Join us in Rome, October 24-27, 2024!

The 2024 conference planning committee is delighted to announce IAPSP’s 2024 global conference, THE TRAGIC PERSON TODAY:  EXISTENCE AND MEANING IN LIFE AND IN CLINICAL PRACTICE to be held in Rome, Italy from Thursday October 24th through Sunday October 27th, 2024.  This will be IAPSP’s third hybrid conference, following our successful hybrid conferences in 2022 and 2023.  We encourage you to join us in Rome but will provide live streaming of the plenary sessions and recorded virtual events for those who cannot attend in-person.

The conference theme, Tragic Person Today:  Existence and Meaning in Life and Clinical Practice, reflects our belief that we are living in very turbulent times. Our world is adversely affected by many challenges, among them are two wars, great divisiveness and polarization, and a climate crisis. Our very existence is threatened by these very serious problems. We call on our IAPSP community to come together to address these challenges at the 2024 Conference in Rome by engaging Heinz Kohut’s formulations about ‘Tragic Man’ as these ‘visionary’ constructs relate to this moment in time. The differentiation between ‘tragic man’ (Kohut) and ‘guilty man’ (Freud) is located at the very roots of self psychology. ‘Tragic man’ is a concept deeply connected to the search for existential meaning and the complexity of possible answers. While the difficulties of our time may seem daunting, we believe they provide opportunities for growth and transformation in our clinical work, in our IAPSP global community, and in our personal lives.

We invite all of you to join our efforts to engage and explore by reaching out, connecting with others, and writing papers that address the crisis of our times with the belief that we will all be contributing to creating a meaningful life for all.

2024 Rome Conference Committee:    Co-chairs: Susanna Federici, Valeria Pulcini

International Committee:

Alejandro Avila-Espada, Elizabeth Carr, William Coburn, Amy Eldridge, Andrea Harms, Diana Lidofsky, Gabriella Mann, Gianni Nebbiosi, Neslihan Ruganci, Paolo Stramba-Badiale

Italian Committee:

Cecilia Belardelli, Sara Biondi, Simona Caprilli, Marisa Iovane, Ingrid Pedroni, Massimo Segù, Mariangela Tempestini