsyD, in a Master Class for PCC candidates and members.       
   

• "The Value of Interpretation: Thoughts on a Controversy," was the topic of a conference featuring Jon Tabakin, PhD, FIPA, James Gooch, MD, PhD, FIPA and Albert Mason, MB, BS, PsyD, FIPA, on Saturday, January 17, 2015 from 9:00 pm to 1:00 pm at the PCC Conference Center.

   
• The 5th Annual Wilfred Bion Conference featuring Meg Harris Williams of London, Saturday, February 7, 2015, will be held from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm at the NCP Auditorium.       
   
• Meg Harris Williams will present a bonus paper and discussion on Sunday, February 8, 2015, from 9:00 am to noon at the NCP Auditorium.
   
• The PCC Open House will be held on Sunday, March 22, 2015, from 11:00 am to
  

  3:00 pm at the PCC Conference Center.
   
• The annual PCC Chamber Music Concert will be held on Sunday, May 17, 2015, from
  3:00 pm to 5:00 pm at the University Synagogue in Brentwood.
   
• The 26th Annual Melanie Klein Lecture featuring Anne Alvarez of London will be held Saturday, May 30, 2015, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Olympic Collection.

Vermont Psychoanalytic Study Group (VPSG) News   

• VPSG has no report this issue.

For more information on all VPSG events visit http://www.vermontpsychoanalytic.org