NPSA Congress 2025 – New York

Early Mental Development

at the Stern Auditorium, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine
1468 Madison Avenue
New York, NY

19-21 June, 2025

Speakers include:

Cristina Alberini
Beatrice Beebe
Siri Hustvedt
Michael Meaney
Catherine Monk
Lisa Ouss

The earliest years of life, by most accounts, are highly influential in how we think, feel, and behave for the rest of our lives. During those early years, we develop a sense of self and other, internalize relational rules, acquire language and the beginnings of self-regulation, and much more – and we barely remember any of it! Furthermore, the intriguing question of prenatal mental life has now yielded important contributions that can be added to our understanding of the beginning of mind.

What new light can be shed on the foundations of mental health and pathology when we integrate neuroscientific and psychoanalytic perspectives on early mental development? What new insights may arise when we consider the evidence that mental processes begin in utero, and that how we are handled in the first months and years of life shape the functioning of our stress, immune and memory systems? Some of these early childhood influences may re-emerge in adulthood after lying completely dormant for years. Exploring such exciting questions will be the focus of our meeting in June 2025.

More information coming soon – please watch this space.