Presented by the International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (IAPSP)

Empathic Depths and Relational Leaps:
Creating Therapeutic Possibility

October 2017

The Palmer House Hilton Hotel,
Chicago, USA

We warmly invite you to join us for IAPSP’s 40th annual international conference, as we explore how deep empathic connection and new ways of relating can mutually influence each other, help resolve clinical impasses, and promote therapeutic growth and change.

As we think you will agree when you see the details, the conference promises to be an intellectually stimulating and very clinically relevant learning experience for clinicians and scholars of all levels of experience – from those very well-versed in contemporary self psychology and relational psychoanalysis to those just discovering psychoanalytic thinking or our IAPSP community.

• The fifteen Thursday preconference workshop options on a wide range of topics in contemporary self psychology and psychoanalytic thinking
• Our keynote presentation on Thursday evening*, which will feature a compelling case presentation of a treatment that involved both deep empathic connection and a surprising, memorable and affectively-charged “relational leap.”
• The four plenary panels in which presenters from both within and outside the self psychology community explore various aspects of our conference theme, from how we now understand therapeutic action 30 years into the relational turn in psychoanalysis (Panel I*), to how the implicit domain (Panel II) and the “double edged sword” of the therapist’s subjectivity (Panel III) influence empathic depths and relational leaps, to how we now understand the concept of “analytic love” (Panel IV).
• The post-panel discussion groups, paper sessions, Meet the Author sessions, Kohut Memorial Lecture and Luncheon and meetings of IAPSP’s various special interest groups.
• Our Newcomer’s Welcoming Program, involving special programming for those attending the IAPSP conference for the first time or who are newer to the IAPSP community.
• Our newly reduced fees for students, candidates, early career professionals and those from countries other than the US and Canada.(Click here for the Conference Registration page)

*Please Note: Due to a link between the keynote address and Plenary panel I, we encourage attendees to arrive at the conference Thursday for the keynote session.

We are looking forward to a great conference and hope to see you there.

Scott Davis, MD and Carla Leone, PhD, Conference Co-Chairs

2017 CONFERENCE PLANNING COMMITTEE

2017 Pre-Conference Chair:
Jill Gardner, PhD

2017 Paper Co-Chairs:
Denise Davis, LCSW and Elizabeth Feldman, PhD

Other Committee Members:
Richard Geist, EdD; Karina Goldberg, PhD; Daniel Goldin, MA; Bruce Herzog, MD; Steven Knoblauch, PhD; Janna Sandmeyer, PhD, Maria Slowiaczek, PhD and Steven Stern, PsyD

POST-PANEL DISCUSSION GROUPSOne of the best parts of IAPSP conferences are the small group discussions that follow each of the first three plenary panels. Facilitated by well-known senior clinicians and scholars, the discussion groups (which stay consistent throughout the three panels) offer participants the opportunity to discuss reactions to the panels in a smaller, more intimate setting, ask questions and get to know each other better.

IAPSP SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPSIAPSP has several subgroups of members with a particular interest that are open to all IAPSP members at no additional fee. Some of these groups have listserv discussions throughout the year and/or sponsor online “Journal Club” paper discussions. For more information about any of them, please contact the group’s chairperson at the following addresses:

The Couples Therapy Interest Group – Carla Leone, Co-chair,

The Child and Adolescent Initiative – Denise Davis, Chair,

The Social Justice and Ethics Interest Group – Margy Sperry, Chair,

The Teaching Listserv – Elizabeth Carr, Chair,

The Students and Candidates Committee – Joshua Burg, Chair,

Meetings and Activities Sponsored by IAPSP Special Interest Groups at the 2017 ConferenceThe Couples Therapy Interest Group will hold a brief meeting followed by a discussion of the topic Partners Who Think They Have THE Reality: The Problem of Psychic Equivalence in Couples Therapy on Friday 10/20 from 12:15-1:30pm. The discussion will begin with a case presentation illustrating this common problem, followed by open discussion of the case and overall topic.

The Child and Adolescent Initiative will sponsor an invited panel on Friday 10/20 from 12:15-1:30pm, entitled And the Analyst Makes Three: Reaching Empathic Depths in the Treatment of an Adolescent and Mother, involving a case presentation and discussion.

The Social Justice and Ethics Interest Group will hold its first meeting on Saturday evening 10/21 from 5:45-6:45 pm.

The Teaching listserv group will meet on Friday morning 10/20 at 7:15am.

The Students and Candidates Committee will hold a meeting on Friday 10/20 from 12:30 – 1:30 PM, consisting of a discussion facilitated by Richard Geist, Ed.D., which is open to all student and candidate conference registrants. This meeting will include an open Q&A as well as a discussion of Dr. Geist’s paper, “From Self-Protection to Relational Protectiveness: The Modification of Defensive Structures,” which will be emailed to all student and candidate conference registrants before the conference. The committee is also hosting a Students and Candidates Reception on Friday from 5:30 – 6:30 PM to allow student and candidate conference attendees to get to know one another and learn about all that IAPSP has to offer them.

Note: All meetings and activities listed above are open to all conference registrants, whether members of IAPSP or not. Attendees at the Friday lunchtime panels and meetings are welcome to bring a lunch (purchased on your own).

IAPSP WELCOMING PROGRAMIf you are a newcomer to the IAPSP Conference, we would like to invite you to participate in our Welcoming Program. This program is designed to make the conference more enjoyable and useful for you, and to help you to get the most out of your experience. We also hope that it will help you to make new social and professional contacts so that it will be easier for you to participate in the Self Psychology community after the conference is over.

If you choose to participate, you will be assigned to a welcomer, an experienced member who has volunteered to spend some time to help newcomers join in socially and professionally. Your welcomer will contact you to address any questions you might have prior to the conference. Your welcomer will also arrange to meet you at the conference. In addition, we will send you a schedule of times when welcomers and newcomers will get together, usually meal times or coffee breaks. Our goal is just to help you to get acquainted and to have other people to have lunch or dinner with. You are free to choose any of these times to join in. The program is designed to be flexible so that each newcomer can decide how much ‘welcoming’ they would like.

If you are interested in participating, please email me at so that I can connect you with a welcomer.

Maria L. Slowiaczek, Ph.D.
Chair, IAPSP Welcoming Committee