Chicago Psychoanalytic Society

The President's Message by Phil Lebovitz, M.D.

Institute Director's Report by Jerry Winer, M.D.

Our Man in Santiago by Jerome Kavka, M.D.

Coming Events!

President's Message by Phil Lebovitz, M.D.

As we begin a new season of scientific presentations and enjoy the memories of summer vacations, I would like to thank Hank Evans for the thorough, well organized, heart-felt manner with which he imbued his Presidency; the benefit of learning from his example, I hope, will be noticeable as we extend what he did.

We have a number of stimulating events and issues to attend to and to address in the coming year. The Psychoanalyst Assistance Committee is now in place; this is an area in which Chicago can claim a first in the psychoanalytic community. Assistance is the key word in this structure. Our challenge will be how to emphasize that and balance it with the inherent responsibilities of the committee. Although that will be on the agenda at one of this year's business meetings, any suggestions would be welcome and could be communicated to me or to the chair of the committee, Harvey Strauss.

On Saturday, March 18, and on Sunday morning, March 19, the Society will hold its biennial conference. The conference focus is on Clinical issues in the lives of gays and lesbians. The chair of the planning committee is Jim Fisch; he is very ably assisted by Bert Cohler, Bob Fajardo, Marty Fine, Hank Evans, Virginia Saft and Dennis Shelby. Dottie Jeffries is actively involved in her role as our public relations/media consultant.

Speakers at the conference will include Ralph Roughton; he will talk about the interplay of social change and psychoanalytic thinking and will emphasize the clinical aspects of changing perspectives with gays and lesbians. His talk will be discussed by Marian Tolpin and Bert Cohler. The second major speaker will be Elisabeth Young-Bruehl who will focus on clinical issues in lesbian parenting; the discussants of her paper will be Joan Lang and Barbara Kelley. The conference committee has decided on eight workshops, and, in an effort to broaden our perspective and our wish to educate the gay-lesbian community about contemporary psychoanalysis, the workshops will be co-chaired by an analyst and a mental health professional immersed in clinical work with gays and lesbians. Details about the workshop titles will be in the next newsletter; the analyst workshop leaders will be Brenda Solomon, Robert Galatzer-Levy, Bob Gordon, Jerome Grunes, Shel Meyers, Sam Weiss, Ken Newman and Ben Garber. The conference will be held at the Knickerbocker Hotel and the cost - a real bargain when you compare the cost per CME credit of other conferences - will be under $200. Mark your calendars.

This year's program committee is chaired by Dan Busch and includes Brenda Solomon, George Moraitis, Sallee Jenkins and Joe Cronin. By the time you receive this newsletter, you will no doubt have seen the new venue for the meetings in the Pritzker auditorium at Feinberg Pavilion of Northwestern Memorial Hospital and will have heard John Gedo speak about his 42 year follow-up of his first psychoanalytic experience; his discussant was our past president, Henry Evans. Also on the roster of speakers for this year are Philip Rubovits-Seitz with Bert Cohler as a discussant and Paula Fuqua on an unique perspective on termination. A few other very interesting speakers and topics are in process and will be announced in due course. The committee is doing its best to have many of the papers available in advance.so that a more lively discussion can take place from the floor in addition to the formal discussant's talk.

In the Spring of 2000 - I was raised to believe in a silver lining and expect that we will reach Spring of Y2K intact - we will have elections for all of the Society offices. Please, begin giving thought to potential nominees and to whether the nominations committee should present a slate that is unopposed or one that has choices.

Continuing issues, about which I would like to hear a large number of voices, are how to make the Society more vital scientifically and clinically and how to define the relationship between the Institute and the Society.

Institute Director's Report by Jerry Winer, M.D.

Although summer is usually a quiet time at the Institute, this summer saw a flurry of activity around the planning of the Conference on Youth and Violence. A committee consisting of not only Institute family members but also representatives from the schools, law enforcement, the court system, and the Institute of Juvenile Research has been hard at work planning the event. The committee, under its chair, Robert Galatzer-Levy, has put together a three day conference featuring several nationally recognized speakers from a number of disciplines. Scheduled for May 12,13, and 14, 2000 to coincide with the Chicago based annual meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association, the conference has the full support of the American including their co-sponsorship. The Public Forum scheduled for mid-day on Friday, May 12 will be a part of both the American's Program and that of the Institute's Conference on Youth and Violence. Other co-sponsors are the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Illinois and the Harris Foundation. Grant applications for further support are under consideration by several other funders. The Conference will be held at the Chicago Cultural Center with break-out sessions at the Institute. Society members interested in being a part of this stimulating process should contact Bob Galatzer-Levy or me.

Recent months have been a time for renewing old relationships. Clinical Director Pat Rueckheim and I met with Barbara Bowman, the Director of the Erikson Institute and former Institute for Psychoanalysis Board Member, and the Erikson Dean, Fran Stott to discuss common interests. Further meetings are planned for October. In June, I convened a group of a dozen educators from the Chicago area, including former Teacher Education Program Director, Kay Field, to discuss new ways for the Institute to interact with the field of education. Professor Carole Mitchener of UIC and Glorye Wool of our Child Analytic Faculty will co-chair this planning group. I also met with Mary Lou Denardo, Ed Kaufman, and Rene Summers of the Association of Child Psychotherapists to discuss a stronger tie to the Institute.

Neal Spira and Bob Fajardo were instrumental in bringing in speakers from the Jung Institute. Its Director, Peter Mudd, visited our Institute to share experiences in a number of areas.

As a former member of the Society's ad hoc committee on the impaired psychoanalyst and as current Institute Director I will be meeting with the Society Psychoanalyst Assistance Committee to discuss the possible establishment of a Joint Psychoanalyst Assistance Committee and ways to increase the assistance available to members in need.

Unfortunately, the Institute will no longer be able to sponsor other organizations for Continuing Medical Education credit, but Steve Flagel has served both the Institute and Society in getting the necessary sponsorship from the American Psychoanalytic Association. Society members attending the Wednesday research presentations will be eligible for one and one half hours of credit for each session. As most of you know, the American will be having a full scientific meeting here in Chicago in May and the Society and Institute will be co-hosting a reception being planned by Brenda and David Solomon and their committee.

Another class will matriculate in the Psychotherapy Program under the vigorous leadership of Jim Fisch. Continuing Education Courses offered to other mental health professionals include "Models of the Psychotherapeutic Process" and "Psychotherapy with Children."

Turning to a less sanguine side, there will be no class in the Core Program this year. A task force on recruitment led by Dean Kenneth Newman has begun to look at the issues that impede prospective candidates from matriculating, particularly matters relating to costs. An important aspect of recruiting must be a clear presentation of how analysis differs from psychotherapy, how analytic training affects all of one's subsequent clinical work as well as how one views the meanings inherent in human experience.

Our Man in Santiago by Jerome Kavka, M.D.

The 41st International Psychoanalytic Congress in Chile this past July apparently lost money through the failure of Brazilians to participate attributed to the economic slowdown in Brazil. However, there certainly were large numbers of Chileans and a plethora of women attendees.

The hosting was gracious in a new convention center a bit far from the hotel centers. The relative neglect of problems of affect was overcome by the heavy concentration of attention to affect theory and practice.

Chicagoans, although few in number, were very active and included Jerry Winer, Nell Logan, Arnold Tobin and his wife Eva Lichtenberg and Jorge Schneider. I was the reporter for the opening panel, "Affects and Clinical Technique." Arnold Tobin was the reporter for a panel, "Affects, Language and Communication. He also attended the pre-congress training analyst meetings. Jerry Winer attended the pre-congress training analyst meetings as well and represented us at the International's Ethic Committee. Jorge Schneider was the reporter for the panel, "Dreams and Affects: 100 Years Later."

A unique feature included a warm welcoming address by the President of Chile and a grand farewell dinner with dancing in an elegant palatial residence. The Andes mountains are breathtakingly beautiful. Some of us took a side trip to Easter Island, the Atacama Desert and Machu Pichu in Peru.

Otto Kernberg, the outgoing President, limped about on an injured knee but all were glad to see him back in his home territory

Editor.................Richard I. Herron, M.D.

Assistant to the Editors.... Ms. Eva Sandberg

Coming Events:

Chicago Psychoanalytic Society Meetings

Please Note Change of Location:

Pritzker Auditorium, Northwestern Memorial Hospital

OPEN TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY

September 28 at 7:30 PM

Presenter: John E. Gedo, M.D.

A 40 Year Follow-up on a Supervised Case of Psychoanalysis Done in Training

Discussant: Henry M. Evans, M.D.

October 26 at 7:30

Presenter: Philip F. E. Rubovits-Seitz, M.D.

Interpretive Processing of Clinical Data: Problems and Progress

Discussant: Bertram J. Cohler, Ph.D.

The Interpretive Processing of Clinical Data:

Problems and Progress

October 26, 1999

Pritzker Auditorium

Northwestern Memorial Hospital

7:30 PM

Presenter: Philip F. E. Rubovits-Seitz, M.D.

This essay focuses on a crucial phase of the interpretive process, the data-processing strategies and operations that cognitively transform clinical data and information into latent meanings and determinant which are unique to the individual patient at a given time. Rather than attempting to review all of the diverse processing operations, the author selects several important and problematic examples for detailed discussion and illustration: pattern seeking, thematization, and clinical inference. A clinical method of investigating data processing, the retrospective "unpacking" or "naturalizing" of therapy sessions is described and illustrated. The author stresses also that we can learn a great deal from various other disciplines whose methods of studying cognitive processing supplement our own. Does detailed knowledge of the preconscious processes that underlie clinical interpretations make therapists better interpreters? The author suggests that the more we can learn about methods of cognitive transformation, and the more we can make such information part of our clinical interpretive knowledge base, the more likely we are to draw on and use that knowledge preconsciously in depth-psychological understanding of our patients.

January 25, 2000 at 7:30

Presenter: Paula B. Fuqua, M.D.

Termination: End or Transition?

Discussant: Mark D. Smaller, Ph.D.

March 17-19, 2000

Clinical Issues with Lesbians and Gay Men:

A Conference for Mental Health Professionals