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Selected Facts
Newsletter of the Northwestern Psychoanalytic
Society and Institute
Winter 2013-14
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Welcome to the winter issue of Selected Facts: Newsletter of the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. As you will see, we are changing the format of the newsletter beginning with this issue to exclude committee reports and focus on special events, scientific meetings, and the activities of our very active candidate, analyst, and community members. Committee reports will now be included once yearly in the fall issue published in October following the NPSI Annual Meeting.
As usual, in this issue we have Letters from the President and Director of Training summarizing the activities of the organization and of our psychoanalytic training institute. Also included are three memorial essays by Maxine Anderson, Elie Debanne, and Judy K Eekhoff on the late Sid Perzow who was a founding member of NPSI (then NPS).
We also offer an update on the much-anticipated EBOR 2014 conference, including a review by Shierry Nicholsen of a recent meeting facilitated by Marianne Robinson discussing a paper by Rudi Vermote on the conference theme "From Reverie to Interpretation."
Society News includes a special report on a recent workshop on teaching psychoanalysis that was co-sponsored by our organization and the Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. As well, we include information on upcoming Scientific Meetings featuring original papers by our analyst members. And last, but not least, we offer brief accounts of the professional activities and accomplishments of some of our candidate and analyst members in Candidate News and Members in Action.
The editors wish to thank our candidate reporters, Lynn Cunningham and David Parnes for their work. We would also like to expand our reporting to cover the professional activities of our growing number of community members. If you are a Community Member (or would like to become one) interested in joining the staff, we would like to hear from you. Contact information for editors and reporters is available at the bottom of this and every newsletter.
Caron Harrang, LICSW FIPA
Managing Editor
Maxine Nelson, LICSW FIPA
Assistant Managing Editor
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NPSI Board of Directors
Officers
President: David Jachim
President-Elect: Caron Harrang
Recording Secretary: Naoko Oguchi
Treasurer: Marianne Robinson
Directors
Maxine Anderson
Dana Blue
Julie Hendrickson (candidate representative)
Adriana Prengler
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.
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Letter from the President
As I write this letter, my thoughts drift to "Punxsutawney Phil," the groundhog who comes out of his burrow on February 2 (Groundhog Day) and tells us whether there will be an early spring or six more weeks of winter. Legend has it that if it is cloudy and Phil does not see his shadow, we can soon expect brighter days. If it is sunny and he sees his shadow, we are in for more dark times.
Here at NPSI, we have been happily working under cloudy skies this winter with much to be grateful for and to look forward to. Our academic year is in full swing, with three new candidates in the psychoanalytic training program and senior candidate, Maxine Nelson, graduating in February and taking up the full mantle of "psychoanalyst." Our ACPE (Accreditation Council for Psychoanalytic Education) committee has finished the lion's share of work on completing our application for accreditation. We look forward to the near future when our application to ACPE is accepted and we are able to begin the site visit process.
Our Board of Directors has continued to confidently navigate both our Society and Institute through its many changes, strengthened by the addition of our newest director, Adriana Prengler. Adriana, who also recently joined our ranks as a full member and training analyst, brings tremendous energy and a wealth of experience from her many years as a member of the IPA Board of Representatives. We also welcome senior candidate Julie Hendrickson who replaces Maxine Nelson as candidate representative to the Board.
In October, we will celebrate the 10th International Evolving British Object Relations (EBOR) Conference, an event that is sure to be invigorating and nourishing. Our EBOR committee has successfully secured a beautiful conference venue in Seattle and engaged an exciting panel of distinguished presenters from as far as Argentina and Italy. We have been pleased with the success of our EBOR pre-conference "reverie" seminars as well as our continuing monthly scientific meetings. These gatherings, which continue through May, have been well attended and characterized by robust participation on subjects ranging from the last IPA Congress in Prague to the concept of Bion's obstructive object. (A schedule of these events is posted on our website at www.npsi.us.com.)
So you can see that NPSI continues to be on the move. Please visit our website to see just how we are moving. If you have suggestions, questions or would like to join us in our movement, please contact me at dpjachim@comcast.net. I truly hope that this Groundhog Day finds you safe, healthy and hopeful. Regardless, take heart, as the near forecast is for cloudy conditions.
David Jachim, PhD FIPA
President, Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute
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Letter from the Director of Training
 As we make our way through winter term, we in the Institute feel the vigor of our student selves, not only as a new class of psychoanalytic candidates who bring their energy and curiosity to every seminar or as the advanced candidates who continue to pursue their training with passion and persistence, but also as faculty who continue our journeys as life-long learners who benefit from our own readings and studies and from the offerings we give and receive from one another. Underscoring this sense of ongoing learning was the November 9, 2013 workshop with Deborah Cabaniss that NPSI co-sponsored with SPSI. Cabaniss engaged faculty and candidates from both institutes in a hands-on seminar that demonstrated the teaching and learning of psychoanalytic principles in a humorous, enlivening, and engaging manner that was impressive to all. One of the take-away points of the seminar was the necessity of active engagement on the parts of both teachers and learners, with stress on the importance of establishing learning objectives, creating learning activities, and being able to measure the results of our efforts. Members of SPSI and NPSI collaborated together over the course of the day in learning exercises and sharing notes for enhancing the curricula of our respective institutes. At the end of the day, Deborah commented that she could not tell who belonged to which institute, so well had we worked together and learned from one another-a good sign, she felt, for ongoing mutual endeavors. A report of the Cabaniss seminar is included in this newsletter, with a link to the comprehensive summary written by two of its participants, Barb Sewell from NPSI and Darren Thompson from SPSI. It is with pleasure that I announce the February 12 graduation of senior candidate Maxine Nelson from the NPSI psychoanalytic training program. We are grateful for Maxine's continuing contributions to the NPSI Board of Directors, as a member of the Curriculum Committee, and as Assistant Managing Editor of this newsletter. Finally, we are finalizing our application for accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Psychoanalytic Education (ACPE). Engaging this process has helped the Institute develop its policies and procedures and become sturdy in other ways that will serve our students and faculty as well as provide a substantial psychoanalytic home for members of our larger community. I offer this snapshot of some of the things that are happening at NPSI. Overall our efforts to teach, to learn and to strengthen our organization continue. Please feel free to contact me at maxinekander@aol.com with any questions regarding the Institute or psychoanalytic training. Maxine Anderson, MD FIPA Director of Training, Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute |
Special Report
Memorial Essays on
Founding Member Sid Perzow
Sid Perzow and NPSI
By Maxine Anderson, MD FIPA
Sid Perzow was a longtime friend and ally of NPSI. He was one of eight founding members during NPSI's first incarnation as NPSSG, our early study group sponsored by the International Psychoanalytical Association between 1999 and 2004. He and Elie Debbane, psychoanalysts from Vancouver, BC, helped give the study group the support it needed during those early years, and in return some of us in Seattle helped the Western Branch of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society to gain its footing in Vancouver.
I remember Sid for his interesting ideas, his firm dedication to psychoanalysis, and his steadfastness as a friend to our group during difficult times. When NPSSG became NPS, a provisional and later component society of the IPA, he was named a training and supervising analyst and served as a supervisor for several of our candidates for many years. On several occasions he came to Seattle to teach or participate in weekend seminars. In more recent years, he had been unable to participate as actively as he once had, and when he retired, became a member emeritus. Although Sid is no longer with us now, we will always be grateful for his many contributions.
Many of us will remember Sid with great fondness. While penning this brief note, I am reminded of the time several years ago when he, Elie and I were finishing up a long after-lunch walk in the woods during a weekend I was visiting their growing institute in Vancouver. Sid had wondered aloud, "Why is it that the trip back is always so much shorter then the trip out?", a question many of us seem to ponder at some time. Answering his own question he then said, "Because the trip back is not filled with the unknown as was the outward journey. It is not filled with as much mystery and so goes by without as much fantasy or anticipation. We are not as involved in the return journey." I have always remembered that response and felt informed by it. It captures the sense of exploration and inquiry that for me characterized Sid. In my mind's eye, I can envision him even now pondering the ongoing mystery in his continuing outward journey.
Maxine Anderson, MD, FIPA is a founding member of NPSI and current Director of Training.
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A Farewell to Sid
By Elie Debbane, MD FIPA
I was not prepared and that is how it is with death. Like many others, I knew that Sid was about to die, but when it happened on Monday, November 18, 2013, I was surprised to realize that "I was not prepared." The turmoil in which I found myself was profound, real and present.
Memories reemerged from their dormant state. Many of the conversations I had had with Sid revisited me. I remembered talking with him about Freud's paper on mourning and how he'd interjected in his inimitable way, cutting through to the heart of the matter, and said, "Mourning cannot begin until you accept that it has happened." This stark reality is present now for each of us who knew him, or who came in contact with him. Each of us is left to attend to this reality. It has happened. From now on, whatever happens to Sid is our personal and individual responsibility. And as I say these words I realize, with some sad humor, that I am speaking in the way Sid might have spoken.
I am mindful of Sid's presence beside me, prompting my wish to respect his sensitivity. I remember a particular occasion where he felt I had somewhat embellished a story and then, being the sensitive person he was, Sid invited me to dinner.
Sid belonged to that category of men who do not derive much out of social conversation, idle chitchat, or gossip. He reminded me of Clifford Scott, whom he knew, and I believe with whom he consulted from time to time. I was never able to have a "social" conversation with Scott. Instead, like with Sid, I always felt that I had to engage him on some meaningful topic. I am told that it was the same with Bion. I assume that many of you can recall the experience of awkwardness at meeting Sid or trying to start a conversation with him. But once a conversation was started, Sid was all there: interested, curious and inquiring. What had begun as an experience of awkwardness could now be felt as challenging, with Sid leaving you to grapple with his associations to what you had said, always slightly ahead of where you believed your last thought had put you. Then, with his shy reserved smile, Sid would invite you to join him just when you began to think that you would really like to take a break.
Sid was a generous man who was glad to let you in on his latest discovery, or where he was on his most recent treasure hunt. I vividly recall his enthrallment with Lacan's notion of jouissance. Talking to me excitedly about it, he simply assumed that I would join him in his enthrallment. It was an enchanting conversation, which filled me with joy, and I felt privileged to be included in his excitement. Sid took pleasure seriously. For him, it was an expression of life and of his passion for life. Sid was an intensely passionate man, you could sense it behind his customary reserve. It animated his whole being. Sid's passion might frighten you, but it did not frighten him. And, as Sid's friend, you were invited to join in. Holding on to one's passion requires a great deal of courage. The awareness of one's inner fire requires unrelenting dedication and faithful love. It is what is real in life. Sid was relentlessly in search of what was real, so much so that he never lost sight of it. Those of us who came in contact with Sid could feel the heat of his passion; and if we could tolerate it, we would be enlivened by it. He was unequivocal about his search for truth. He had an uncanny capacity to see through and beyond and to make you realize that you were wearing "The Emperor's New Clothes." In a recent conversation with his wife, Elaine, for whom I have the most profound admiration, I shared my sense that Sid had the capacity to hit the bull's eye in his search for the truth. A bright smile shone through her tears, indicating to me that she agreed.
Sid Perzow believed that psychoanalysis was about life and about the courage to commit oneself to life; to appreciate both its fragility and its strength, its joys and its pains, and to live with and through pain full of life. Sid had a long experience with pain and the fragility of life, and he accepted it unflinchingly. He was not one to complain. You could see him tired and weakened, dealing with a succession of ailments over the years, but nothing seemed to weaken his resolve. He was also an extremely sensitive man of exquisite tenderness, which some of us were privileged to receive. Now we are left with these private and tender memories to cherish. I can imagine Sid looking at me with his wry smile, making me wonder, am I saying too much? Sid was an intensely private man. Although he had his gregarious moments, Sid jealously guarded his privacy, which he shared with his family: Elaine, Jennifer, Cory, Gillian and last but not least, Matty. They were the center of his world, his source of love and support.
I do not wish to take time to summarize Sid's extensive professional contributions that began in London and continued creatively for many years in Montreal. We were contemporaries who knew each other and knew each other's work. Sid's passion and creativity were later pursued in Vancouver and then in Seattle where, beginning in 1995, he participated in the founding of NPSI, a society that has taken 20 years to build and is still in its early days. I believe that it would be fitting to devote a day to reflect on the seeds of generative thoughts he has left us to grow, but for now, I want to say that because of Sid's generous efforts, we in this analytic community are able to enjoy the Society and Institute we have today. His contribution is immense, through lectures, presentations and talks, both public and personal, and even more so in what he offered to his analysands, supervisees, patients, colleagues and friends. Many seeds have been planted, may we grow them with energy and love.
Sid reminds us that it has happened. The loss has occurred and thus, our mourning can begin. And I would add, in conversation with Sid and with you, mourning is also a time when we repair our internal objects. They have been inevitably damaged by the wear and tear of life, its tensions and its conflicts. May we all be rejuvenated by the memory of Sid's passion, his generosity, and his unflinching commitment to the psychoanalytic ethos in its fundamental search for truth and the life that radiates from it. I wish us all a long life and may Sid rest in peace, he deserves it.
Eli Debbane, MD FIPA is a training and supervising analyst at the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society, Western Branch and at Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute.
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Memories of Sid
By Judy K Eekhoff, PhD FIPA
Sid Perzow was my supervisor for my third control case from 1999 to 2002. Later, he supervised me on other cases. Coming as we did from two very different analytic traditions with theoretical and technical differences, we continuously struggled to understand each other and also to understand the patients I was analyzing. We struggled to find language to understand experiences that were mostly outside of language. In doing so, we began to know each other. That struggle to communicate our experiences proved worthwhile as a valuable stimulus for my learning about my patient and, also, about myself. During the process, I came to know and value Sid and to consider him a friend.
That is not to say that our work together was easy for me. In truth, it was very difficult and I found it disconcerting and disorganizing. After each session, I would feel confused, disoriented and disturbed. When I met again with my control case, a very disturbed and disturbing man, I found myself unable to fall back on an intellectual memory of my supervision with Sid, while questioning my own previous theoretical thoughts about the patient. My confusion was invaluable, forcing me to be emotionally in touch with myself and with my patient, to be present in the moment and to speak from a formerly unknown depth within me. Both my patient and my supervisor "demanded" that I show up as myself speaking my reality.
When I returned to Sid the following week and talked about my confusion, he listened carefully. He questioned himself. He questioned me, never with judgment but out of genuine curiosity. We would sometimes carefully go over every word of my process notes. Sometimes we would just sit and talk. Whatever we did, I felt touched by Sid, for his genuine interest in me and my work and his willingness to have me question him. I am, and expect to continue to be, grateful to him.
I miss Sid. He continued to challenge and support me after his supervision of my clinical work ended. He would share his writing with me and gave me feedback on mine. Often, he understood what I was trying to write and would give me a word or a phrase that clarified it for me. More importantly, I felt that Sid always showed up, even when I knew he did not feel well. He encouraged me to do the same. I miss him, and will continue to miss him, even as I feel his presence still.
Judy K Eekhoff, PhD FIPA is a training analyst and a Past-President of Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute.
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International News
EBOR 2014 Conference Update 
Plans continue for the NPSI sponsored tenth International Evolving British Object Relations Conference this fall at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Seattle over the weekend of October 17-19, 2014.
Two pre-conference events are currently taking place in Seattle. The first is a series of monthly meetings on the conference theme of "reverie" as described in a review (below) of one of these meetings by Shierry Nicholsen, PhD FIPA. For a complete listing of meetings click on Pre-Conference Reveries.
The second pre-conference event involves a panel presentation on the topic of reverie by Dana Blue, LICSW FIPA, Caron Harrang, LICSW FIPA, and Maxine Nelson, LICSW FIPA at the Northwest Alliance for Psychoanalytic Study Annual Forum Conference on Saturday, April 12, 2014 at Shoreline Community College in Seattle. The panel, moderated by David Jachim, PhD FIPA, will define reverie and how it is cultivated in clinical practice; discuss phenomena that threaten reverie and show how, once lost, it is restored; and foster an experience of reverie, drawing on work of visual artist and psychotherapist Kamila Zenatá.
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Bion, "O" and the Question of Psychic Change:
A Report on the Second Pre-EBOR Reverie
By Shierry Nicholsen, PhD FIPA
In anticipation of the Evolving British Object Relations conference "From Reverie to Interpretation" taking place next October, NPSI is sponsoring a series of six pre-conference meetings designed to provide opportunities for reverie about reverie. Marianne Robinson led the second of these meetings on January 22. Its focus was on Bion's late writings, centering on his notion of "O," the unknown, thought by some to be a slippage into wild thinking and by others to be an important breakthrough into the question of psychic change.
A set of papers in the "Psychoanalytic Controversies" section of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis (IJP 92:5, 2011) written by Belgian analyst Rudi Vermote and London Kleinian David Taylor provided the explicit framework for our discussion. Marianne began the meeting with a definition of reverie as "a state of mind which is open to the reception of any objects from the loved object." She went on to summarize key points from the papers and provided a list of questions to seed our thinking and conversation. Here I give a far briefer summary of the points that helped to focus our discussion.
Click here to read the full report: Second Pre-Conference Reverie Report
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NPSI Society News
Spring 2014 Scientific Meetings
NPSI Scientific Meetings are a regular opportunity for faculty, candidates, community members, and interested psychotherapists from the Seattle mental health community to gather to hear and discuss topics relevant to clinical practice by practicing psychoanalysts.
The following are a list of Scientific Meetings for the remainder of the 2013-14 academic year. Every meeting this year features an original paper presented by a NPSI member or guest analyst. We are fortunate to have a variety of compelling topics and presenters. Click here to see the full events calendar on the NPSI website: http://npsi.us.com/society/scientific-meetings/
March 19, 2014
Shierry Nicholson, PhD FIPA
"Enactment, The Actual, and the Question of Symbolization"
April 16, 2014
Caron Harrang, LICSW FIPA
"Turn! Turn! Turn! The Patient's Contribution to the Interpretive Process in the Termination Phase of Analysis."
May 21, 2014
David Jachim, PhD FIPA
"The Return of the Negative Object and the Function of Reverie in Restoring Hope"
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NPSI Institute News
Special Report
Faculty Development with Deborah Cabaniss
Reflections on a Faculty Development Workshop
By Barbara Sewell, LMHC FIPA
On November 8 and 9, 2013, the Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute co-sponsored a joint workshop with Deborah Cabaniss, MD FIPA titled "Bringing Teaching to Life: An Education Retreat." Former NPSI site visitors, Ted Jacobs, MD FIPA and Brian Robertson, MD FIPA, had suggested contacting Cabaniss when NPSI expressed a desire to improve teaching methods at the Institute. Cabaniss is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Director of Psychotherapy Training in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia. She teaches psychodynamic psychotherapy to residents as well as coordinates the teaching and supervising of all psychotherapy in the residency program. Long interested in the teaching processes that best facilitate students' learning, Cabaniss has studied and written extensively on the topic of teaching psychodynamic psychotherapy.
In her role as Chair for Faculty Development on the NPSI Education Committee, Esther Karson, PhD FIPA took the lead in contacting Cabaniss and coordinating all the logistical components of the event with Darren Thompson at SPSI.
On Saturday, November 9, a combination of analytic candidates, analysts and training analysts from both institutes met at the Labor Temple in Seattle to learn about teaching psychoanalysis. Thirty-one people were in attendance: 15 from SPSI and 16 from NPSI.
Deborah Cabaniss presented the following Learning Objectives:
Participants will learn new ways to engage learners in psychoanalysis through their own participation in a learning exercise.
Participants will learn to identify learning objectives as evidenced by their ability to identify objectives during a workshop activity.
Participants will participate in a workshop activity that will teach them to use "backwards design" to design creative teaching activities.
Participants will work with diverse members of the psychoanalytic community during a group workshop activity.
The event was very active and thought provoking, not lecture style. Cabaniss emphasized the teaching philosophy developed by Grant Wiggins on "backwards design." In this philosophy the instructor begins with the end in mind, asking the question, "What enduring understandings do I want my students to develop?"
The Wiggins model has three stages:
Identify desired results (learning outcomes/objectives).
"What should students know, understand, and be able to do? What is worthy of understanding?"
Determine acceptable evidence.
"How will we know if students have achieved the desired result and met the standards? What will we accept as evidence of student understanding and proficiency?"
Plan learning experiences and instruction. This includes:
Definition of knowledge, skills and procedures students ought to master, definition of materials, and definition of learning/teaching activities.
Through activities and group discussion, Cabaniss taught the group how to create learning objectives, how to create teaching activities, and how to measure to what degree the learning objectives were met through the teaching activities.
The Cabaniss event was an unqualified success not only in terms of teaching learning theory, but also in demonstrating the possibility for collaboration of colleagues dedicated to psychoanalysis and the process of teaching it.
At the end of the day, I asked Cabaniss if she had any thoughts about how the day had gone. She responded that she thought we had played well. She observed that the groups had worked together so seamlessly that by the end of the day she wasn't sure who was from which institute. She thought all the participants had been creative and involved, exhibiting respect for one another and expressing similar concerns about how psychoanalysis is taught at their institutes. Her last comment to me was "I'm hoping this will jump start more discussion and be seen as a beginning and not an ending."
Barbara Sewell, LMHC FIPA
is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Seattle and Chair of the Curriculum Committee at NPSI.
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Candidate News
Lynn Cunningham, Reporter
On December 8, 2013, NPSI candidate
Anna Delacroix, MA LMHC joined two of her colleagues-art therapist Joanne della Penta, ATR-BC LMHC and psychoanalyst Katherine Weissbourd, PhD (both members of the Psychoanalysis and Visual Arts Committee of the Seattle Psychoanalytic Society & Institute)-in a presentation at the Frye Art Museum titled "Lust, Performance and the Artist's Gaze." The presentation was part of a series of events commemorating the first monographic exhibition in the United States of the fin-de-siècle artist and Munich Secession co-founder Franz von Stuck, celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth and showcasing many of his masterworks on loan from leading museums in Europe and the US. In her paper, Anna explored aspects of Stuck's life, art and creative process from a psychoanalytic perspective and co-led the gallery walk that followed to view selected paintings and continue the discussion. The SPSI Psychoanalysis and Visual Arts Committee, chaired by Sue Radant, PhD, has had a long association with the Frye Museum, co-sponsoring events and salons designed to promote interest and discussion about the creative processes among artists, mental health professionals and the general community. __
Maxine Nelson, LICSW FIPA presented her graduation paper, titled "Blade Runner as Metaphor: Encapsulation in Virtual Reality as a Defense Against Psychic Annihilation," to Institute colleagues and invited guests on Wednesday evening, February 12, 2014. President-Elect Caron Harrang opened the evening and Mirta Berman-Oelsner, LMHC FIPA served as discussion facilitator. After her presentation, Director of Training Maxine Anderson, MD, FIPA presented Maxine with a graduation certificate and welcomed her to the community of psychoanalysts at NPSI. Congratulations Maxine!
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Senior candidate Dave Parnes, LICSW co-taught an introductory course on psychoanalytic psychotherapy sponsored by the Northwest Alliance for Psychoanalytic Study this past fall. During the winter term, he was the discussant for a clinical case discussion offered by the Alliance Community Psychotherapy Clinic.
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Candidate President Nicole Wiggins, MA LMHC became the candidate representative to the International Psychoanalytical Studies Organization (IPSO) North American group. In this role, she bridges communication between NPSI and IPSO via contact with Marco Posadas (Toronto) who is the Vice President of the North American group of IPSO and Kathryn McCormick (Seattle) who is the Vice President Elect.
In Spring 2014, Nicole will teach the course "Phenomenology of the Child" at Seattle University in their Existential Phenomenological Psychology Master's Program.
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Members in Action
In this section we feature brief reports on the individual activities of our analyst and community members.
Caron Harrang , Reporter
Managing Editor's Note:
The following evocative report was sent to us by German speaking psychoanalyst colleagues Heidi Spanl and Marco Conci and describes an unusual psychoanalytic workshop featuring a German speaking Seattle training analyst and some Bavarian colleagues. It illustrates the possibilities for understanding that exist between cultures linguistically, theoretically, and with respect to many sorts of differences if we are open to them.
Robert Oelsner, MD FIPA (NPSI) in Bavaria
By Heidi Spanl, Dipl. Psych. and Marco Conci, MD
Members of the Munich Working Party Group on a hike with Robert Oelsner (third from right)
Robert Oelsner, MD FIPA (NPSI) was the guest speaker of the annual fall meeting of the Munich Working Party held on Friday and Saturday, October 19 and 20, 2013. The meeting took place in Bernried, south of Munich on Lake Starnberg. The 60-member Munich Working Party has existed since the 1960s and meets once a month for regular scientific meetings. It is part of the Deutsche Psychoanalytische Gesellschaft (German Psychoanalytical Society), a component society since 2009 of the International Psychoanalytical Association.
The Fall Meeting Wissenschaftlicher Wandertag (Scientific Hiking Day) was created to allow members of the Munich Working Party to work together psychoanalytically and to share time together Bavarian style. This year's participants came together starting on a Friday for a hike around Lake Starnberg where the famous "Sisi" grew up before becoming Empress of Austria by marrying Kaiser Franz Joseph in Vienna.
On the first evening, the group gathered together at Hotel Seeblick to meet with guest faculty Robert Oelsner, who was introduced by Working Party Coordinator Heidi Spanl. Oelsner presented a paper in German entitled "On the Interpretation of Reality: The Reciprocity between Psychic Reality and External Reality." The group wondered how Robert, an Argentinian who grew up in Buenos Aires and now lives in Seattle, was able to speak fluent German. By responding to our questions, we learned that he grew up in a German speaking family. By understanding the cultural context of his German language fluency, the group dynamic became more personal and a lively discussion of his paper ensued.
Later that evening we all went to the Seeblick Hotel and dined together. There was, of course, wine and Bavarian beer and we had a chance for more leisurely conversation, or what we in Munich call Bavarian Gemütlichkeit (a friendly comfortable atmosphere).
On Saturday we resumed our meeting and worked on a clinical case presented by Bettina Hahm. Then at midday, the entire group went hiking in the surrounding countryside and had lunch in a Bavarian restaurant with a lovely garden. The weather was warm and sunny and everyone had a chance for a personal exchange with Robert. For example, Marco talked with Robert about some of the scientific aspects of our work and how to further implement the international exchange in our field. Robert also told us a story from his youth. He had learned the German word Wald (forest) from his grandfather in Buenos Aires, but had never seen one since there are no forests there. He only later came to understand what a forest was when he came to Germany later in life. This may be a good metaphor for the advantages of international exchange in our field, in which, for example, the words phantasy and fantasy means different things depending on the country and language and theoretical orientation in which we work.
Heidi Spanl, Dipl. Psych and Marco Conci, MD are psychoanalysts and members of the Munich Working Party of the German Psychoanalytical Society.
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Dave Parnes, Reporter
Jeff Eaton, MA FIPA served as discussant for Arnaldo Chuster's (Brazil) paper, "The Psychoanalyst's Imagination" at the Newport Psychoanalytic Institute on November 2, 2013. He also served as discussant for Ofra Eshel's (Tel Aviv) paper, titled "Tustin's Diabolon and Metabolon Revisited: Further Clinical Explorations," which was awarded the Frances Tustin Memorial Lecture Prize in Los Angeles on November 16, 2013.
Judy K Eekhoff, PhD FIPA has a published article in the December 2013 issue of the American Journal of Psychoanalysis titled "Infantile Trauma, Therapeutic Impasses and Recovery." Judy presented an earlier version of her paper at the International Ferenczi Conference Faces of Trauma held in Budapest on May 31-June 3, 2012. Geneva psychoanalyst André E Haynal, MD, founder of the International Ferenczi Foundation and member of the Sándor Ferenczi Society in Budapest, is guest editor of this special issue of The Journal, which focuses on papers that were presented at the conference.
Marianne Robinson, PhD FIPA facilitated the second of six "pre-conference reveries" sponsored by NPSI in advance of its International Evolving British Object Relations Conference scheduled for October 17-19, 2014 at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Seattle. (For a review of the meeting and discussion, see Shierry Nicholsen's report in the EBOR Update section of this newsletter.) Marianne is also conducting a seminar entitled "Hearing Primitive Elemental States of Mind" for the Oregon Psychoanalytic Center in Portland, Oregon on April 4, 2014. This seminar will address how to listen to our patients in ways that allow us to follow the movements of their internal worlds and investigate how these serve as filters through which they experience their relationships in the external world.
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Selected Facts Spring Issue Deadline
The spring issue of Selected Facts will be published in late June 2014. The deadline for submissions is May 31, 2014.
Please feel free to contact the editors with general questions or either of our reporters with news items or ideas for stories.
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