Second Call for Papers: Eleventh International Evolving British Object Relations Conference

The Feeling Mind and Lived Experience: Clinical Transformations in Psychoanalysis

– Interdisciplinary Perspectives –

We are pleased to announce our plenary presenters:

Mark Solms, PhD, FIPA from Cape Town, South Africa

and

Maxine Anderson, MD, FIPA from Seattle, Washington, USA. 

Mark Solms is the Chair of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital in South Africa, President of the South African Psychoanalytical Association, founder of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society, and will be named Honorary Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists in 2016. His books include The Neuropsychology of Dreams, Clinical Studies in Neuro-psychoanalysis (co-authored), The Brain and the Inner World (co-authored), The Feeling Brain, and is the authorized editor and translator of the forthcoming Revised Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (24 vols) and the Complete Scientific Works of Sigmund Freud (4 vols).

Maxine Anderson is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst and a Clinical Professor at the University of Washington.  She is a Supervising Analyst in the US and Canada and has published articles on theoretical and clinical issues in psychoanalysis from an Object Relations and Bionian perspective. Her new book, The Wisdom of Lived Experience, is forthcoming.

From Mark Solms, October 2015:

If the id is conscious and the ego is intrinsically unconscious, [as current neuroscience suggests] and as I believe they are, then how does this affect our clinical work? For one thing, we need to reconceptualise the very basis of the talking cure, which Freud conceptualised as attaching ego consciousness (via words) to the inchoate things in the unconscious id. Actually it is the ego that borrows its consciousness from the id, not the other way round. Accordingly I don’t believe our patients are troubled primarily by missing (unconscious) cognitions; they suffer mainly from all-too-present (conscious) feelings. Feelings are also the basis of the countertransference intuitions that so typically form the starting point of our interpretative work. The task of analysis, in a sense, is the endeavour to find the unconscious thoughts that explain the conscious feelings. But there are also more ill patients who do not feel their feelings … who confuse them with their objects (who mis-locate the feelings). These are just some starting points for a reconsideration of our clinical work in light of the discovery of the conscious id.  

From Maxine Anderson, October 2015:

Lived experience and its wisdom realize the primacy of affect, which precedes and fuels all cognition but needs the complex functions of the cerebral cortex, including perception, memory and symbolization for the recognition and mediation of those affects. While we generally favor the detailed, language-based thought offered by the left hemisphere for making our way in the world as well as in formulating our interpretative efforts in psychoanalysis, it may actually be the more unconscious, intuitive, wide-ranging capacities of the right hemisphere that ground our healing efforts and foster the wealth and wisdom of intuitive and implicit experience.  Indeed, a coordination between these two modes (the intellect and intuition) is essential, but true wisdom relies on the surrender of the products of the intellect back to the intuitive root.

The EBOR conference will also feature concurrent individual sessions of peer-reviewed full-length (10-12 page) papers reporting on original work related to the conference theme with ample time for discussion.

The EBOR 2016 Conference Organizing Committee invites paper submissions of original and unpublished material relating to the dialogue between neuroscience and psychoanalysis. We welcome an exploration into how neuroscience and psychoanalysis can inform, enrich or inhibit the other’s respective work. There are many perspectives of interdisciplinary interest – theoretical, philosophical, historical, clinical, etc. Some questions related to the conference theme are provided below to stimulate thinking with the hope that a wide variety of creative contributions will emerge but papers need not be limited to these.

Inspirational Questions:

·      What is a mind?

·      How do your conceptions about mind and brain influence your clinical work?

·      If our views of mind and brain move closer together through a dialogue between neuroscience and psychoanalytic theory, how does that impact evolving British Object Relations theory and psychoanalytic theory and practice in general? 

·      What could neuroscience learn from psychoanalysis?

·      What could psychoanalysis learn from neuroscience?

·      How does the wisdom gained from lived clinical experience inform our thinking about two minds working together?

·      Clinical examples are encouraged.

Instructions for submissions:

An initial abstract submission followed by a paper submission are both required and should follow the format outlined below. Abstracts must be submitted no later than March 1, 2016 and paper submissions must be submitted no later than May 1, 2016.

·      Each abstract and each paper must be written in English and accompanied by a cover letter.

·      The cover letter should be the first page of the submission.

·      The cover letter must state the following: 

–       the name(s) and email address(es) of the corresponding author(s), and 

–       the title of the paper

·      The submitted paper must contain original, unpublished work and not be currently under consideration for presentation elsewhere.

·      All co-authors concur with the contents of the paper.  

To guarantee a blind review of each submission using multiple reviewers, please avoid including the author’s name in the body of the abstract and the paper.

Submitted abstracts are limited to a maximum of 150-200 words (not including the cover letter) with 1.5 line spacing in Word document format. These should state the paper’s key arguments or ideas, its significance as a theoretical contribution and/or its clinical application, and identification of key influences such as major thinkers or previous writers on similar themes.

Submitted papers are limited to a maximum of twelve (12) pages (not including the cover letter and references) with 1.5 line spacing in Word document format. Paper submissions will be judged on relevance to the conference theme, clarity, originality/innovativeness, significance, and contributions to theory and practice. Each submission will receive a written response. 

In order for an accepted paper to be included in the conference, the author must agree to register, pay for and attend the conference, as well as personally present the paper.

Questions about the submission process should be directed to:

·      Claudette Cummings, PhD, EBOR Paper Presentation Review Committee, at cumming8@u.washington.edu.

Submissions of abstracts, cover letters and papers should be emailed to:

·      Hollee Sweet, NPSI Administrator, at admin@npsi.us.com.

Continuing Education Credits:

 The conference organizing committee is in the process of applying for 7-8 CME Category 1 credit hours to cover the two Friday afternoon Pre-Conference Master Classes, the two Saturday Conference Plenary Sessions held by Mark Solms, PhD FIPA and Maxine Anderson, MD, FIPA, and the Sunday clinical case presented to Drs. Anderson and Solms.