EPF - News

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:12:36 GMT

Day One - Thursday 19th July, 2012

8.00 am Registration Open

9.20 am OPENING CEREMONY

Welcome

John McClean, President, Australian Psychoanalytical Society (APAS)

Welcome

Judith Mitrani, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A

Chair, Frances Tustin Memorial Trust

9.30 am

PLENARY SESSION

Narcissism and Autism: Poles Apart or on the Same spectrum?

In this paper I will try to elucidate the links between narcissistic and autistic features. I

see some autistic defences as the concrete, bodily expression of defences employed at

a higher symbolic level by narcissistic patients. For instance the narcissist’s turning to a

mafia-type of gang leader, or to an idealised destructive internal object for protection

can be compared to the autistic child’s clutching a hard toy for protection or to hold

themselves together. I shall therefore consider the question of whether the difference

between autistic and narcissistic defences is primarily structural or whether it has more

to do with the degree of concreteness, the capacity to symbolise. I shall discuss the

clinical implications, and how they may affect the analyst’s capacity to help the patient

to become more alive.

I shall bring examples, mainly from adult patients with autistic or narcissistic features,

to develop the theme.

Kate Barrows, Bristol, England UK

11.00 am Morning Tea

11.30 am PLENARY SESSION

What do we hope for from Child Psychotherapy for Autistic Spectrum

Children ... do we get it?

In child mental health services, many approaches to helping children with autistic

spectrum disorder and their families (ASD) focus on management and on the particular

sensory or cognitive deficits thought to contribute to behavioural and emotional

disturbance. . By contrast, child psychotherapy can give particular attention to the

emotional and phenomenological experience of ASD children, and to establishing a

communicative framework through which the child’s capacity for tolerating emotional

experience can be enhanced. This paper presents findings from an ongoing evaluation

of child psychotherapy with eight children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) seen

within the National Health Service clinics in the UK. The assessment and evaluation

model used (the ‘Hopes and Expectations for Treatment Approach’ –HETA-, Urwin,

2007) involves parents and psychotherapists establishing realistic expectations for

treatment based on a shared understanding of each child’s experience and

characteristics.

Positive benefits from psychotherapy treatment included improvement in the

children’s capacity for emotional regulation and reflection on emotional states and

consequent improvements in the quality of family life. Using clinical examples from

three cases, the presentation discusses modifications in psychotherapy technique

appropriate to work with ASD, giving particular attention to work in the

countertransference. Similarities and differences between the phenomena of ‘second

skin’ defenses and autistic objects are discussed.

Cathy Urwin, London, England UK

1.00 pm Lunch

2.30 pm FILM PRESENTATIONS FROM THE FRANCES TUSTIN TRUST

The Dread of Dissolution

Eve Steel, Melbourne, Australia and Judith Mitrani, Chair, Frances Tustin

Memorial Trust, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A

4.00 pm Afternoon Tea

5.00 pm

Learning to walk down the corridor: body image, catastrophic anxieties and

supportive internal figures

This paper addresses the difficulties in learning to walk down the corridor encountered

by two children of immigrant parents: a four-year-old boy with a diagnosis of autism

seen in intensive psychotherapy, and a 17-month-old girl at risk of autism seen for

parent-toddler work. The catastrophic anxieties Tustin described in relation to bodily

separateness are discussed in terms of managing the physical transition between

waiting-room and therapy room. Three levels of relationship to parental figures could

be observed that appeared to be related to the children's capacity to move through

space. The first concerned support by parental voices speaking in harmony; the second

concerned an experience of parental figures whose separate existence did not imply

the child's bodily mutilation; and the third concerned the capacity to re-establish good

internal parents in spite of Oedipal conflicts. The children's difficulties in managing

transitions are discussed in relation to Tustin's observation that a painful experience of

migration can be a feature of their parents' history

Maria Rhode, London, England UK (via videolink from London)

6.30 pm Close of Conference Day One

7.30 pm Welcome Gala Dinner to be held at Dockside

Day Two - Friday 20th July, 2012

9.00 am

CONFERENCE OPENING

Welcome

Mary Cameron, President, NSW Institute of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

9.00 am

PLENARY SESSION

Frances Tustin and Louise Bourgeois – an artist’s response to mismanaged

psychological birth

Frances Tustin states clearly that art can sometimes be used to work through

mismanaged psychological birth. Louise Bourgeoise used her sculptures, drawings and

journals to transform her early misery and keep herself alive. This presentation will be

an in depth study of the artist's work.

JoAnn Culbert-Koehn, Beverley Hills, California, U.S.A

10.30 am Morning Tea

11.00 am CLINICAL WORKSHOPS – Group A

Autosensual movements and Bion’s Thoughts without a Thinker

“Thinking is a function forced upon the psyche by the pressure of thoughts, not the

other way around.” (Bion, 1970)

In adhesive states there is no sense of separateness and so of course little capacity for

thought. What prevails instead are states of panic and dissolution, fears of falling and

collapsing. I will examine the ways in which auto sensual movements mask these

primal anxieties by becoming a sort of dance of kinesthetic thinking for thoughts which

cannot find a mind to think them. Like Bion’s concept of thoughts without a thinker,

these sensations represent unthinkable thoughts of a thinker without access to

thinking. Ideas will be presented about language, and the view of ritualised movements

as attempts to find a form for the raw energy of emotion pressuring the mind of the

individual in these primal states. The patient becomes a kind of ideogram for the raw

energy of proto-mental thoughts which, like Tustin’s innate forms, cannot be

symbolised or thought

Annie Reiner, Beverley Hills, California, U.S.A

Working with an adopted young child with autistic features, and his parents

The placement of a severely deprived not-speaking, not eating child with autistic

features in an adoptive family requires a sophisticated way of attuning to the child in

order to build a trusting relationship with him. Providing individual psychotherapy on

its own may not be the best way of fostering faltering attachments between mother

and child. This presentation will explore ways of facilitating the mother-child

relationship while simultaneously providing psychoanalytic psychotherapy for the

child in the context of regular meetings with the parents.

Jeanne Magagna, London, England UK

Requium for a Dream: this paper explores some creative steps towards recovery

in a young woman with schizophrenia

Mark Howard, Sydney, Australia

Transformations: The Birth of Emotionality in a Child with Tourette’s and

Asperger’s Syndromes

Transformations from emotional deadness, acting-out, and somatization to psychic

aliveness will be illustrated from clinical material in the analysis of a child presenting

with Tourette's and Asperger's syndromes.

Shirley Gooch and Jim Gooch, Beverley Hills, California, U.S.A

1.00 pm Lunch

2.30 pm CLINICAL WORKSOPS – Group B

The Self and its Circumstances: aspects of emergence from autistic states

This paper will explore what Tustin called "the development of I-ness" in the context of

the analytic process. Attention will be given to the earliest self experiences and their

foreclosure by autistic defenses as well as to how establishing a psychoanalytic

situation makes possible the emergence from autistic states and the growth of

aliveness and self expression. Particular attention will be given to Bion's work and his

theory of thinking which informs the analyst's sensibility. Extensive material from the

treatment of autistic children will be presented as part of this program.

Jeffrey Eaton, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A

Raids on the Inarticulate – working with silent patients

Is the silence a communication generating a poem - a mutual construction in the

analytic field ?

Is it a resistance and an attempt to get the analyst to collude with the forces in both

patient and analyst against progress involving catastrophic pain, or is the silence a

response to inadvertent wounding of the patent by the analysts

technique or failures

Ruth Safier, Sydney, Australia

The Lady of Shalott, the Minotaur, the Medusa and Others – some thoughts

and work based on the concepts of Frances Tustin

My patient was an isolated and friendless young woman from a very abusive

background. She had fears of physical illness destroying her mind. Her material was

full of hate, cruelty and perverse functioning and the transference contained very

primitive and concrete elements. My countertransference experiences in working

with her were of a particularly anxiety-provoking nature and I found myself struggling

in very alien territory. This changed when I read Frances Tustin. Her ideas and

concepts opened up a unique perspective on understanding this patient and her

encapsulated states of autistic functioning, enabling us to move forward beyond

impasses. The patient has returned for further work at critical times over the years.

Jacqueline Adler, Melbourne, Australia

Climbing a Waterfall

This paper is the story of a ten year treatment of a very bright and very impaired

adolescent male encapsulated in autistic retreat. It is also the story of the author’s

discovery of Frances Tustin’s work and the light that work shed on the author’s

understanding of this patient. The author uses Tustin’s ideas about autistic processes

to explain her patient’s sensory distress and his serious and debilitating withdrawal

from all human contact and her efforts to maintain contact with him and to gradually

draw him back into relationship with his family and other members of his

community. His willingness to forge a relationship with the author and his own desire

to understand himself were great aids in his healing.

Kathleen Fargione, Eden Prairie, Minnesota, U.S.A

4.30 pm Afternoon Tea

5.00 pm

PLENARY SESSION

Memories of Supervision with Frances Tustin

Peter Blake, President, Institute of Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic

Psychotherapy

5.30 pm PLENARY SESSION

Introduction

Peter Blake, President, Institute of Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic

Psychotherapy

The Birth and Rebirth of Psychic Life

Three clinical examples illustrate a particular form of aliveness where coming to life

seems to involve an interpersonal relationship and the life is facilitated by someone

else. In the first instance Robbie,’s `uncle’ coaxed him out of the deep freeze; in the

second, my emotional welcome finally brought colour into his cheeks and a light to his

eye. With Jesse, for a moment at least, it was the other way around: a zapper

represented him bringing me to life. Gradually, in normal infant development, such

object relations get internalized, so the relationship to a psychic-life-giving object is

intrapersonal, not only interpersonal

And the communication is reciprocal: the baby changes the way the parent unfolds,

and the parent changes the way the baby unfolds.

However, as we know from countless infant observations, newborn babies vary

enormously in the amount of life force, even psychic life force with which they enter

the world. Some have a stronger sense already that the world out there is fascinating

and draws them to it like a magnet. Some speculations on the relevance of some

neuroscience are included.

Anne Alvarez, London England (via video link-up from London)

7.00 pm Cocktail Reception - Dockside

Day Three - Saturday 21st July, 2012

9.30 am CONFERENCE OPENING

Welcome

Peter Blake, President, Institute of Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic

Psychotherapy

9.30 am PLENARY SESSION

Arid Mental Landscapes and Avid Cravings for Human Contact-

Beckettian and analytic narratives

The lecture will focus on the to-and-fro oscillations between void, depleted states of

mind, that so often are an intrinsic part of a sense of extreme emotional isolation, and

the never ending search for human contact and intimacy. These dialectics will be

approached through theoretical thinking, clinical vignettes and some of Samuel

Beckett's writings.

Alina Schellekes, Qiryat Ono, Israel

11.00 am Morning Tea

11.30 am

PLENARY SESSION

How Autism Thwarts the Making of a Relationship

In this paper I distinguish between the human beings as organisms that require food,

drink and shelter for survival and the making of a relationship not to serve this need of

the organism but for its own sake.

I examine the way in which autosensuousness, as Frances Tustin has explained it,

smothers the capacity to make a relationship. I also examine how the revision of

Tustin’s theory towards the end of her life can be extended to encompass the

deficiency in relating which is the core of autism.

Neville Symington, Sydney, Australia

1.00 pm Lunch

2.30 pm

FILM PRESENTATIONS FROM THE FRANCES TUSTIN TRUST

Further Thoughts on Autistic Shapes in Adult Pathology

Eve Steel, Melbourne, Australia and Jeffrey Eaton, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A

4.00 pm PANEL DISCUSSION AND CLOSING CEREMONY

Eve Steel, Melbourne, Australia and Judith Mitrani, Chair, Frances Tustin

Memorial Trust, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A

5.00 pm Close of Conference Day Three

If you have any questions regarding the Conference Program outlined above, please contact

GEMS Event Management on 02 9744 5252 or email dhudnall@gemspl.com.au

30th EPF New Members Seminar (NMS), 14.6.-17.6.12 in Czechia

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:12:40 GMT

The next annual seminar for Newly Qualified Members of our Societies will be held outside the city of Prague (Czechia) at the Castle Hotel Stirin ( Zamek Stirin Hotel, Ringhofferova 711, Stirin, 251 68 Kamenice, Tel. +420 255736111, Email: Hotel.zamek@stirin.cz)– a wonderful place for our groups. It is close to the Unesco site of Pruhonice. The Conference will start in the evening of Thursday 14th June and close at lunchtime on Sunday 17th June 2012. Our colleague Vendula Probstova is the local organizer in Prague.

Please, choose two recent members of your Society, who are interested to participate. The closing date will be up to April 30th 2012 to send two representatives. Have in mind that the seminars language will be English. Each participant is asked to present psychoanalytical case material from an ongoing psychoanalysis in a small group, chaired by training analysts, and is requested to bring eight typewritten copies in English of his/her presentation for distribution to the group members.

The fee for each participant will be Euro 410 and includes accommodation with full board and meeting rooms. Members from some Societies can ask for a reduction from the EPF treasurer, Anne Rosenberg and myself. This seminar is a unique chance for two of your members to take part in this stimulating seminar, which has been for many of us our first international clinical experience.

Participants need to send their registration form to Eva Schmid-Gloor (eva.s@bluewin.ch) and Congress-Organization Geber and Reusch (geber-reusch@t-online.de). Following this, participants will receive confirmation and later some more information in detail. Attached you find the Provisional Programme and the Registration form. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Waiting to hear from you and with warm regards,

Peter Wegner (President), Serge Frisch (President Elect), Eva Schmid-Gloor (Vice President)

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:59:05 GMT

Europe today is still in the grip of its past, a victim of its history. The shadows and painful residues of World War II deeply affect people and nations across Europe and elsewhere. We invite you to attend a conference aimed at uncovering the impact of this historical trauma.

The injuries inflicted by Europe’s shared history derive from the traumas of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, Soviet Communism and national oppression, and the impact of ethnic tensions and World War II, leading to the recent rise of Neo-Nazism. The pain and suffering fed by the horrors of war, occupation, massacres and betrayals are still alive, if hidden, in individuals and subgroups. The impact of this anguish is transmitted from one generation to the next and shapes contemporary struggles within European society.

This conference will examine the impact of historical trauma as it appears in the way Europeans and others attempt to work together. The conference uses a variant of the Tavistock Group Relations model, and builds on the work begun with Germans and Israelis and expanded to include Jews, Palestinians and others. The conference focus is on the exploration of experience in a variety of group learning opportunities. The task is to discover the links between personal experience, current tensions and historical trauma.

This residential conference invites people from the nations of Europe and elsewhere -- from all walks of life and all ages -

who recognize the painful residues of war and historical trauma and are puzzled by their impact on them. No previous experience of this kind of conference is necessary. Up to 60 members can be accommodated.

Venue: Kliczków Castle, Poland, http://kliczkow.com.pl/kliczkow/enkliczkow/home.xml

Staff: Conference Director: Shmuel Erlich , (Israel Psychoanalytic Society, PCCA, OFEK).

The conference staff is an international group with extensive experience in this way of working.

Further information: http://p-cca.org/2012 . Registration: geber-reusch@t-online.de

THE TRIREGIONAL CONFERENCE :EPF, NAPSac and FEPAL:19-22 July 2012 at the Regent Grand Hotel Bordeaux, 2-5 Place de la Comédie, 33000 Bordeaux, France : www.ghbordeaux.com

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 21:34:33 GMT

For many years there has been a conference in Europe biannually that has brought together North American and Japanese senior analysts with their colleagues in Europe. It is usually held in the third weekend of July for up to 60 participants.We are expanding this model to include colleagues from Latin America from 2012.The different training and theoretical backgrounds provide us with the opportunity to share clinical knowledge and experience, as well as the similarities and differences of psychoanalytic practice and our different ways of being with our clinical experience, within a confidential setting.The Conference consists of every participant bringing clinical material from an analysis, that is discussed in turn in small groups. The conference language is English. The intensity of the psychoanalytic work of conference is conducted in a comfortable and friendly setting, with all participants staying in the same hotel. There is an expectation that the relaxed atmosphere of summer enables everyone to learn different analytic styles and clinical techniques in an enjoyable atmosphere close, for many to the holidays. There is a programme for non-participating partners as well as a gala dinner on the Saturday night.In 2008 the conference was held in Amsterdam and 2010 in Cascais, Portugal. The next conference will take place on the 19-22 July 2012.Any EPF colleague wishing to attend will need to contact one of the EPF Vice Presidents.The Regent Grand Hotel Bordeaux is located in the pedestrian area of Bordeaux just across the Grand Théatre and newly renovated in 2008, lovely ambiente, extremely clean and very charming. The international airport Bordeaux Mérignac is 30 minutes by taxi and the Bordeaux Saint Jean TGV train station is 3 km away from the hotel. Each bedroom is uniquely decorated and equipped with the latest technology – flat screen LCD television set, free wireless internet. All bathrooms are in marble with underfloor heating. We will automatically transfer your booking to the new hotel. As the The Regent Grand Hotel Bordeaux is a hotel in the De Luxe category I am still negotiating to get a similar price as in the Grand Barrail – I will inform you soonest. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions. I am really awfully sorry to cause so much confusion – thank you for your understanding – Brigitte Brigitte ReuschCongress-Organisation Geber+ReuschHabichtsweg 11D-60437 FrankfurtTel. +49 (0) 69 50 52 39Fax.+49 (0) 69 9050 88 84geber-reusch@t-online.de Download the Registration Form

First announcement of the International Ferenczi Conferenceon ‘FACES of TRAUMA’ (Clinical studies, theoretical approaches, historical and academic research 80 years after Ferenczi’s Confusion of Tongues) Budapest, May 31- June 2, 2012

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 23:34:06 GMT

Download the provisional program!

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

On behalf of the Program and Organizing Committee we would like to extend our warmest invitation to the next International Sándor Ferenczi Conference, Faces of Trauma, to be held in Budapest, from May 31 to June 3, 2012. Please find attached the provisional program.

The conference is organized by the Sándor Ferenczi Society and the International Ferenczi Foundation in collaboration with the Hungarian Psychoanalytical Society and the Ferenczi Network: Associazione Culturale Sándor Ferenczi (Italy), Association Cultural S. Ferenczi (Argentina), Maison Ferenczi (France), Imago International (London), Ferenczi Center, New School for Social Research (New York), in cooperation with Società Psicoanalitica Italiana, Asociación Psicoanalítica de Madrid, International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies.

The first international Sándor Ferenczi Conference was held in Budapest in 1993, and then, every three years it has been organized in a different city – Baden-Baden, Buenos Aires, Florence, London, Madrid, New York, Paris, São Paulo, Tel Aviv and Turin, just to name the main meetings. Theses conferences, extending over almost two decades, have nourished the development of serious scientific work and results. We are confident that the 2012 Budapest meeting will also enrich our professional work and friendly collaborations.

Full on-line registration with hotel reservation is open NOW.

Go to: www.ferencziconference2012.com

The conference website offers you all the useful information and optional programs you might need to make your stay in Budapest easy and unforgettable.

If you need further information or a printed version of the Provisonal Program, do not hesitate to contact the Conference Secretariat at golob@congressline.hu

On behalf of the Program and Organizing Committee I wish you a Happy Holiday Season and a successful New Year. We are looking forward to seeing you in 2012!

Judit Mészáros, PhD
Chair of the Program and Organizing Committee,
President of the Sándor Ferenczi Society