On April 25th,Ingrid Moeslin-Teising, MD, FIPA and her husband, Martin Teising, MD, FIPA, two of Germany's leading psychoanalytic scholars, presented onthe latest developments in European psychoanalysis.This event was graciously made possible by a grant from the IPA.

The morning began with Ingrid Moeslein-Teising's presentation of her paper entitled "From Edith Jacobson to Femininity in Psychoanalysis Today" followed by a panel discussion with three LAISPS members, Linda Sobleman, PhD, FIPA, Lori O'Brien, PhD, FIPA, and Karen Beard, PhD, FIPA.

Moeslin-Teising surveyed the history and current status of revisionary work on gender, beginning with the groundbreaking work of Edith Jacobson in Berlin. Her paper explored the dramatic changes in psychoanalytic models of women's psyches in recent decades, including the psychoanalytic understanding of gender and sexuality. Her informative and enlightening presentation was enriched by the three provocative papers that followed.

Linda Sobleman, opened the panel discussion by reviewing the work of Thomas Laquer, who has written about Western thinking regarding sexual anatomy and gender from the ancient Greeks to Freud. According to Linda, "The one sex model of sex and gender prevailed from classical antiquity until well into the 18th century. According to this model, females were viewed as an imperfect, lesser version of the male. Epistemological and political changes resulted in a shift to the two-sex model. Now, rather than being seen as a lesser version of the male, females were thought to be the opposite of males in every aspect of their bodies and characters. In the one sex model, the subordination of women by men was justified by the hierarchical ordering of their bodies. In the two-sex model, biological facts were used as justification for the status of women. Gender roles became institutionalized, and women were relegated to the private sphere as wives and mothers (with men as the head of the household), while men dominated the public sphere."

Her paper entitled "The History of Female Orgasm: The Domestication of Women" was well received by those in attendance. Linda discussed Freud's theory of psychosexual development as "shown to retain many elements of the one sex model. His creation of the myth of vaginal orgasm, however, flying as it does in the face of centuries of anatomical knowledge, is a testament to which the authority of nature can be rhetorically appropriated to legitimize the creations of culture."

Referencing Ingrid Moeslin-Teising's edited book, The Female Body: Inside and Outside Lori O' Brien, noted "there were numerous references to the female in myth throughout history." Lori, in summarizing her paper said, "I chose to focus on the myths of Medea and Medusa as formidable goddesses and their particular form of aggression as female revenge. I summarized the differences of female and male early development and how this pertained to expressions of aggression in general and how this evolves into revenge for females without the adequate early holding environment to develop enough ego strength to withstand frustration. My paper examines both historical and present day revenge scenarios and their triggers, as well as the revenge enacted in psychoanalytic treatment in both the transference and countertransference. I suggest that creating an adequate holding environment to foster opportunities for grieving of past betrayals and hurts both conscious and unconscious may encourage the development of a stronger ego and more ownership and responsibility for female patients."

"Aphrodite's Shadow: Dreaming a Common Skin" was then presented by Karen Beard. Her paper focused on the fact that in normal female development, sensual skin-to-skin relating establishes the infant's sense of being a person in a body who also shares a common skin with her mother. "The embodied experience of a common skin supports the girl's growing sense of her body as she integrates powerful sexual feelings in adolescence. When a mother is unable to enjoy a mutual sensual reciprocity, the baby's body becomes a thing to be managed." Her paper addressed the clinical challenge of working in these nonverbal areas where the patient's body constitutes the child's living history (expressed in physical symptoms, acting out and inhibitions) of the failure to share in a sensual maternal bond. According to Beard, "As analysts we use our own somatic countertransference to create, through reverie and dreaming, a common skin with these women."

All three discussants offered vivid clinical examples that enriched the audience's experience. A lively discussion followed and illuminated ideas for all of the participants.

After a lunch catered by UCLA, participants reconvened to hear Martin's paper, entitled, "The Contact Barrier." He discussed his theory of the contact barrier, drawing upon relevant clinical examples. The contact barrier, as he views it, represents the intersubjective space in which the analyst and the patient connect. The contact barrier simultaneously limits and allows for the exchange of affects, unconscious projections, linguistic exchanges, and transformational emotional experiences.

Carole Morgan, PhD, FIPA followed with a discussion of Martin Teising's paper, entitled "The Concept of the Contact Barrier from Freud to Bion to Matte Blanco: Discussion of the Contact Barrier by Martin Teising, PhD" which addressed Freud's, Bion's and Teising's uses of the metaphor, and then introduced the thinking of Matte Blanco, who discussed unconscious communication. Morgan drew comparisons among Freud's contact barrier, Bion's alpha and beta functions, and Matte Blanco's propositional function, all of which focus on countertransference. She, too, provided clinical examples.

The contact barrier, as Morgan discussed, was used by Freud in The Project and is a metaphor for unconscious communication, or countertransference, between analyst and analysand, or therapist and patient. "He likens unconscious communication to the transfer of information from one neuron to another, from one transmitting neuron/individual to a receiving neuron/individual. The contact barrier can facilitate (contact function) or prevent (barrier function) communication. Teising discussed Freud's original idea and shows how Bion, the only other writer who discussed the contact barrier, understands its function."

A dynamic discussion followed Carole's paper as many participant's shared questions and ideas related to Blanco's contributions to the concept of the contact barrier.

LAISPS hosted a dinner in honor of the Teisings later that evening where friendships deepened and personal and professional conversation was shared. It was a pleasure to share bread in an informal atmosphere with some of the most productive leaders in the German psychoanalytic community.

The program was a day to remember by all of the participants.

Ingrid Moeslin-Teising is the co-author of The Female Body; Inside and Outside, published by the IPA press. She is a member of the IPA'S Committee on Women and Psychoanalysis, a psychoanalyst of the German Psychoanalytic Association, a group analyst, a doctor to psychosomatic medicine working in private practice, and a senior consultant in an inpatient psychosomatic clinic (Klinik am Hainberg, Bad Hersfeld). She also teaches at the Alexander-Mitscherlich-Institute, Kassel.

Institute for Psychoanalytic Training & Research (IPTAR)   

• April 2015 Scientific Meeting (@ Karen Horney Center);
  Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Joseph A. Cancelmo, PsyD, FIPA presented "Contemplating Endings in Psychoanalysis: Some Thoughts on the Use of Reverie, Dreams and Emotional Communication as Transitional Experience Across the Analytic Process."
   

   

• Joseph A. Cancelmo, PsyD, FIPA, presented "Some Thoughts on the Complex Demands, Challenges and Rewards of Being a Doctor of Dentistry: The Dynamic Interplay of Multiple Roles in the Work System/Professional Practice."  March 2015 Dinner Speaker (@ Princeton Club); Dental Study Group of NYC. "A Taste of Systems-Psychodynamic Thought and Experience: Managing Ourselves in Our Multiple Roles in Turbulent Times."  April 2015 (with K.P. White, PhD and Dahlia Radley-Kingsley, MBA at IPTAR West) IPTAR - LJ Gould Center for Systems-Psychoanalytic Studies.
   

• Alexandra Catarruzza, MS, presented on May 3rd for the Massachusetts School of Psychology (MSPP): "Postpartum Depression: Psychodynamic Factors and Treatment Considerations." Her paper, "Difficulties in the Treatment of Depression During Pregnancy and Postpartum Depression," published last year in the Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy has been included in an online article collection featuring the most downloaded articles that were published in Routledge Behavioral Sciences Journals in 2014.  To view the top three most downloaded articles that were published and downloaded in 2014 in each Routledge Behavioral Sciences Journal see the link below. It will be freely available until June 30/15: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15289168.2014.880296#/toc/hicp20/13/2
   

• Monica Carsky, PhD, FIPA, taught a continuous case conference at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR ) on "Transference and Countertransference with Borderline Patients " and a course at the New York University (NYU) Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, on "An Object Relations Theory Approach to Technical Challenges," which covered aspects of Kernberg's Transference Focused Psychotherapy, an evidence based psychoanalytic psychotherapy  (TFP; Kernberg, O.F., Yeomans, F.E., Clarkin, J.F., Levy, K.N. 2008), Transference Focused
  Psychotherapy: Overview and Update. (Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 89:601-620). In December 2014-Feb 2015 she also taught 3 meetings of a course on supervision for The Center for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy of New Jersey, on "Ethics, Legal and Professional Issues; Transference and Countertransference; Resistance to Supervision and Parallel Process." 

   
• Steven Ellman, PhD, FIPA, was the discussant of Symposium 2015, entitled "Mind, Brain and Body" presented at Oklahoma City (Div 39 group). He also spoke at Mount Siani (NY) on Mind, Brain and Body. He interviewed George Makari at the New School on Revolution In Mind and he spoke on a Panel of the 25th anniversary of IPSS in NYC. Stevens article Traversing Narcissistic Pathways: From Freud to Present Times was published in 2014 by Psychoanal. Inq., 34:394-407.
   
• Christine Fewell,PhD, FIPA, published a chapter titled"Children of Parents Who Abuse Alcohol and Other Drugs" (pp. 138-153), co-edited with Shulamith Lala Ashenberg Strausser, in Parental Psychiatric Disorders: Distressed Parents and Their Families (2015).  Reupert, A, Mayberry, D. Nicholson, J., Gopfert, M, and Seeman, M.V.
  (Eds). Cambridge University Press: United Kingdom. She conducted: Continuing Education Workshop for NYC Chapter NASW- March 15, 2015: "Fostering Attachment Through Mentalization and Reflective Functioning: Application of Cutting-Edge Concepts in Clinical Practice with Children and Their Parents."
   
• Susan Finkelstein, CSW presented "Schizoid Modes in Narcissistic and Borderline States: Levels of Disturbance in the Capacity to Symbolize and Establishing a Space-Time Continuum" in our third year at the American Psychoanalytic Association (ApssA) January meetings.
  Susan Finkelstein co-chaired this Discussion Group #12 with Nasir Ilahi. In May, Susan Finkelstein, in her role as Director of Understanding Primitive Mental States, invited and moderated a discussion with Chris Mawson, Fellow, The British Psychoanalytical Institute of his paper, "Interpretation: Freud's Specific or Relevant Action, and Klein's Point of Urgency." This was Mawson's first speaking engagement in the USA. Mawson is the editor of the compendium of Bion's writing called: The Complete Works of Wilfred R. Bion and is the editor of Bion Today. In May, Susan Finkelstein was awarded the Senior Plumstock Prize by the Contemporary Freudian Society for an original psychoanalytic article. This year, Susan Finkelstein and David Bell, MD, Fellow, British Psychoanalytical Society and Institute, London, co-taught training analysts and candidates in a course entitled "The Internal World and Its Objects, A Theoretical and Clinical Seminar" via in person and telephone conferencing abroad, in New York City and Washington DC.
   
• Erwin Flaxman, PhD, FIPA presented a paper on, "Psychoanalysis and the Endings of Shakespeare's Plays" at New Yor Psychoanalytic Institute on March 3, 2015.
   
• Judy Ann Kaplan, LCSW, FIPA received a Lifetime Achievement Award in appreciation for her outstanding contributions to social work and psychoanalysis at the American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work (AAPCSW) Conference held in March 2015 in Durham, North Carolina.
   
• Brian Kloppenberg, FIPA will be reading his paper entitled, "Psychoanalysis, Sexual Difference and Transgender: Questions and Controversies" at the International Psychoanalytic (IPA) Congress on Friday July 24th at 5:45.
   
• Danielle Knafo, PhD, FIPA was awarded the Barbro Sandin Award for leadership in the humane treatment of psychosis, and a New York University (NYU) Scholar's Grant for Soul and Silicone: A Documentary Film About How Dolls Become Real. She published: D. Knafo, R. Keisner & S. Fiammenghi, Eds. 2015. Stories of Clinical Psychologists in Training: Personal Transformation and Professional Development. Lanham, MD: Rowman-Littlefield.
   
• Naama Kushnir Barash, PhD, FIPA presented an analytic case at the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis (NPAP) on February 8th, 2015. The purpose of the presentation was to demonstrate how the early trauma came alive in the transference. She included examples of the way she worked with projective identification of internal bad objects.
   
• Janice Lieberman, PhD, FIPA presented on a Panel at NYU Medical Center (PANY and IPE) on Almodovar's film "The Skin I Live In," February 8th.  She contributed to the Psychoanalytic Museum (online) with a piece called "The Skin You Live In." She also taught a 15-week course on The Unconscious at the Metropolitan Institute for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Gallery Talks at the new Whitney Museum of American Art, May 2015.
   
•  IPA Boston: Two panels accepted
  1. Changing World: Psychoanalysts Reflect on Body and Skin Modification (with Isaac Tylim, Rosemary Balsam, Uta Karaoglan)
  Jared Russell, PhD, FIPA, will act as Chair and do a powerpoint presentation of art on this topic.
  2. Searching for Love and Relationships in a Digital World (with Glen Gabbard. Vincenzo Bonaminio and Henry Friedman as Chair)
   
• Batya R. Monder, MSW, BCD, completed teaching an Elective on Aging and Treating the Older Patient at the CFS. There were three meetings in March. The elective had not been offered before and was well received..
   
• Jared Russell, PhD, FIPA, published, "There is No Such Thing as Transference" in Undecidable Unconscious: A Journal of Deconstruction and Psychoanalysis (University of Nebraska Press). On January 24th he presented a case under the title "Chemistry" at the Eighth Annual Clinical Study Day of Lacanian Compass in Miami, FL. On February 25th he presented, "The Affirmation of Chance and the Cultivation of Care" as part of the panel, The Future of Education in the Humanities at Purchase College (SUNY).
   
• Ellen Sinkman, LCSW, FIPA's book The Psychology of Beauty: Creation of a Beautiful Self was reviewed in Feb., 2015, by the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. The book was published in Korean in March, 2015.
   
• 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.
   
• Matthew von Unwerth served as moderator at the Solange Skinner lecture in Boston. In December 2014, he received a grant for $20,000 from Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing (PEP) to make a film about Winnicott's presentation of "The Use of the Object" at The New York Psychoanalytic Society in 1969.
  
  For more information on all IPTAR events visit www.iptar.org.
   

Los Angeles Institute & Society for Psychoanalytic Study (LAISPS)

• President, Lori O'Brien announced that LAISPS has completed their site visit and received provisional acceptance by the ACPE.
   
• The Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies (LAISPS) community congratulates Leslie Howard, MFT and Marc Sanders, PhD upon completion of all requirements for full membership in LAISPS.
   
• January 10, 2015 Sergio Eduardo Nick, MD presented his very interesting paper, "On the Approach of Sexuality in the Psychoanalytic Clinic." Alan Spivak, PhD, FIPA was the discussant. 
   
• February 2015, Michael Diamond, PhD, FIPA published a paper entitled "The Elusiveness of Masculinity: Primordial Vulnerability, Lack, and the Challenges of Male Development" in Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 2015, 84:47-102.
   
• April 24, 2015 at the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 39 meeting in San Francisco, Beth Kalish, PhD, FIPA was the discussant of a paper by Nancy Goldov, PsyD entitled "Moving the Metaphor of Dance: Bringing Creative Embodiment to Life."
   
• May 2, 2015 as part of the Vista del Mar/Reiss Davis Saturday Series, Beth Kalish, PhD, FIPA presented a paper entitled "Movement Thinking and Therapeutic Action in Psychoanalysis II." The paper was drawn from the chapter she wrote on this topic in Diamond, M.J, PhD, FIPA and Christian, C., PhD, FIPA (2011) eds. The Second Century of Psychoanalysis, published by Karnac.
   
• In May 2015, Michael Diamond, PhD, FIPA was invited to The Suffolk Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, on Long Island, New York, for a one day workshop presentation on "Fatherhood: What's Dad Got to Do with It? Real Father, Symbolic Father, and Becoming A Father."
   
• Senior candidate, Preston Lear, PsyD, will present his paper "The Icarus Complex and the Addiction to Near-Death" to IPSO at the IPA conference in Boston.
   
• Peter Wolson, PhD, FIPA will be presenting a paper at the July 49th Congress of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) Congress in Boston entitled "Psychoanalysis Enters the Political/Cultural Fray Through Op-Ed Pieces And On-line Blogs."
   
• Alan Spivak, PhD, FIPA will be presenting a paper at the July 49th Congress of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) Congress in Boston entitled "The Secret Erotic Transference".
   
• Michael Diamond, PhD, FIPA is the invited discussant for the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) Congress Plenary Address entitled "Psychoanalysis in Times of Technoculture: Some Reflections on the Fate of the Body in Virtual Space" presented by Alesandra Lemma, MA, Phil, DClin, at the July 49th Congress in Boston.
   
• Michael Diamond, PhD, FIPA is the invited discussant, with Fred Busch, PhD, Jay Greenberg PhD, and Ellen Sparer, PhD for a panel entitled "Working Through: A Clinical Concept in Transition" at the July 49th Congress of the International Psychoanalytic Association  (IPA) Congress in Boston. 
  
  For more information on all LAISPS events visitwww.LAISPS.org 
   

Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (NPSI)    

• In 2013 the NPSI Institute began the lengthy process of applying for national accreditation through the Accreditation Council for Psychoanalytic Education (ACPE). The site visit was conducted on April 23-25, 2015.
  
  The committee consisting of Doug Ingram, MD, Phil Lebovitz, MD (Chair), and Miriam Pierce, LCSW met with the Education Committee and each of its subcommittees (Admissions, Curriculum/Faculty Development, Progression, and Training Analysts), plus Ethics, the candidate cohort, and the Board of Directors. For the site visitors and all who participated, it was an intensive and meaningful three days.
   
  At the summary meeting on April 25, Phil Lebovitz gave a PowerPoint presentation on the history of ACPE and how it developed in response to federal legislation (Higher Education Act of 1965) as part of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society domestic agenda. The law was intended to strengthen educational resources of colleges and universities and establish low-interest loans. Since 2001 when ACPE was founded, psychoanalytic institutes in the United States have become increasingly interested in achieving parity with colleagues in other academic and health care disciplines. Phil's comments provided historical perspective for the social/political forces that sparked the formation of ACPE and helped explain why psychoanalytic institutes throughout the United States are increasingly motivated to seek accreditation. Accreditation is part of assuring the professional public that we meet and will maintain the highest standards for excellence in our psychoanalytic training at NPSI. Moreover, accreditation of a sufficient number of psychoanalytic institutes will also allow ACPE to apply to the Department of Education for low-interest student loans which will then become available to accredited institutes.
  
  NPSI will receive a formal written report from the ACPE Site Visit Committee within 4-6 weeks. That report will detail the Institute's strengths and areas for improvement summarized in the discussion as well as the committee's recommendation for full or provisional accreditation. Full accreditation can be offered for up to 7 years, at which time we would need to participate in another site visit to maintain our accreditation. If accreditation is provisional, we will have time to complete additional work in order to qualify for full accreditation. Accreditation can also be deferred or denied if an institute is evaluated to be significantly below standards, but we were told this is not a concern for NPSI. Stay tuned for the outcome of the accreditation process in the fall issue of the News Brief.
   
• Dana Blue, LICSW, FIPA qualified to become a training and supervisinganalyst in April 2015. Congratulations Dana!
   
• NPSI Community Member Daniel Benveniste, PhD has just published a new book titled, The Interwoven Lives of Sigmund, Anna and W. Ernest Freud. It is a biography of three members of the Freud family in which the central thread is the life and work of W. Ernest Freud. To read more about the book or to purchase your copy go to: http://internationalpsychoanalysis.net/2015/01/24/new-from-ipbooks-the-interwoven-lives-of-sigmund-anna-and-w-ernest-freud-by-daniel-benveniste/
   
• Caron Harrang, LICSW, FIPA was an invited presenter at Forum 2015: An Annual Conference on Theory and Practice sponsored by Northwest Alliance for Psychoanalytic Study and Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute on April 11, 2015. Caron represented Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and a British Object Relations perspective at a lunchtime plenary session titled, "The Role of Theory in Shaping How One Listens and Works in the Clinical Hour." The panel responded to the question: How does the analyst's training and theoretical orientation influence how they listen and what they say when they speak in the clinical hour? Four analysts trained in different Seattle psychoanalytic institutes shared their responses to a live reading of clinical material from an analytic case submitted anonymously. Other panelists included Michael Allison, moderator; Kenneth Kimmel, LMFT, LMHC; Sue Radant, PhD, FIPA; and Karen Weisbard, PsyD. The theoretical perspectives represented were British Object Relations (Harrang), Jungian (Kimmel), Self Psychology (Radant), and Relational (Weisbard).
   
• NPSI training analyst Robert Oelsner, MD, FIPA has a chapter in the new publication edited by Meg Harris Williams titled, "Teaching Meltzer: Modes and Approaches" Click on the following link for more about this book: http://www.karnacbooks.com/product/teaching-meltzer-modes-and-approaches/35119/
   
• NPSI is pleased to report that over half of our full members and many of our candidates will be giving individual and panel presentations at the 49th IPA/23rd IPSO Congress at in Boston (July 2015). The following is a list of session titles with NPSI members' and candidates' names indicated in bold.
  
  Keynote Presentation: Recovering the Psychic Apparatus
  Presenter: Altamirando Andrade
  Discussant: Maxine Anderson, MD, FIPA
  Discussant: Giovanni Battista Foresti
  
  Pre-Congress Workshop: Unconscious Theories in the Mind of the Analyst at Work
  Clinical Material Presenter: Mirta Berman Oelsner, LMHC, FIPA
  
  "The Return of the Negative Object and the Function of Reverie in Restoring Hope"
  David Jachim, PhD, FIPA
  
  "The French and the Sacred Cow: Free Association Reconsidered Across Psychoanalytic Cultures"
  Shierry Nicholsen, PhD, FIPA
  
  "On Growth, a Gift and Goodbyes: Initial Thoughts on a Termination"
  David Parnes, LICSW (candidate)
  
  Female Homosexuality: There and Then, Here and Now
  Mirta Berman Oelsner, LMHC, FIPA
  Judy K Eekhoff, PhD, FIPA
  Adriana Prengler, LMHC, FIPA
  Samuel Zysman (Chair)
  
  On Reverie: Tools of the Trade in Evolving Process and Technique
  Dana Blue, LICSW, FIPA
  Caron Harrang, LICSW, FIPA
  Maxine Nelson, LICSW, FIPA
  David Jachim, PhD, FIPA (Chair)
  
  "Tools to Think and Work with Children Who Cannot Think"
  Robert Oelsner, MD, FIPA and Carolyn Steinberg, MD, FRPCP (candidate)
  
  "Supervision for IPSO Candidates and Discussion of the Theoretical Function of Supervision"  
  Clinical Presenter: Davide Rosso (Milan)
  Discussant: Robert Oelsner, MD, FIPA
  
  Destructiveness: New Paths and New Tools for Understanding
  Cláudio Eizirik (Chair)
  Robert Oelsner, MD, FIPA
  Marilia Aisenstein-Averoff
  Clara Nemas de Urman
  
  Working with Transference and Countertransference: Special Learning Moments in our Psychoanalytic Journey
  Robert Oelsner, MD, FIPA (Chair)
  Franco Borgogno
  Theodore Jacobs
  Jorge Maldonado
  
  "Imagery, Imagination and Intuition: Experiential Learning through Infant Observation"
  Barbara Sewell (Chair)
  Margaret Bergmann-Ness (candidate)
  Judy K Eekhoff, PhD, FIPA
  Kerry Ragain, PhD
  Carolyn Steinberg, MD, FRPCP (candidate)
   
• High quality DVDs of EBOR 2014 plenary presentations by Drs. Giuseppe Civitarese and Clara Nemas are still available as a gift with a tax-deductible donation to NPSI (see link below). 
  
  

  Escape Within by Sabah Al Dhaher

  
  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 entitled "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 the Asociaion Psicoanalitica de Buenos Aires (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 her work with adolescent patients. Her EBOR paper entitled "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 to make a tax-deductible donation and receive either or both DVDs as your gift: http://npsi.us.com/society/evolving-british-object-relations-international-conference/
  
  For more information on all NPSI events visit www.npsi.us.com.

Psychoanalytic Center of California (PCC)   

• The Psychoanalytic Center of California (PCC) Open House was held on Sunday, March 22, 2015 at the PCC Conference Center. It included a presentation by Judith Mitrani, PhD, FIPA, entitled "Psychoanalysis: Not Just A Luxury."   
   
• A book launch for Judith Mitrani, PhD, FIPA, and Theodore Mitrani, PhD, FIPA, was held on May 5th, at PCC. They discussed their newly published book, Frances Tustin Today. The authors were also available for book signing.       
   

• PCC hosted its annual chamber music concert on May 17, 2015. It featured Christian Steiner, Ming Tsu, Lorenz Gamma and PCC's own Jennifer Langham, PhD, FIPA, playing the music of Schubert, Shostakovich, and Dvorak. It was an afternoon to remember.  

   
• The 26th annual Melanie Klein Conference was held on May 30th, 2015 at The
  Olympic Collection. Keynote speaker, Ann Alvarez, PhD, MACP, presented her paper, "The Thinking Heart: Three Levels of Psychopathology and Analytic Work with Disturbed Patients."  
   
• On Sunday, May 31st, Ann Alvarez, PhD, MACP supervised a Master Class for Members, Candidates and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Students.
   
• On June 7th, 2015 the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program will hold a
  certificate granting ceremony for first and second year students. Six first year students participated from the Pasadena campus and eight from West Los Angeles. In addition, seven students completed the second year program.
  
  For more information on all PCC events visitwww.psycc.org.

Vermont Psychoanalytic Study Group (VPSG) News   

• VPSG has no report this issue.
  
  For more information on all VPSG events visit http://www.vermontpsychoanalytic.org