44th Annual Conference – Chicago, IL: October 19-22, 2023
The Creative Edge(s) of Contemporary Self Psychology
Dear Colleagues,
We look forward to warmly welcoming you to the 44th annual conference – and 2nd hybrid conference – of the International Association of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, to be held October 19th-22nd, 2023, both in-person in Chicago and online. While we hope to see as many of you as possible in person, our goal is for both formats to provide a rich, clinically useful and enjoyable learning experience for all attendees.
Self Psychology has grown and expanded tremendously since Kohut’s time. Kohut’s original ideas have evolved toward a more fully “two-person” intersubjective/relational self psychology. We have seen the application of our theories to modalities other than individual psychoanalysis and to patient populations other than those Kohut treated. Finally, we have witnessed the expansion of self-psychology throughout the world (IAPSP has members in 25 countries on 6 continents). Self Psychology continues to grow in exciting and creative ways. This year’s conference theme, The Creative Edge(s) of Contemporary Self Psychology, represents our effort to highlight this growth and encourage further creative expansions of our theories and practice.
After a welcome reception (featuring Chicago-style pizza!), the main conference will open Thursday evening with the Keynote address given this year by Elizabeth Corpt. In her talk, titled “In Praise of Edges, with a Nod to the Edgy,” she will share her vision of where we are as a field and where we need to be moving. Beginning Friday morning, the conference’s four plenary panels will address a number of different creative edges of theory and practice. The first two (Friday morning and afternoon) will be a double plenary presenting creative elaborations of core self- psychological concepts, with papers on permeable boundaries, complex selfobjects, and empathy on a continuum, all illustrated with multiple clinical examples. In the final hour of the afternoon session there will be a roundtable discussion among all presenters and discussants from both sessions. The Saturday plenary will address the critical topic of the impact of sociocultural trauma, including racism and systemic injustice, and its complex interactions with developmental trauma in our patients’ lives and in the clinical encounter. Finally, the fourth plenary on Sunday morning will focus on ways that nonpsychoanalytic treatment methods such as body-based techniques, expressive arts, guided imagery and harm reduction methods can be usefully integrated into psychoanalytic treatment – an important creative edge of theory and practice that we hope everyone will stay to hear. A priority for the plenaries this year is to make sure to leave ample time for discussion with the audience. Small post-panel discussion groups will also offer attendees the chance to share reactions to the plenary presentations and connect more personally with fellow attendees.
In addition, this year’s three paper sessions offer an especially strong and stimulating group of 21 papers involving creative theoretical and clinical contributions of all kinds. We are also delighted that the Kohut Memorial Lecture will honor Doris Brothers, a major contributor to our theories and to IAPSP over many years, who will discuss Kohut’s influence on her, her earlier work on trauma and her more recent work on embodiment. There will also be Meet the Author opportunities, meetings of the Couples, Child and Adolescent and Social Justice special interest groups and last but not least, a party Saturday night which will open with performances by attendees (in our “Self Psychologists Have Talent!” show), and be followed by music and dancing.
The main conference will be preceded by a full day of preconference workshops, which offer the opportunity to delve more deeply into various topics in a smaller, three-hour workshop format. Two are targeted to those newer to Self Psychology (those by Geist and by Hagman et al.), one uses verbatim transcripts to examine therapeutic process and the therapist-patient dyad after the same “patient” met with two different therapists, while others address history and philosophy, somatic experience, integration in couple therapy, play and improvisation, art in psychoanalysis, and clinical writing.
To our virtual attendees: All four plenary panels will be live-streamed and recorded, as will one paper from each of the three paper sessions. One preconference (on clinical writing) will also be conducted entirely by teleconference, as will one paper in the third paper session. We regret that we are unable to record or live stream the keynote address, but are hoping to provide written copies of the talk to virtual attendees. We are also hoping to offer an online post panel discussion group within a week or two after the conference.
We would like to thank the members of our planning committee, especially the paper and pre-conference workshop co-chairs, for all their help bringing this year’s conference to life. We are looking forward to a great conference and hope to see you there – one way or another!
Warmly,
