45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper and Additional Sessions:
There are four sessions for Paper Presentations in which registrants select one to attend.
Additional sessions: The Child & Adolescent Initiative Group Meeting and the Couples Therapy Interest Groupwill have meetings that qualify for CE credits.
Additional group meetings will be held for The Social Justice Interest Group, The Teaching Interest Group,
The Writing Interest Group and the Students & Candidates Group.
For a description of the session, learning objectives, presenter bios and other details, please click on thepaper’s listing (ie: Paper 1-X).
Paper Sessions 1-F, 2-E, 3-A & 4D will be offered both for in-person and virtual attendees.

Paper Session 1 and Meet the Author Presentation: Thursday, October 24th 4:00 – 5:30pm
Paper Session 1-A: Surviving: On Mourning and Loss
Paper 1: From the Ashes: Persevering Presenter:and Changing in Worlds on FireDavid Fireman, MSW
Paper 2: The Person Who Cannot be Presenter:
Tragic Among TragediesŞükran Pelin Balcı
Paper Session 1-B: Twinship: Bridging Difference and Distance
Paper 1: Long Distance Twinship and Presenter:
the Specificity of Positionality: When Claire Jaynes, MA
is Different Too Different?
Paper 2: The Train Waits: Twinshipand Alter-Ego Experiences in a
Delicately Titrated Treatment

Interlocutor:
Arthur A. Gray, PhD

Interlocutor:
Fabia Eleonara Banella, PhD

Presenter:
Lisa Ruesch, JD, LCSW

Paper Session 1-C: Meet the Author Presentation
Kohut’s Self Psychology for a
Presenter:
Fractured WorldJohn Riker, PhD
Paper Session 1-D: Emotional Trauma and Embodied Experience
Paper 1: Traumatic Shame Revisited: Presenter:
Paralysis of Action
Lorraine Cates, PhD, LCSW
Paper 2: Self Psychology and AdultPresenter:
Onset Trauma – Body Inclusive Short
Ernst Meyer, MAInterlocutor:
Raanan Kulka, MAInterlocutor:
Marina Amore, PhD

Term Treatment for First Responders

Paper Session 1-E: Perspectives on Complexity and Intersubjectivity: Two Case Discussions
Paper 1: On Beauty: The Power of Presenter:
Interlocutor:
Resonance in Communion
Ebba Schmitz-Hubsch
Maria Silvia Soriato, PsyD
Paper 2: Complexity and
Presenter:
Intersubjectivity in a Contemporary
Hélder Chambel
Tragedy: Mario and I Looking for a
House in Chaos

Paper Session 1-F:. The Sharing Unconsciousness and the Vulnerability of the Analyst
Paper 1: Shattering, Recollecting and Presenter:
Interlocutor:
Cocreating the Meaning of Life in the Xiaofeng Long, MA
Cecilia Belardelli, PsyD
Midst of Pain: Clinical work on Special
Women's Existential Trauma from theRelational Self Psychology Perspective
Paper 2: When We Are Undone:
Exploring Moments of Vulnerability,
Surrender, and Creative
Transformation within the Analyst

Presenter:
Michelle Harwell, PsyD, LMFT

Paper Session 2: Saturday, October 26, 2:30 – 4:00pm
Paper Session 2-A: Students and Candidates Papers
Paper 1: Two for the Royal Road: Presenter:
Moment in Meeting shaped byTodd Frugia, MFA, MA, LCPC
Mourning, Melancholia, and a Dream
Paper 2: Finding Hope During
Collapse

Presenter:
Kateryna Bagan, MA

Paper Session 2-B: Moral Injury: From Myth to Clinic
Paper 1: Kohut’s and Sophocles’
Presenter:
Oedipus: The Birth of Tragic Man andMarcia Dobson, PhD
its Resonances for our Contemporary
World
Paper 2: Moral Injury: The Existential
Loneliness of an Israeli SoldierInterlocutor:
Lily Qu, MAInterlocutor:
Davide Belluardo, PsyD

Presenter:
Iris Eliraz

Paper Session 2-C: Identity: Between Shame and Hope
Paper 1: Tragic Youths: Shame andPresenter:
Identity
Rebecca Minto, PsyD
Paper 2: The Tragedy of Inherited
Presenter:
Shame
Stefano Borioni, PsyD

Interlocutor: Orly Shoshani, PhD

Paper Session 2-D: The Traumatic Rupture of War and Reconnection: Empathy and Solidarity
Paper 1: Tragic Man, Empathy,
Presenters:
Interlocutor:
Solidarity, War, and Courage
Eldad Iddan, MA & Amina Taiber, Luca Migliaccio, PsyD
MA
Paper 2: The Tragic Man in Times of Presenter:Collective Catastrophe: Thoughts on
Simona Katz Nirensztajn, MA
Empathy and Analytic Listening as a
Bridge Towards Potentiality

Paper Session 2-E: Patterns and Experiences in Psychoanalysis: New Theoretical Perspectives
Paper 1: Behavior is Memory - Presenter:
Interlocutor:
Introduction to Template Theory, a Bruce Herzog, MD
Sarah Mendelsohn, LCSWNew Direction in Self Psychology
Paper 2: Toward a Pragmatic Self
Psychology

Presenter:
Daniel Goldin, MFT, PsyD

Paper Session 2-F: The Subjectivity of the Analyst and The Therapeutic Field
Paper 1: The Self and The Other: How Presenter:
Interlocutor:
does The Analyst’s Subjectivity come Massimo Perrini, PsyD
Elizabeth Carr, APRN
into play in the Clinical Encounter?
Paper 2: Present-absent Mother,
Present-absent Analyst

Presenter:
Ashley Leeds, LCSW

Paper Session 2-G: Tragic Consciousness as a Therapeutic Aim (Panel)
Presenters:
Heather Ferguson, LCSW & Jan Chess, PhD, MFTInterlocutor:
Enrico Paolini, MD

Paper Session 3: Saturday, October 26, 4:30 – 6:00pm

Paper Session 3-A: Timeless Dilemmas: Empathy, Realness and Reciprocity
Presenters:
Malcolm Slavin, PhD & Hazel Ipp, PhD

Interlocutor:
Estelle Shane, PhD

Paper Session 3-B: Social and Political Complexities: How Psychoanalysis Can Help Us
Paper 1: Bridging the Gap Between
Presenters:
Interlocutor:
Understanding and Blame, Dialogue
Daniel Perlitz, MD, &Valentina Desiderio, PsyD
and Rupture, Compassion andMargy Sperry, MFT, PsyD
Outrage

Paper 2: Psychoanalysis as a Path to
Liberation: Unveiling the Power of
Self-Reflection

Paper Session 3-C: Despair and Healing
Paper 1: A Field Guide to Clinical
Artifacts and Bones - Guilty Man;
Tragic Woman
Paper 2: In the Heart of Darkness:
Facing the World's Tragedy Together
in Therapy

Presenter:
Nariman Sedaghat, MA

Presenter:
Anna Stothart, PsyD

Interlocutor:
Michele Argalia, PsyD

Presenter:
Gökçen Bulut, PhD

Paper Session 3-D: Personal Life and Personal Work: The History of Buber and Masud Khan
Paper 1: Relational Homelessness: Presenter:
Interlocutor:
The Tragedy of Masud Khan
Ilene Philipson, PhD, PhD, PsyD
Petra Purkarthofer, PhD
Paper 2: The Importance ofPresenter:intersubjective Systems Theory:
Donna Wolfskehl DiStefano,
An Agent for Change as Seen in the
LCSW
I-Thou Perspective

Paper Session 3-E: The Subjectivity of the Analyst in the Encounter With The Patients
Paper 1: Dismantling the Barricades: Presenter:
Interlocutor:
Ways into One’s Own Personal
Margaret Allan, MSW, PsyD
Leslie Smith, MSW
Experience as Gateways into a Sense
of Connection
Paper 2: The Flavour of theIntersubjective Encounter: “Finding”
the Other in the Reciprocal “Hiding
Places”

Presenter:
Maria Tammone, MD

Panel Session 3-F: Couple Psychotherapy and Separations: Broken Bond, Broken Self
Paper 1: Terminable andPresenter:
Interlocutor:
Interminable Separations: The
Cristina Bonucci, PhD
Karen Bloomberg, LCSW, PhD
Relationship Without the Other
Paper 2: Possible and Impossible
Separations: Losing the Bond or
Losing the Self?

Presenter:
Rosetta Castellano, PhD

Paper Session 3-G: Tragic Man and an Existential Self Psychology
Tragic Man and an Existential Self
Presenter:
Psychology
John Riker, PhD

Interlocutor:
Gabriella Mann, PhD

Paper Session 4: Sunday, October 27, 9:00 – 10:30am
Paper Session 4-A: The World Today: Between the Shadows of Tragedy and the Reflections of Hope
Paper 1: My Patient is Not Getting Presenter:
Interlocutor:
Better!
Amira Simha-Alpern, PhD
Lucia Maiorino, PsyD
Paper 2: Meaning in Life of Tehran’s Presenter:
Recovering Homeless Men: A
Sepideh Shirani, MA
Phenomenological Study

Paper Session 4-B: On the Power of Music as a Selfobject ExperiencePaper 1: A Musical Adolescent’s Self
and a Tragic Mother: After the
Father’s Traumatic Loss
Paper 2: "Silence the pianos … Let
the mourners come": How a momentof musical rupture transformed
Kohut's Tragic Man, in life and in theanalytic hourPresenter:
Marco Bernabei, PhD

Interlocutor:
Andrea Harms, PhD

Presenter:
Ephrat Havron, PhD

Paper Session 4-C: Is Losing Guilty Man a Tragedy?
Paper 1: Guilty Man and Tragic Man Presenter:in Dialogue: Rethinking Difference as Cheryl Goldstein, PsyD

Interlocutor:
Judith Aronson, PhD

Dynamics

Paper 2: Toward The Co-Existence ofGuilty Man and Tragic Man: A SocialPsychoanalytic Perspective

Presenter:
Ilene Philipson, PhD, PsyD

Paper Session 4-D: Facing Together the Pain of Personal and Collective Trauma
Paper 1: Storytelling in Times ofPresenter:
Interlocutor:
Acute Trauma - The story of June
Edna Lahav-Zimmermann, MA
Raanan Kulka, PhD
within the tragedy of October 7th

Paper 2: The Guilty, the Tragic, andthe Transformed: Contemplating
Human Potential from Patients’
Experiences in the Israeli-Hamas War

Presenter:
Uri Moshovitz, PhD

Paper Session 4-E: Self-Realization and Freedom in the Analytical Field: Theoretical and Clinical Insights
Paper 1: The Ice Mother Melting
Presenter:
Interlocutor:
Sara Khosravi, MA
Massimo Segù, PsyD
Paper 2: Analytic Freedom and The Presenter:
Loving Gaze
Shir Shanun, PsyD
Paper Session 4-F: Research Studies: Tragic Conditions and Their Outcomes
Paper 1: Reflecting on the
Presenter:
Intergenerational Impact of Early
Cherry Qi, RCC, MCP, MA
Experiences of Being Fostered or
Raised in Alternative Care Settingsfrom Clinical Observations ofChinese-Canadian Adolescents
Paper 2: A Self Psychologist in PublicService: Tragic Communities. From
the Bronx to Newtown with a Stop in
Methadonia

Presenter:
George Hagman, LCSW

Paper Session 4-G: Clinical Process and Integrative Functions of the Self
Paper 1: Self-Involvement,
Presenter:
Selfobject Presence, and Cohesive
Weifeng Huang, MA
self: A Perspective Based on the
Tragic Person today
Paper 2: A Dancing Robot

Interlocutor:
David Poulin-Latulippe, MAInterlocutor:
Fulvio Ambrosio, PsyD

Presenter:
Homa Khorsani, MA

Paper Session 4-H: Complexity of Life and Complexity of Clinical Work: From Despair to Resilience
Paper 1: Loss, Grief and the Presenter:
Interlocutor:
Mourning of Gay Men
Robert Benedetti, PhD
Deborah Sherman, BC-DMT,LMHC
Paper 2: Tragic Man Evolved:
Presenter:
Navigating Existential Challenges
Douglas Zimmerman, MA,Ed.
Through Therapeutic Transformation
LCSW

Additional CE Earning Sessions:Friday, October 25, 2024 1:00 – 2:00pm
Child and Adolescent Group Initiative: The Importance of a Psychological Hand in Child Psychotherapy
Presenter:
Interlocutor:
Lynn Borenstein, MSW
Denise Davis, LCSW

Friday, October 25, 2024 1:00 – 2:00pm
Couples Therapy Interest Group: Variations in the Couple Setting
Presenter:
Christina Bonucci, PhD

Moderator:
David Shaddock, PhD

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 1-A: Surviving: On Mourning and Loss
Paper 1: From the Ashes: Persevering and Changing in Worlds on Fire
Presenter: David Fireman, MSW
Paper 2: The Person Who Cannot be Tragic Among Tragedies
Presenter: Şükran Pelin Balcı
Interlocutor: Arthur A. Gray, PhD
Thursday, October 24, 4:00 – 5:30pm

Paper 1: Abstract:
This paper contends that loss has many forms, but its impact, the traumatic upheaval of one’s personal
identity and assumptive world, is nearly always the core reaction. Only the question of source and degree
differentiates one situation from another. Consequently, clinical practice becomes a witnessing of astaggering multiplicity of tragedies, all easily considered to be loss. Death is the most obvious, but cliniciansmust also help their patients come to terms with economic failure, professional failure, profound medical
diagnoses, divorce, and ruptures in other crucial relationships. And now, in a world on fire with war, politicalschism, pandemics, climate change and humanitarian crisis, loss’s “landscape” is ever present andeverywhere. Grounded in case examples and bereavement theory, this paper will explore thephenomenology of grief and mourning from a self-psychological perspective enhanced by other insights,
including those espoused by Kohut, Stolorow, Riley, Peskin, Hagman, Rando, Perlitz, Niemeyer, and Jung. It
will show how grief and mourning are natural restorative processes that, when explored and worked throughin a self psychologically oriented therapy, can be navigated to help people “survive” loss and open a path todeep personal change.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Analyze the phenomenology of bereavement through a grief and mourning phases model within the
dynamic self-selfobject matrix of patient and therapist.
2. Conceptualize how specific bereavement counseling principles and interventions enhance
psychotherapy generally.
3. Demonstrate through case examples the individual and societal meanings of the tragic human, loss,
self-restoration and life-recommencement in the context of world shattering events.
Abstract: Paper 2:
Background of the Patient: The father of the patient passed away due to a suicide seven years ago. The
patient, who started therapy a year after her father’s death, was in the midst of a deep mourning process.
She just wanted to be able to look at her father’s photos. Her father had committed suicide by setting himself
on fire. And she couldn’t stop thinking about her father’s physical pain. Her father would work as a tradesman
in a small town. He committed suicide due to his inability to pay off debts in his last days. The patient
struggled with feelings of guilt and inadequacy for a long time. Over time, she began to see feelings of shame.
We had 105 therapy sessions in approximately 6 years. During this time period, she had to cope withdifficulties such as her father's death being publicized on social media, her brother's suicide attempts andaddiction treatment, her mother and brother moving to her city, her father being blamed and abandoned byhis family, and her own migration due to political and economic reasons.
At the beginning of our sessions, I was employing some techniques under the influence of classical theory. I
was interpreting the patient's anger and guilt and creating contexts without the patient's awareness. It was
as if only these emotions were the response risen by the grief she had. I would then judge myself for notunderstanding the patient enough during the sessions. Somewhere along the way, I encountered Self
Psychology. And I realized that there was room for me in the therapy room as well. By the aid of therealization, the patient began to talk about how her father's suicide, her poverty, and the burdens left on her
made her feel ashamed and helpless. I probably said to her, 'I'm here too.' I believe that with the realizationand feeling that I was there, the patient found a space where she could be herself.
The reason why I particularly want to bring out the patient’s psychologically evolution is that, as a therapist
who has experienced a similar loss, it enables me to practice therapy in the most authentic way, being closest
to myself in the therapy room.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Identify the process of transitioning from interpretation to empathic listening.
2. Discuss a painful existence following a traumatic loss.
Presenter Bios:David Fireman, MSW, LCSW, is the Executive Director of the Center for Grief Recovery in Chicago. David
practices psychotherapy grounded in Self and depth psychologies. His extensive background helping others
grows out of a sincere respect for inherent individual differences, social learning, the interplay of love andloss throughout the lifespan, finding purpose and meaning, and placing value in the power of the therapeutic
relationship. He is an active and involved therapist who believes that the rare combination of honesty andcourage brings about lasting change. In tandem with his client work, he also provides professional
consultation services to therapists in private or agency settings. Finally, to round out his traditional training
in social work and psychotherapy, David draws from his experience as a black belt [student and senior classmember] in judo, Tibetan forms of meditation, and Jewish spirituality. David is an active and sought-afterworkshop presenter and blogger. His work has been published in various sources. He was social work lecturer
at The University of Chicago and Jane Addams College of Social Work, UIC. As past president of theTranspersonal Psychology Network Chicago, David is committed to values and practices that nurture thehuman spirit, courage, creativity, compassion, and pragmatic action.
Şükran Pelin Balcı : After graduating, for a year, I worked in the field of special education, assessing children
with learning difficulties and addressing behavioral problems. I conducted individual counseling sessions withthe families of children with learning difficulties and also provided seminars on their diagnoses. From
September 2010 to June 2012, while attending a language school in London, I also participated in individualand family work with individuals experiencing adjustment issues, mostly in their native language, at London
Enfield Council's Social Services. Shortly after returning to Turkey, I started working in the adult department
at Madalyon Psychiatry Center. Over the course of two and a half years, I focused on family, couple, andindividual therapy, specifically working on Family Therapy, Sexual Dysfunction Relationship and Marriage
Therapy, Anxiety Disorders, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Personality Disorders, Grief Process, andDepression. Throughout this period, I received training in Classical Psychoanalysis. After continuing my careerby following up with patients at a private clinic and providing counseling at a private high school for 3 years,
I returned to work at Madalyon Psychiatry Center for another 2 years as of September 2018. As of 2019, I
started my training in SELF PSYCHOLOGY through IAPSP (International Association for Psychoanalytic Self
Psychology) and APPD (Anatolian Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies Association) and continue my supervision.
I have been continuing my work at Penta Psychology, which I founded, for about 4 years.

References:
Peskin, H. (2019). Who Has the Right to Mourn?: Relational Deference and the Ranking of Grief,
Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 29, 477-492.
Hagman.G (2022). Mourning Alone Together: Suhidra Yadavalli’s Contribution to a New Mourning Theory,
Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 17(3-4), 255-259.
Perlitz, D. (2022) Mutual Imbeddedness: The Foundation for a Relational World. Psychoanalysis, Self andContext, 17(1), 8-22.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 1-B: Twinship: Bridging Difference and Distance
Paper 1: Long Distance Twinship and the Specificity of Positionality: When is Different Too
Different?
Presenter: Claire Jaynes, MA
Paper 2: The Train Waits: Twinship and Alter-Ego Experiences in a Delicately Titrated Treatment
Presenter: Lisa Ruesch, JD, LCSWInterlocutor: Fabia Eleonora Banella, PhD
Thursday, October 24, 4:00 – 5:30pm

Abstract: Paper 1:
My background and training have encouraged me and my local colleagues to interrogate power, privilege,
oppression and intersectionality. Around me I see psychology and psychologists grapple with these concepts.
I have sought to make Self Psychology my theoretical home, and IAPSP my community of practice. However,I am greatly affected by a sense of stark difference and contrast between myself and the prominent voicesin the community. It is not just a sense of being different, but perhaps irreconcilably so? I feel alien, andoffended, unseen and taken aback. It feels my choices are a) pathological accommodation or b) retreating tosameness and belonging on home soil. This paper is my attempt to reject those binary options in search of amore complex and authentic relationality. The community is also challenged to see their blind spots and to
be more attuned to those who are different and marginalised.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Define ‘intersectionality’.
2. Explain how elements of power and privilege impact on a sense of belonging, and thus impact on
twinship and selfobject needs.
3. Describe how elements of sameness and difference impact on belonging and attunement.
Abstract: Paper 2:
This paper explores the delicate titration of twinship and alter-ego selfobject experiences in a treatment ofan older Ashkenazi Jewish woman by a middle-aged Chinese female therapist, from the Covid-19 pandemic
to the present. The author draws upon recent theorizing on twinship and alter-ego selfobject experiences toshow the therapeutic effect of quiet companioning and emotional dwelling; the emergence of hidden alterego selves; self-disclosure on race; the provision of “practical advice”; and the use of virtual sessions in thistreatment of a patient who is staring down the barrel of the end of life and facing head on multiple traumas,
regrets of the past, and what it all might mean.

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Discuss and compare twinship and alter-ego experiences.
2. Understand I-It and I-Thou relating and their oscillations.
3. Describe how an alter-ego experience emerges.
Presenter Bios:
Claire Jaynes, MA is a queer counselling psychologist working in private practice in Brooklyn, Pretoria, South
Africa. She is passionate about taking a stand against all forms of social asymmetries including homophobia,
transphobia, racism, and sexism. Her research interests include (anti)racism, the intersection of race andgender, sexuality and gender identity, neurodiversity/neurodivergence, and psychotherapy from a relationalself psychology orientation.
Lisa L. Ruesch, JD, LCSW, is a 2023 IAPSP Early Career Professional Scholarship Recipient. She is a graduate,
faculty, and board member of the National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NIP) and the Books Editor of
Psychoanalytic Perspectives. Her paper, Tiny Little Asian Thing: Appearances in a Therapeutic Dyad, received
NIP’s Educators’Award.
Lisa works with adults, children, and families in her private practice in New York City. Before entering thefield, she practiced complex commercial litigation and family law.
References:
Kottler, A. (2015). Feeling at Home, Belonging, and Being Human: Kohut, Self Psychology, Twinship, andAlienation. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 10(4), 378-389.
Kottler, A. (2020) When the Echoes of Red and Blue Turn to Green: Disentangling Alienated Alter-Ego Self
Experiences Through a Collaborative and Complex Relational, and Conversational Dance. Psychoanalysis,
Self, and Context, 15(1),62-70.
Corpt, E. & Richard, A. (2022) Racism and Other Traumatic Inequalities: Editors’ Introduction. Psychoanalysis,
Self and Context, 17(2), 137-140.
Berzoff, J. (2023). Intersectionality: Power Differentials, Impasses and Enactments in Clinical Practice and in
Supervision. Psychoanalytic Social Work, 30(1), 64-76.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

1C: Meet the Author Session
Kohut’s Self Psychology for a Fractured World
Presenter: John Riker, PhD
Interlocutor: Raanan Kulka, MA
Thursday, October 24, 4:00 – 5:00pm

Abstract:
The book has three aims: First, to offer the most extensive conceptual understanding of Kohut’s ideas in theliterature by examining his structural, functional, and dynamic concepts of the self along with differentiating
the self from the ego and offering a full understanding of psychopathology from the perspective of self
psychology. My second aim is to compare Kohut’s understanding of the self with modernity’s notion of theself as autonomous, pragmatic individuality to show not only how modernity is misconceiving the self andits needs but how this misconception is implicated in many of society’s most grievous problems, including
homelessness, the epidemic of loneliness, deaths of despair, sexual violence, gun violence, income
inequality, the addictions, the epidemic of cheating, the obesity epidemic, and even climate change. Thatis, as a good philosopher, I attempt to show that one of the primary ills of modern society is a profoundmisconception of who we are as humans and what we most need.
My third aim is to imagine what an ideal self psychological community would look like. In this section of thebook, I attempt to sketch out in this part of the book what homes, schools, workplaces, and the generalpractices of socio/economic life would look like if the fundamental aim of the culture was not economic
productivity but creating persons who had vibrant, coherent selves as the core of their experience.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Analyze Kohut’s ideas by examining his structural, functional, and dynamic concepts of the self.
2. Describe what the author believes what an ideal self psychological community would look like.
Presenter Bio:
For the past three decades, John Riker, PhD has been devoted to exploring the relation of psychoanalysis-especially Kohutian self psychology--to problems in ethics and philosophical anthropology. He has written
five books intersecting psychoanalysis and ethics (most recently, Kohut’s Self Psychology for a Fragmented
World (2024)), and published numerous articles and spoken in many conferences on this material, including
conferences in England, Belgium, Turkey, Austria, Canada, and Israel. John has been a professor ofphilosophy at Colorado College for over half a century and been named Professor of the Year a record fourtimes, and Advisor of the Year a record three times. He was the initial recipient of the award Colorado College
established to recognize someone who most promotes diversity and inclusion on campus. He has recently
been appointed co-editor-in-chief of Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context.

References:
Riker, J. H. (2017). The Dialectical Core of Self Psychology: A Reflection on Coburn’s and Maduro’s Essays.
Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context, 12(2), 173-180.
Riker, J. H. (2021). A Critical Appraisal of Stolorow’s Criticism of Kohut’s Concept of the Self and His
Contextualization of Heidegger’s Notion of Authenticity plus the Possibility of an Intersubjective Self
Psychology. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 16(4), 338–351.
Riker, J.H. (2021). The Philosophical Significance of Kohut’s Theory of the Self. Psychoanalytic Review, 108(2),215-237.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 1-D: Emotional Trauma and Embodied Experience
Paper 1: Traumatic Shame Revisited: Paralysis of Action
Presenter: Lorraine Cates, PhD, LCSW
Paper 2: Self Psychology and Adult-Onset Trauma – Body Inclusive Short Term Treatment for First
Responders
Presenter: Ernst Meyer, MAInterlocutor: Marina Amore, PhD
Thursday, October 24, 4:00 – 5:30pm

Abstract: Paper 1:
While developmental emotional trauma engenders much attention and debate, the subject of traumatic
shame remains elusive and, as such, easily brushed off. It is shameful to feel shame–a reaction that may bemutually shared by patient and analyst alike. As opposed to ordinary shame, traumatic shame, a dimensionof emotional trauma, implicates the lived body with states of unbearable painful affect that seek immediateriddance. Often shrouded in defense activity, traumatic shame can be difficult to detect. Hence, clinicians
tend to treat the symptoms rather than the experience itself. In exploring this highly complex dynamic, myfocus remains on the experiencing body as a source of emotional knowledge that issues from unformulated,unspoken lived experience. Discussed through clinical vignettes is the role of body emotion situated in boththe suffering and healing of traumatic shame.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Identify the therapeutic significance of an emotional phenomenological framework in working withthe embodied experience of traumatic shame.
2. Apply to the clinical process the importance of the nonverbal embodied interchange between
patient and the analyst as a crucial element in the treatment of traumatic shame.
3. Explain the lived body in relation to the unity of a mind-body-world system.
Abstract: Paper 2:
The author proposes a short-term, self-psychological and intersubjective model for the treatment of first
responders suffering from trauma related presentations. While psychodynamic approaches are well suitedfor developmental or childhood-based trauma, they are insufficient for adult-onset trauma in general, andspecifically for a first-responder population. Combining the principles of Self Psychology, Stolorow’s proposalof emotional dwelling (2014), an understanding of our embodied nature (Brothers & Sletvold, 2022) and aclinical attitude informed by body psychotherapy (Geuter, 2016), the author describes a phased short-term
treatment approach. Case material from treatment with first responders is provided and compared withverbal/top-down mainstream approaches to treatment. The paper concludes with a discussion of how tointegrate embodiment into self psychological theory and clinical practice.

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Identify why self psychological treatment needs to be adjusted to the specific needs of first
responders.
2. Describe the stages of a body-inclusive short-term approach.
3. Demonstrate how to address shame in short-term treatment with first responders.
Presenter Bios:
Lorraine Cates, PhD, LCSW is a member and training analyst at NPAP, National Psychological Association
for Psychoanalysis in New York City. She is a 2008 graduate of Columbia University College of Arts andSciences where she was awarded a doctorate in Social Policy and Administration. Dr. Cates served as an
adjunct faculty member between 2006 and 2008 at the School of Social Work. She attended University ofVermont and studied acting at Boston University, School of Theater Arts, graduating from the School of
Liberal Arts with a BA in English Literature.
In her former life, she pursued a career in the theater and appeared in several Equity productions at both
New England Mutual Playhouse, Boston, Ma., and Boothbay Harbor Playhouse, Maine.
Dr. Cates is an active member of the Blue Hill Troupe, Ltd., a Gilbert and Sullivan group of Savoyards
celebrating its 100th season, 1924 -2024. The proceeds from two yearly productions are gifted to New York
City charities.
My name is Ernst Meyer, I am a Registered Clinical Psychotherapist, hold a Masters Degree in Psychotherapy
and Counselling, and have ten years of experience in private practice. I have been elected to the board ofthe "Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia" (PACFA) as the psychotherapy representative,
and am part of the leadership group for somatic psychotherapy in Australia. I am a full member of the"European Association for Body Psychotherapy" (EABP) and a member of the “International Association for
Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (IAPSP)”. As a trained Somatic Psychotherapist I understand that humanbeings are embodied, and my clinical approach is body-inclusive and trauma informed. Being a former police
officer, my aim is to support current and retired first responders - most carry a diagnosis of PTSD, and many
have experienced one or more suicide attempts – in ways that are meaningful for them, and their families.
As an educator I provide body-inclusive training for existing practitioners. In my clinical experience anawareness of embodiment in general and connection with body-inclusive approaches to lead to better
outcomes for those seeking help. Outside of the practice and training room I am advocating for humanscience based psychotherapy to be recognized as a clinical alternative to clinical psychology and psychiatry.
References:
Cates, L. B. (2014), Insidious Emotional Trauma: The Body Remembers. International Journal of
Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 9(1),35-53.
Stolorow, R. (2014). Undergoing the situation: emotional dwelling is more than empathic understanding.
International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 9,80–83.
Stolorow, R. D. (2015). A phenomenological-contextual, existential, and ethical perspective on emotional
trauma. Psychoanalytic Review, 102,123-138.
Geuter, U. (2016). Body psychotherapy: experiencing the body, experiencing the self. International Body
Psychotherapy Journal, 15(1), 6-19.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 1-E: Perspectives on Complexity and Intersubjectivity: Two Case Discussions
Paper 1: On Beauty: The Power of Resonance in Communion
Presenter: Ebba Schmitz-Hubsch
Paper 2: Complexity and Intersubjectivity in a Contemporary Tragedy: Mario and I Looking for a House in
Chaos
Presenter: Hélder Chambel
Interlocutor: Maria Silvia Soriato, PsyD
Thursday, October 24, 4:00 – 5:30pm

Abstract: Paper 1:
Starting from a view on the complex weave of subjectivities in the fluid moment-to moment movement in
the therapeutic communion, we will illuminate how this intersubjective encounter contains risks (limitations,distortions,…) as well as chances and enrichment. The fostering experience of being part of a communion inrecognition and resonance leads to a feeling of inner safety and coherence. When we experience continuing
moments of fittedness in being-at-one in the beauty of a warm milieu, a space for growing is opened for anempowered self which can feel safe, vital and creative. Here, the hermeneutic stance of emotional
understanding from the midst of the living experience is seen as the transmuting factor in its tension between
communion and differentiation. The vignette of A., a girl of 15y, can help getting a feeling for these woven
processes. Trust in the creative self-organizing of complex processes and emergent change can arise. Thismight lead to an expansion of Kohut’s concept of the Tragic Man to a vision of the idea of the creative human.
Thus, helplessness can be transmuted into confidence. It is to be discussed how this change of perspective
might help us in these times of turbulences and threat.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of the presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Describe the being together and the vibrant resonance in the intersubjective therapeuticcommunion as the empowering dimension in the mastery of traumatic crises.
2. Explain the evolving understanding from the midst of the living experience in the present moment
as a transmuting factor.
3. Identify the contextuality of Kohut´s concept of the Tragic Man and discuss its expanding to the ideaof the creative human as a rich perspective on change.
Abstract: Paper 2:
Through the analysis of a clinical situation, I try to demonstrate the importance of the theories of complexity
and intersubjectivity for clinical work in psychoanalysis. I emphasize the therapeutic relational experience inintersubjectivity, and the “therapeutic self–state” of the therapists, as essential factors for thetransformation of the patient in the therapeutic relationship. I highlight the early intersubjective formationof our minds and emphasize the importance of the ability to understand and live in complex systems thatare always insecure and unpredictable. Living in a "hypermodern" world of permanent acceleration is achallenge (sometimes tragic) to the subjectivity of each one of us, and the transition from a patriarchal familyorganization to a more “liquid" world, in various dimensions of life, being a human evolution, can be a sourceof insecurity.

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of the presentation, the participants will beable to:1.
Describe complexity theories for clinical work in
psychoanalysis.
2.
Demonstrate the inevitability of intersubjectivity in theclinical situation.
3.
Discuss the consequences for mental health of thetransition from a patriarchal model of society to a more "liquid" model and greater expression of the
self.
Presenter Bios:
Ebba Schmitz-Hubsch: Studied at Westfälische-Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Germany 1971-1976:
Psychology, Social Sciences, Education Sciences, Philosophy with Diploma in 1976; Staatsexamen II in 1978;
Training in Psychoanalytic Art Therapies 1988-1992 in Hannover; at Winnicott Institut Training in Deep
Psychology and Analytic Therapy 1992-1999; at ZAP (Zentrum für Ausbildung Psychotherapie), Bad Salzuflen,
Germany Approbation and Registration in Medical Register 1999 (Children and Adolescents).
Private Practice in Detmold since 1995 – today. Registration /Acceptance by Kassenärztliche Vereinigung
2007 Tagungen (conferences) Dreieich since 1997; Member of Maschseegruppe (Selfpsychology orientatedStudy group, organizing conferences) since 2003 – today; Member of IAPSP since 2016; Member of
DPNW/Germany since 2019; Teacher / Lecturer (since 2007) at ZAP (Center for Training Psychotherapists);
supervisor and trainer since 2012.
eferences:Ávila, A. (2016). The intersubjective: A core concept for psychoanalysis. International Forum of
Psychoanalysis, 25(3), 186–190.
Sperry, M. (2016). From Theory to Clinical Practice: Psychoanalytic Complexity Theory and the LivedExperience of Complexity. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 11(4), 349–362.
Pizer, S. A. (2018) “Where All the Ladders Start”: A Clinical Account of Object Relations Legacies, Self-Statesand Analytic Process. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 28,6, 679-686.
MacIntosh, H.B. (2023). Practicing in a time of covid loss and threat: Parallel processes on the yellow brickroad of trauma, healing, trust and belonging. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 18(4), 502-515.
Sperry, M. (2023). Getting beyond ourselves: The transformative potential of awe. Psychoanalysis, Self andContext,18(4), 559-570.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 1-F: The Sharing Unconsciousness and the Vulnerability of the Analyst

Paper 1: Shattering, Recollecting and Cocreating the Meaning of Life in the Midst of Pain: Clinical workon Special Women's Existential Trauma from the Relational Self Psychology Perspective
Presenter: Xiaofeng Long, MA
Paper 2: When We Are Undone: Exploring Moments of Vulnerability, Surrender, and Creative
Transformation within the Analyst
Presenter: Michelle Harwell, PsyD, LMFT
Interlocutor: Cecilia Belardelli, PsyD
Thursday, October 24, 4:00 – 5:30pm

Abstract: Paper 1:
Most of the author’s patients are women, born during the implementation of China's one-child policy and in
the context of China's patriarchal culture. They may have been abandoned for the sake of a brother's birth,
hidden, or falsely claimed to be dead or disabled, or their families may have been punished with huge finesthat burdened the family or caused their parents to lose their public positions. Their destiny is a tragedy fromthe moment they were born, and the fact that they came into the family as "sinners" so unwanted inevitably
leads to an abusive upbringing that traumatizes their souls. Interestingly, they were able to study hard to get
into university under limited educational conditions, and then went to big cities to live independently andgain a foothold in society, but they did not lead a satisfying life because of this, and the traumas of the past
are still impacting their lives and meanings at the present time. Difficulties in identifying as women, including
shame and guilt, and especially the complicated conflicting feelings about their mother, who is also a woman,as both a victim and a victimizer, gnaw at their souls, day and night. Their selves were fragmented, and during
the long clinical work, with the dyads sharing the patriarchal impacts of the author’s own experience as awoman, evoked the author’s own traumas. The couple became each other's selfobjects, moving forward inpain and growth. This paper presents the connection and search for meaning through a relational self
psychology through several clinical moments.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Assess the clinical relational situation and have more reflect to role of their own experience thus
unconscious content.
2. Analyze the shared traumatic history and the unconscious resonance, and to cocreate new meaning
for both.
3. Apply his experience and reconnected self which had been isolated as a whole to be a real object aswell as selfobject.

Abstract: Paper 2:
The physics of vulnerability tells us utter helplessness comes for us all, including the treating psychoanalyst,
raising the question of what happens within a treatment when the analyst is taken by the riptide of her own
primal pain, memory, even trauma? In this clinical paper, this author charts new territory as she offers us a
deeply personal inside look at the interiority of the analyst as she navigates the impossible entanglement of
two traumas, her patient Lacy’s and her own. How doors within herself she much preferred to keep closed,
are opened in the services of understanding Lacy and inevitably herself. And the spontaneous and ingenious
ways healing begins to come, not through the triumph of either one of their traumas but by moving deeper
into them. Emotional risk taking and bearing our fears of exposure can help us and our patients reclaim
foregone internal territory from the tyrannical ruler of our inner wounds.
Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will beable to:1.
Discuss the centrality of the analyst's vulnerability in theanalytic relationship.
2.
Assess how denial of the analyst's vulnerability constricts
the analytic field.
3.
Discuss how undigested trauma on the part of both theanalyst and patient can get enacted in the analytic field.
Presenter Bios:
Xiaofeng Long, MA earned their MA in psychology in 2013 and began their clinical practice, achieving morethan 7,000 hours and supervising 300 hours. Has earned a psychotherapist certificate through the 5-year
China-American Psychoanalysis Alliance (CAPA) Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy & supervision training. Has
finished training programs of 2-year psychodynamic psychotherapy, 3-year Winnicott, 2-year selfpsychology, 1-year Klein in local institute, and is now studying as a psychoanalytic candidate in Chicago
Psychoanalysis Institute in the 4th year and in a 2-year Relational program in Sichuan Heguang ClinicalPsychology Institute.
Michelle Harwell, PsyD, LMFT is a training and supervising analyst and instructor at the Institute forContemporary Psychoanalysis. For over a decade she has trained and supervised emerging clinicians througha unique integration of contemporary psychoanalytic principles and the humanities, believing that ourreverence for theory must live alongside a deep humility and respect for the complexity of the human story.
She is the author of numerous papers and her writing interests are centered on the interior process of theanalyst. Dr. Harwell maintains a clinical practice in Eagle Rock, CA where she works extensively with adults,
children, families, and couples.
References:
Shane, E. (2018) A Relational Self Psychological Approach to the Clinical Situation. Psychoanalytic Dialogues,
28(6),687-695.
Crastnopol, M. (2019). The Analyst’s Achilles’ Heels: Owning and Offsetting the Clinical Impact of our Intrinsic
Flaws. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 55 (4),399–427.
Geltner, P. (2019). Emotional Communication and the Unconscious in the Analytic Setting. Psychoanalytic
Inquiry (39), (3-4),213-223.
Ulanov, A. B. (2020) The Agony of Integration and the Blessings of Finitude – Facing ‘Extinction Points’ andMoments of Madness. Journal of Analytical Psychology 65,584-599.
Saketopoulou, A. (2022) Anti-Racist Racism: Trauma, Traumatism, Traumatophilia. Journal of the American
Psychoanalytic Association 70,1071-1109.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 2-A: Students and Candidates Papers

Paper 1: Two for the Royal Road: Moment in Meeting shaped by Mourning, Melancholia, and aDream
Presenter: Todd Frugia, MFA, MA, LCPC
Paper 2: Finding Hope During Collapse
Presenter: Kateryna Bagan, MAInterlocutor: Lily Qu, MA
Saturday, October 26, 2:30 – 4:00pm

Abstract: Paper 1:
The surrounding soup an emerging self is steeped in spawns a smorgasbord of possible selfobject experiences
to make structure of. While analytic literature can often accentuate the more positive variety of suchsituations, the negative selfobject experience can be just as potent and formative.
In this paper, I work to illustrate the ways I believe the negative selfobject experience profoundly shaped aset of beneficial skills and talents within one of my patients. Employing a clinical vignette in which twointerlocking dreams are explored, I describe a progression towards a crucial moment of meeting in which mypatient’s exquisitely constructed talents offer me the gift of healing—and my affect within such healing
reveals to my patient a pathway to change.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Discuss ways early negative dynamics with caregivers construct an emerging selfobject experience.
2. Explain the negative selfobject’s relationship to attachment and self-cohesion.
3. Describe possible clinical implications in the treatment of a patient with internal structures
constructed from early negative situations.
Abstract: Paper 2:
A paper from Kateryna Bagan presenting her perspective as a person and a psychotherapist in a different
reality than most of Europe and America. Her country is engaged in a struggle for its existence, preservationof its history, and proof of its uniqueness. In this context, she is reflecting on two main questions: what is theinterface of the therapeutic relationship with the external world - how does the external frame influence
what happens in the therapy itself? How can such a relationship be a source of hope in the context of social
collapse? Kateryna use vignettes from working with patients to illustrate ideas.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Describe the interface of the therapeutic relationship with the external world - how does theexternal frame influence what happens in the therapy itself?
2. Explain how can such a relationship be a source of hope in the context of social collapse
Presenter Bios:
Todd Frugia, MFA, MA, LCPC is a psychotherapist in Chicago where he sees adult individuals and couples at
his practice. He is currently a candidate at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute where he has also completed
a two-year fellowship working in their adult clinic. In 2022 Todd was awarded an Early Career Professional
scholarship from IAPSP and has participated in programming developed for ECP recipients since. Todd earned
his Master of Arts in Counseling from the Family Institute at Northwestern University. Prior to pursuing acareer in mental health, Todd had an extensive career in the arts. With an MFA in professional acting from
Ohio University, Todd spent near twenty years participating in and creating works for theater, performanceart, and video.

Kateryna Bagan, MA, was born and raised in Kyiv. She has a master’s degree in clinical psychology, and iscurrently a psychoanalytic candidate at the Lviv Psychoanalytic Institute of Mental Health, with additional
training in a psychodynamic approach in psychosomatic medicine. She has worked at the Kyiv drug addiction
treatment center, and is currently in private practice in Kyiv.
References:
Davis, D. R. (2015). Moments of Meeting: A Self Psychological Approach. International Journal of
Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 10(1), 69-79.
Fonda, P. (2016). War and mental functioning of group. International Psychiatric, Psychotherapeutic andPsychoanalytic Journal, 4, 42-52.
Ferguson, H. (2018). The Analyst’s Affect: The Way Back from Gridlock, Blindspots, and Loss of Vitality.
Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 13(1), 6-12.
Gardner, J. (2024). Forms and transformations of empathy: Subtleties and complexities of empathic
communication. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 19(1), 80-93.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 2-B: Moral Injury: From Myth to Clinic
Paper 1: Kohut ‘s and Sophocles’ Oedipus: The Birth of Tragic Man and its Resonances for ourContemporary World
Presenter: Marcia Dobson, PhD
Paper 2: Moral Injury: The Existential Loneliness of an Israeli Soldier
Presenter: Iris Eliraz
Interlocutor: Davide Belluardo, PsyD
Saturday, October 26, 2:30 – 4:00pm

Abstract: Paper 1:
Kohut devoted an entire chapter of his magnum opus, The Restoration of the Self, to a reformulation of theOedipus complex, indicating a re-thinking of who Oedipus is as essential to understanding his psychology ofthe self. In this paper, I discuss the conceptual move from Freud’s Oedipus Complex to Kohut’s Tragic Man,
engaging not just Oedipus the King, but the Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus - the full Oedipus Cycle showing their contributions to Kohut’s transformation of Freud’s Oedipus, and their political and spiritual
importance for our contemporary world. The Antigone shows us the struggle to maintain a democracy thatcherishes responsibility, free will, and conscience in the face of the unwritten laws of an inevitably
deterministic nature, and the Oedipus at Colonus shows us that insofar as we as humans mirror nature’s
moving energies, we participate in cycles of birth and death, embodying not just individual growth andcohesiveness, but interconnections with the whole of the cosmos.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1.
2.
3.

Compare Oedipus in Sophocles Oedipus Cycle and in Kohut’s formulation of “tragic man.”
Explain Kohut’s bases for the necessity of turning to a vision of “Tragic Man” from Freud’s “Guilty
Man.”
Discuss new possibilities for understanding our contemporary world based on Kohut’s
understanding of tragic persons and their place in cosmic embeddedness.

Abstract: Paper 2:
Israeli soldiers come to military service from different backgrounds, and for many of them, serving in thearmy is an opportunity to cope with strengthening, empowering and raising their sense of self-worth, senseof belonging and social cohesion. In extreme conditions such as war or encounter with civilian population,
the sense of security may crack and be replaced by an experience of helplessness, disappointment, shame,and in some cases create a split in the self. This paper refers to the complexity of the traumatic experiencethat threatens mental and physical existence through the psychoanalytic term Moral Injury.
Moral injury is caused to the soldier who commits, witnesses, or fails to prevent acts that do not conform to
his moral values, beliefs and internal morality code. The undermining of the soldier's moral values and ideals,
provokes narcissistic tension and overwhelming sense of shame (Kohut, 1975). My presentation will beaccompanied by clinical examples.

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1.
2.
3.

Discuss questions of wartime ethics.
Explain the therapist's role as a witness, and about aspects of countertransference.
Identify different types of therapeutic presence in trauma therapy and self-rehabilitation efforts.

Presenter Bios:
Marcia Dobson has PhDs in Classics, where she specializes in ancient Greek Tragedy and Myth, and in ClinicalPsychology with an emphasis in Depth Psychology. She is a psychoanalytically informed relational self
psychologist and has a private practice in Colorado Springs, CO. She has been an award-winning Professor ofClassics at Colorado College in Colorado Springs for over forty years.
Iris Eliraz is a clinical social worker, psychotherapist, couple and family therapist. Expert in Trauma treating- mental, military service and terrorism. Therapist, teacher and supervisor practicing both in my private clinic
as well as in "Natal" - an NGO providing psychological assistance to victims of terrorism and war in Israel.
Member of the "Tel Aviv Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis". Teacher and supervisor in: - The
psychotherapy program of the "Israeli Association for Self Psychology and the study of subjectivity" - The
psychotherapy program of the "Tel Aviv Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis".
References:Carr, R. B. (2014). Authentic Solicitude: What the Madness of Combat Can Teach Us About Authentically
Being-With Our Patients. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 9(2), 115–130.
Kulka, R. Selfobject psychology for a troubled world. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 15(4), 329-330.
(Kassouf, S. (2024). Human Among the more-than-human: Retrofitting Kohut for the Anthropocene.
Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 19(1), 7-47.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 2-C: Identity: Between Shame and Hope
Paper 1: Tragic Youths: Shame and Identity
Presenter: Rebecca Minto, PsyD
Paper 2: The Tragedy of Inherited Shame
Presenter: Stefano Borioni, PsyD
Interlocutor: Orly Shoshani, PhD
Saturday, October 26, 2:30 – 4:00pm

Abstract: Paper 1:
My clinical observation, in working with young adults, increasingly imposes on me the need to reflect about
the dramatic relationship between them and shame, perceived as an insurmountable obstacle between Self
and the attainment of an authentic identity. The common thread, which unites the stories of the young
people I have encountered in carrying out my profession, seems to me to be a widespread sense offoreignness and indefiniteness, of self and others. In my paper, I will talk about Elia, a young man who will
be a herald of a broader section of anthropological subjects, what U.S. psychologist Peggy Drexler in a 2019
article published in the Wall Street Journal called the “Therapy Generation”, that is, those born between
1981 and 1996 or otherwise known as the millennials. These young people seem to be bearers of questions
related to "meaning", as well as characteristics that are the result of our contemporaneity and the disturbing
scenery relating to the conditions of the human being, of the planet, and of the ongoing global crises.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1.
2.
3.

Analyze the psychological characteristics of "young adult" anthropological subjects and theirimplications in clinical practice.
Compare relational experiences and the psychological impact of certain events between adults
and young people.
Utilize the concept of Self-Object, applied to the current social and cultural context.

Abstract: Paper 2:
This work presents the tragedy of a patient who, throughout his childhood and adolescence, has searched
for the reasons and secrets behind the shame permeating his family daily life. His life demonstrates anintersubjective dynamic which, from 1970s Sicily to contemporary Rome, and has led to the construction ofinvariant organizing principles related to suspicion. In a context of unrepaired ruptures, heralds of emotional
dysregulations and destructiveness of his wounded self, the therapist tries to mirror those crises, to propose
a new experience related to being seen, to establish an alliance based on the hypothesis – revolutionary due
to his experience - that mirroring and repair may be possible. From the identification of Lichtenberg’s "model
scenes" and the identification of "half-truths" that still affect emotional, friendship and work-related
reactions, the clinical work is pursued with the aim of giving rise to new principles to be co-built and placednext to the old organizing principle of suspicion: hope and trust.

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:1.
Assess the positive impact of empathic mirroring on the patient who has never experienced it,
except that in one episode of his life related to his addiction.
2.
Evaluate how much patient's addiction is connected not only to the substance itself, but also to
the regulatory relational value associated with the use of the substance.
3.
Assess the revolutionary value for the patient - following many unrepaired ruptures – due to arupture with the therapist being followed by a repair that involves him in relational terms.
Presenter Bios:
Rebecca Minto is a psychologist, specializing in clinical and life cycle psychology. She is a final year student
at the ISIPSè psychotherapy school in Rome, and supervised with Dr. Gianni Nebbiosi, Dr. Carlo Carapellese
and Dr. Paola Canari. She works as a psychologist in a psychiatric residential clinic, currently in a ward forintensive treatment of sub-acute patients. She practices mainly with young patients.
Stefano Borioni is a psychotherapist specialized at ISIPSE. He has been working since 2020 as director of agroup home for adults with disabilities, since 2024 as a psychotherapist at a facility for people with Alzheimer
and social co-housing for people with social fragility. In recent years, in collaboration with the Order of
Psychologists, he has presented webinars and projects funded by the Lazio Region to bring psychosocial
issues to the outskirts of Rome and the province. He works as a psychotherapist in his private practice.
References:
Lichtenberg, J. (2016). Creativity and the Clinical Exchange. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 26(6), 631–640.
North, R. J., Lewis, D. M., Capecelatro, M. R., Sherrill, B. N., Ravyts, S. G., & Fontan, G. (2016), The things they
carry: Characterizing the biggest problems in the lives of emerging adults. Journal of Social and ClinicalPsychology, 35(6), 437-454.
Craige, H. (2023). At Home in Oneself: Self-States and the Treatment of Trauma. Psychoanalytic Inquiry,
43(6), 468–481.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 2-D: The Traumatic Rupture of War and Reconnection: Empathy and Solidarity
Paper 1: Tragic Man, Empathy, Solidarity, War, and Courage
Presenters: Eldad Iddan, MA & Amina Taiber, MA
Paper 2: The Tragic Man in Times of Collective Catastrophe: Thoughts on Empathy and Analytic
Listening as a Bridge Towards Potentiality
Presenter: Simona Katz Nirensztajn, MAInterlocutor: Luca Migliaccio, PsyD
Saturday, October 26, 2:30 – 4:00pm

Abstract: Paper 1:
The war in Gaza, amid which we still are, took Israel by total surprise, when Hamas militants invaded small
towns and Kibbutzim enveloping Gaza strip, and committed unspeakable atrocities against civil inhabitants.
In response, Israel launched a massive counterattack. Numerous stories of heroic and courageous acts, which
took place at the beginning of this war, caught the authors' attention. These acts sent them revisiting Kohut's
thought about Tragic Man, nuclear self, empathy, and courage. Presenting two testimonies of suchcourageous acts, the authors weigh the role of empathy and solidarity (which they add) embedded in themand draw the parallel between them and the courageous historical and literary figures addressed by Kohut.
The testimonies also demonstrate how courageous deeds vis-à-vis tragically mortal danger, constitute thefulfilment of the nuclear self.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1.
2.
3.

Analyze heroic acts, despite threat of death, of individuals in war and other emergency situations.
Apply Kohut's Self-Psychological insights to current-day events.
Demonstrate the affinity of empathy and solidarity to courage.

Abstract: Paper 2:
After the 7th of October, Israeli society underwent an unprecedented catastrophe, plunging the collective
psyche to the brink of collapse. The once-ubiquitous sense of security within one’s own home dissipated,
replaced by an overwhelming prevalence of grief and terror that seized the very core of continuity andcohesiveness of the Self. This paper aims to reflect on the daily journey undertaken by psychoanalysts asthey engaged in analytic listening during this tumultuous period: while immersing in their patient’s
unthinkable and chaotic experiences they reconstructed the empathic matrix in order to recollect thetraumatic breakdown. This served as a bridge, facilitating the reconnection with the shattered remnants ofthe essential constituents of their patient’s nuclear tension-arc tending to live out its intrinsic potential. This
reconnection allowed to access what can be termed as the Tragic Man who can live courageously and diewith no regret. In this way the experience of “interbeing” with fellow human beings was transformed froma perceived threat to a wellspring of inner strength. This transformative process was not unidirectional but
was circularly experienced by the analyst and by the broader Israeli analytic community. While facing thethreat to our own foundational cohesiveness, assuming the role of a selfobject became a means throughwhich we could go in the direction of restoring our own tragic nuclear selves. To illustrate and discuss thesepoints, 4 clinical vignettes will be presented.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1.
2.
3.

Discuss the concept of Kohut’s Tragic Man and its relation to the Nuclear Self, in the context ofa collective catastrophe.
Analyze the characteristics and the role of analytic listening which enables a prolonged
immersion of empathy.
Explain how the experience of Interbeing in times of catastrophe can become a resource ofhealing for the wounded Self.

Presenter Bios:
Eldad Iddan, MA is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and supervisor in private practice in Jerusalem and Tel
Aviv, with adolescents and adults. Founding member of Israel Association for Self-Psychology and the Studyof Subjectivity, of which he is current chairman. Past president of IAPSP. Faculty and clinical supervisor in thethree-year curriculum for advances studies "Self-Psychology and Therapeutic Presence" at thepsychotherapy program, faculty of medicine, Tel Aviv University. He has translated and co-translated (withTsilli Zonens) into Hebrew four of Kohut's books.
Amina Taiber, MA is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, and supervisor in private practice in
Tel Aviv, with adolescents and adults. Member of Israel Association for Self-Psychology and the Study of
Subjectivity, where she is current secretary, IASPS Executive Committee. Faculty and clinical supervisor in thethree-year curriculum for advances studies "Self-Psychology and Therapeutic Presence" at thepsychotherapy program, faculty of medicine, Tel Aviv University. She is also faculty in the three-year programof the IASPS, Lod. Member of Tel-Aviv Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis.
Simona Katz Nirensztajn, MA is an Israeli-Italian psychoanalyst, trained at “Human Spirit”, Psychoanalytic
Buddhist Institute in Israel. Presently, she works mainly with adults in her private clinic in Tel Aviv, where she
also supervises. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Psychotherapy Training Program of theIsrael Association for the Self Psychology and the Study of Subjectivity and part of the teaching staff of Tel
Aviv University’s Psychotherapy School. Her path to psychoanalysis began from music. She is a pianist - M.A
at Jerusalem's Rubin Academy -and after her studies in Music Therapy she evolved as a therapist while
holding musical language as a core for listening and understanding patients. Early interactions, and theirinfluence on adult lives, became her professional focus for many years, while specializing at the MA of
Tavistock School East London University, and later as supervisor and coordinator of different earlyinterventions mental-health centers. She wrote different essays and papers on the influence of non-verbal
and musical layers of communications in early interactions and therapy.
References:Slavin, M. O. (2016). Relational psychoanalysis and the tragic-existential aspect of the human condition.
Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 26(5), 537-548.
Kulka, R. (2020). Selfobject Psychology for a Troubled World. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 15(4), 324–
337.
Kulka, R. (2022). Self psychology's contribution to the spiritual dimension of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic
Inquiry, 42(8), 654-66.
MacIntosh, H. B. (2023). Practicing in a time of covid loss and threat: Parallel processes on the yellow brickroad of trauma, healing, trust and belonging. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 18(4), 502-515.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 2-E: Patterns and Experiences in Psychoanalysis: New Theoretical Perspectives
Paper 1: Behavior is Memory - Introduction to Template Theory, a New Direction in Self Psychology
Presenter: Bruce Herzog, MD
Paper 2: Toward a Pragmatic Self Psychology
Presenter: Daniel Goldin, MFT, PsyD
Interlocutor: Sarah Mendelsohn, LCSWSaturday, October 26, 2:30 – 4:00pm

Abstract: Paper 1:
Self psychology’s focus on self object experience demonstrates Kohut’s interest in the importance of theother, which moved psychoanalytic theory towards a two person sensibility. The self object transference wascentral to his ideas, involving both the selfobject needs of the patient, with the anticipated and actualized
therapist response. Template theory extends the phenomenon of selfobject responsiveness, by connecting
it to the individual’s developmental years. A summary of template theory is presented, first outlining theorigin of relational templates in 1) directly experienced, repeated interactions, 2) observed relational events,and 3) relational fantasies that develop in opposition to unacceptable interactions. Following this, clinicalmanifestations of activated relational templates are discussed. The therapist can become aware of thesethrough observing the automatic relational 1) behavior, 2) expectancies and 3) premises a patient exhibits inthe consultation room. Recognizing and evaluating an activated relational template allows the therapist to
hypothesize about the patient’s developmental history that created it. That which is not remembered
explicitly can be shown through our patients' reflexive behavior, often outside of their own awareness. Theirbehavior can reveal past experience. This is how behavior is memory.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1.
2.
3.

Explain the origins of relational templates.
Describe the manifestations of relational templates.
Use template theory to intuit past relational history in the patient.

Abstract: Paper 2:
This talk is designed to explore a revision of self psychology with the object of focusing on the self as it
emerges in action in the patient’s life-world, as opposed to in the transference. I situate the theory in the
pragmatic tradition of Peirce, James and Dewey, which emphasizes usefulness as a measure of truth andnarrative in therapy itself as a form of action, a collaborative activity rather than an artifact.

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1.
2.
3.

Participants will be able to differentiate between concepts of absolute truth and the pragmaticconcept of instrumental truth, which is towards useful action.
Participants will be able to apply the concept of fittedness to the clinical situation.
Participants will be able to explain how objects arise differently for different people in the formof "affordances for action."

Presenter Bios:
Bruce Herzog, MD is a graduate in Psychology and Medicine from the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
He completed his specialty training in Psychiatry and the Child and Adolescent Program at the University ofToronto and received his Psychoanalytic certification at The Toronto Institute of Psychoanalysis. He is afaculty member at the Toronto Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis and an associate editor of thejournal Psychoanalysis, Self and Context.
Daniel Goldin, MFT, PsyD serves as editor of Psychoanalytic Inquiry. He is a training and supervising analyst
on the faculty of the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles and has written numerous
articles for Psychoanalytic Dialogues, Psychoanalysis: Self and context and Psychoanalytic Inquiry. His book
Storying in Psychoanalysis and in the Everyday World will be published by Routledge this year.
References:
Ammaniti, M. (2018) Implicit Knowledge from Infancy to the Psychotherapeutic Relationship: The
Contribution of Daniel Stern. Psychoanalytic Inquiry 38,138-147.
Browning, M. M. (2019) Our Symbolic Minds: What Are They Really?. Psychoanalytic Quarterly,88, 25-52.
Fosshage, J., Berck, S., Finlon, C., Glassman, N. & Raffes, J. (2023) Expanding Our Understanding ofTransferences as Organizing Patterns: Theoretical Evolution, Contributions of Other Sciences, and ClinicalImplications. Psychoanalytic Perspectives, 20,351-375.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 2-F: The Subjectivity of the Analyst and The Therapeutic Field
Paper 1: The Self and The Other: How does The Analyst’s Subjectivity come into play in the ClinicalEncounter?
Presenter: Massimo Perrini, PsyD
Paper 2: Present-absent Mother, Present-absent Analyst
Presenter: Ashley Leeds, LCSWInterlocutor: Elizabeth Carr, APRN
Saturday, October 26, 2:30 – 4:00pm

Abstract: Paper 1:
Writing about the analyst's subjectivity and how it comes into play in the intersubjective field of the clinicalencounter means reflecting on how patients see us, how they allow us to influence the field, and how willing
they are to engage with the Other. I will discuss the delicate tension between The Self and The Other throughtwo clinical vignettes drawn from therapeutic work with two patients whom I have been following for many
years. In the first, I will recount Antonio's need to establish a solid and long-term therapeutic relationshipwith me, while simultaneously needing to keep me at a distance in various ways. In the second, I will discuss
Ludovico and how despite significant continuity and stability in therapy, he often makes me feel meticulously
confined to a therapeutic object self-function, in which the process of meaning-making risks being flattened.
The long-term relationship and the affective climate that characterize these two therapeutic relationships
have allowed me to expose myself more and to try to make therapy a safer space, feel them closer, moreauthentically involved in the self-healing process.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:1.
Explain how the therapist's subjectivity can contribute to the psychotherapeutic process andbroaden the intersubjective field, especially in long-term therapies.
2.
Describe how I have attempted to bring my subjectivity into play with two different patients,
and promoting the idea that the therapist's subjectivity/alterity can become a resource for the
emergence of the Self and the patient's subjectivity.
3.
Discuss the potentialities of working jointly with models based on Self Psychology and thosemore relationally oriented.
Abstract: Paper 2:
Emily and I are alike: in age, in interests, and in the present absence of parents. In many ways, she is my “me”
patient; the one, in which, I often feel like I am seeing, hearing and subsequently caring for myself. Early on
in her treatment, Emily and I experienced a rupture, one that evoked a long felt sense that Emily is a burden,
and a boring one at that. This rupture replicated early memories in which mother derived joy and pleasurefrom experiences other than her daughter: Emily was not the gleam in her mother’s eye. In this paper, I will
discuss how our rupture not only shed light on Emily’s early lived experiences, but also surfaced a personal
experience of mine involving a rupture with my former therapist. Emily and I both felt that we were “bad”
and therefore unworthy of care and attention. I will illustrate the reparative aspects of a twinship bond forboth patient and therapist, and how this early experience of ours shaped the following years of treatment.

This paper demonstrates how an analyst’s old wounds can change the trajectory of a different treatment
and help a patient find a deep and meaningful sense of self-worth.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:1.
Demonstrate how twinship experiences can be reparative for both patient and analyst.
2.
Define the qualities of the present-absent mother and the implications for analytic treatment.

Presenter Bios:
Massimo Perrini, Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Psychoanalyst ISIPSé, member of IARPP, member of IAPSP,
lives and works privately in Rome with adults, young adults, and couples. He actively collaborates in theseminars organized by ISIPSé, particularly as part of the study group on Alterity, and serves as a trainer witha seminar titled "Alterity, Gender, and Intersubjectivity" at the Psychoanalysis program of the Institute ofSpecialization in Psychoanalytic Psychology of the Self and Relational Psychoanalysis (ISIPSé) in Milan.
Ashley Leeds is a 4th year candidate of NIP’s Four-Year Training Program in Psychoanalysis andPsychotherapy and she maintains an adolescent and adult private practice in Brooklyn where her areas ofinterest are gender and sexuality, children of divorce, and eating disorders. She is a trained group therapist,
has a certificate in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, and is a 200 hour-YTT certified yoga instructor.
Ashley was an IAPSP ECP award recipient in 2022. She is the Co-Dean of Admissions for Eastern Group
Psychotherapy. Ashley’s theoretical orientations lean towards Self-Psychological, relational, and attachment
theories, but she integrates other modalities into her work.
References:
Geist, R. A., (2016) From Self-Protection to Relational Protectiveness: The Modification of Defensive
Structures, International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 11(4), 368-380.
Slavin, M. O., (2017) Beyond the Clinical Moment: Searching for Realness and Reciprocity in a Long-Term
Analytic Relationship, Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 53(2), 209-221.
Magid B., Fosshage J., Shane, E. (2021). The Emerging Paradigm of Relational Self Psychology: An Historical
Perspective. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 16(1), 1-23.
Togashi, K. & Kottler, A. (2021) From a Cohesive Self to a Relational Being: The Evolution of the Psychologyof the Self to the Psychology of Being Human, Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 41(3), 187-198.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 2-G: Tragic Consciousness as a Therapeutic Aim (Panel)
Presenters: Heather Ferguson, LCSW & Jan Chess, PhD, MFTInterlocutor: Enrico Paolini, MD
Saturday, October 26, 2:30 – 4:00pm

Abstract: Panel
Tragic consciousness, an important concept developed by Naiburg (2006), arises out of an acceptance of aparticular paradox. We may feel “acted upon” or “done to” (Jessica Benjamin) while retaining theperspective that, to some extent, we also have the capacity to determine our outcomes. The ability todetermine our life’s course despite reality’s challenges can be understood as turning “fate into destiny.”
When early trauma and neglect leave in its wake an inner inchoate, dissociated, somaticized, and wordlessworld, the challenges for both patient and analyst are exacerbated. Knowing may be largely available
through bodily sensation and the action of re-enactment in ways that affect both clinician and patient. As aresult, “under-integrated” or non-integrated traumatic experience requires the analyst to viscerally embody
the patient’s suffering as a “living witness.”
We posit that this embodied identification is necessary for the therapist to be fully with the patient in theirstruggle to accept life’s contingencies and find purpose.
How does this occur? Chess and Ferguson describe the necessity of empathic, emotionally vivid work with
their two female patients who have childhood trauma experiences. Both analysts hold hope for the dyadwhen hopefulness is unavailable and too risky for the other. Both analysts find potential in the unconscious
messages of dreams. Both analysts must contend with their vulnerabilities, struggles with omnipotence, andlimitations when facing tragic consciousness. The therapeutic goal is an increased capacity to be present
while envisioning a future.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Define the therapeutic aim of tragic consciousness.
2. Explain what it means to turn fate into destiny.
3. Describe the prospective function of dreaming.

Presenter Bios:
Jan Chess, PhD, MFT is a psychoanalyst seeing individuals and couples in private practice in Oakland,
California. Her clinical experience spans thirty-five years with diverse areas of expertise which include
trauma, adoption, LGBTQ concerns, and creative writing. Additionally, Jan teaches at San Francisco Center
for Psychoanalysis in two different programs as well as supervising students and experienced clinicians.

Heather Ferguson, LCSW is faculty and supervisor at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity,
the National Institute for the Psychotherapies, and faculty at the Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis
Certificate in Trauma Studies and the Wilhelm Reich Center for the Study of Embodiment, all in NYC. She isa certified hypnotherapist and practitioner of EMDR. She has written about eating disorder treatment, therole of intergenerational transmission of trauma, and the use of embodied techniques to deepen
psychotherapeutic engagement. She is a member of the Music Industry Therapist Collective (MITC) and CoBook Review Editor for Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context.
References:
Borgogno, F. (2014). “Coming from Afar” and “Temporarily Becoming the Patient without Knowing it”: Two
Necessary Analytic Conditions According to Ferenczi’s Later Thought. American Journal of Psychoanalysis,
74(4), 302–312.
Howell, E. (2014). Ferenczi’s Concept of Identification with the Aggressor: Understanding Dissociative
Structure with Interacting Victim and Abuser Self-States. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 74, 48–59.
Atwood, G., & Stolorow, R. (2016). Walking the tightrope of emotional dwelling. Psychoanalytic Dialogues,
26(1), 103–108.
Stern, S. (2019). Airless Worlds: The Traumatic Sequelae of Identification with Parental Negation,
Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 29, 435–450.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 3-A: Timeless Dilemmas: Empathy, Realness and Reciprocity
Presenters: Malcolm Slavin, PhD and Hazel Ipp, PhD
Interlocutor: Estelle Shane, PhD
Saturday, October 26, 4:30 – 6:00pm

Abstract:
In this panel Mal and Hazel join in exploring and deepening an understanding of different aspects of thetreatment relationship that oscillates in various ways between explicit and implicit levels of awareness andengagement between and within analyst and patient as they enter uncharted and emergent territory
together.
Working with a presentation of Mal’s case of Tanya, we are confronted with the challenges that arise indialectical tension as the patient responds to her understanding of her analyst’s understanding of her intense
engagement with captivating flirtations - unconsummated flirtations that she sees as "transcendent"
experiences - that carry her close to the "presence of God".
Hazel’s discussion illuminates the complexities of Mal’s evolving responsiveness as his and Tanya’s
imaginations are tapped in new ways. In ways that can be framed as part of an "empathic stance” that canaccommodate a "deliberate realness" where relational "probing" is understood as seeking the invariably
present and invariably hidden otherness within everyone Tanya has ever known.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Assess and confront their own countertransference blind spots as clinicians.
2. Notice and explore the disavowal and/or dissociation within their patients.
3. Recognize and address with patients when traumatic residues are manifesting within theintersubjective space.
Presenter Bios:
Malcolm Owen Slavin, PhD is a founder, past-president, faculty member and supervising analyst at theMassachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis, MIP. He is also on the faculty and is a supervisor at several otherpsychoanalytic institutes around the world.
Dr. Slavin’s earlier book, The Adaptive Design of the Human Psyche: Psychoanalysis, Evolutionary Biology and
the Therapeutic Process, has been followed by a series of papers and a forthcoming book, (Routledge, 2024),
The Story of Original Loss: Grieving Existential Trauma in the Arts and the Art of Psychoanalysis .
Dr. Slavin is on both the Board of Directors of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis andPsychotherapy (IARPP) as well as the International Council for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology.
He is on the Editorial Boards of Psychoanalytic Dialogues and The International Journal of the Psychology of
the Self.
Hazel Ipp, PhD, is a psychologist-psychoanalyst in private practice in Toronto, Canada. She is a founding
board member, faculty, and supervisor of the Toronto Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis. She also
serves on the faculties of ISIPSÉ (Rome) and the Florida Psychoanalytic Center.

Dr. Ipp is Chief Editor Emeritus of Psychoanalytic Dialogues and serves on the editorial boards of multiple
psychoanalytic journals. She has also published numerous articles in major international journals of
psychoanalysis.
Dr. Ipp is a founding and current board member as well as past president of the International Association for
Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.
She regularly teaches, supervises, and presents nationally and internationally.
References:Ipp, H. (2016). Interweaving the Symbolic and Nonsymbolic in Therapeutic Action: Discussion of Gianni
Nebbiosi’s “The Smell of Paper”. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 26,10-16.
Slavin,M.O.(2016) Relational Psychoanalysis and the Tragic-Existential Aspects of the Human Condition.
Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 26,537-548.
Levy, D. & Shalgi, B. (2022). Imagination and Fantasy: The Dialectic Nature of the Encounter with Trauma
and Dissociation. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 32,54-69.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 3-B: Social and Political Complexities: How Psychoanalysis Can Help Us
Paper 1: Bridging the Gap Between Understanding and Blame, Dialogue and Rupture, Compassion
and Outrage
Presenters: Daniel Perlitz, MD and Margy Sperry, MFT, PsyD
Paper 2: Psychoanalysis as a Path to Liberation: Unveiling the Power of Self-Reflection
Presenter: Nariman Sedighat, MA
Interlocutor: Valentina Desiderio, PsyD
Saturday, October 26, 4:30 – 6:00pm

Abstract: Paper 1:
This paper is our exploration of the psychologic roots of socio-culturally-generated traumatic dualisms. As
we explore the empathic challenge of understanding our enemy’s attacks and views, we also consider theconcern that such an attempt results in drawing an equivalence between the actions of perpetrators and the
response of those who are victimized. We further consider the forward and trailing edges of the binaries
created in response to such enormous trauma. As excruciating and difficult as it may be, we contend that
achieving a lasting peace requires us to find ways to engage in “a generative dialogue of rage rather thandestructive hatred,” (Grand, 2023) and to develop the capacity for a pluralistic rather than dualistic
understanding of both violator and victim. We need to understand the other as well as hate the other. We
need to grieve and endure suffering whilst also stretching our capacity to engage in dialogue and reaching
toward mutual understanding. We ask how Kohut’s understanding of the tragic person might be extended
to socio-cultural issues and conflicts. Drawing on clinical and socio-cultural examples, we illustrate ways thatthe gap between empathic understanding and moral outrage might be bridged.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Identify traumatically generated dualisms.
2. Explain the gap between dualistic binaries and pluralistic understanding.
3. Describe the forward and trailing edges of dualistic binaries.
Abstract: Paper 2:
This paper explores the potential of psychoanalytic examination as a liberating methodology forcomprehending the human experience amidst social and political upheavals, particularly in times of war. By
integrating psychoanalytic perspectives with societal and political levels of explanation, the study delves into
the complex dynamics at play during conflicts, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of thepsychological, societal, and political dimensions of the "Tragic Man" in crisis. Emphasizing theinterdisciplinary nature of this approach, the paper envisions insights that contribute to the alleviation ofhuman suffering in such challenging circumstances. Key elements such as the role of authoritative figures inindividual development, the impact of primitive anxieties, and the construction of polarized politicalnarratives are examined through a psychoanalytic lens. Drawing on Jürgen Habermas's conceptualization of
psychoanalysis as interpretive knowledge, this study seeks to elucidate the liberating potential of
psychoanalytic insights in fostering self-reflection, critical thinking, and an emancipatory understanding ofsocial and political complexities.

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Explain how psychoanalysis can contribute to the analysis of social phenomena and theinterconnectedness of individual psychology and the broader social context.
2. Evaluate the potential of psychoanalysis as a liberating form of knowledge.
3. Apply the method of self-reflection as a critical tool to assess and evaluate politicized experiences,while concurrently examining the implications for the exercise of freedom of thought within ascholarly framework.
Presenter Bios:
Daniel Perlitz, MD is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Toronto, Canada. He completed his psychoanalytic
training at IASP (Institute for the Advancement of Self-Psychology) in Toronto, Canada in 2014. Perlitz is on
the board of directors and faculty of IASP, an Adjunct Lecturer at University of Toronto, and a supervisor of
psychiatric residents in psychotherapy at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Toronto. He is also on the board of directors
and is treasurer of IAPSP (International Association of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology). His first publishedarticle, “Beyond Kohut – from Empathy to Affection,” appeared in the International Journal of Psychoanalytic
Self-Psychology in 2016. Subsequently he has published five more articles in the same journal in 2017, 2019,
2021, and 2022.
Margy Sperry, MFT, PsyD is a training and supervising analyst at ICPLA, and a member of the International
Council for IAPSP (the International Association of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology). She is a former associate
editor for the Journal, Psychoanalysis Self and Context and the Co-chair of the Social Justice and Ethics special
interest group within IAPSP. Margy’s writing challenges contemporary psychoanalysis to notice the culturaland socio-political contexts which frame the therapist’s and patient’s lived histories, especially the ways thatthose histories and contexts overlap and diverge, shaping the therapeutic process. She maintains a private
practice in West Los Angeles.
Nariman Sedaghat is a psychoanalytic psychotherapy candidate and psychologist based in Tehran, Iran. He
holds a Master’s degree in Psychology from Allameh Tabataba'i University and is currently pursuing training
in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. With over four years of experience, he is committed to mental health andtherapeutic growth. In addition to his clinical work, He has contributed to various mental health research for
the Ministry of Health. Nariman is simultaneously involved in educational programs for medical professionals
besides translating works of notable psychoanalysts like Ernest Wolf, Dr. Beatrice Beebe, and others. As an
active member of the Iran Psychotherapy Association and an international member of the American
Psychological Association, he participates in lectures and international congresses, focusing on theintersection of psychoanalysis with social and political issues.
References:
Vasquez, E. (2014). Embodied Silence and the Hermeneutics of Trust. International Journal of Psychoanalytic
Self Psychology, 9(1), 84–86.
Mandler, P. (2018). Dagmar Herzog. Cold War Freud: Psychoanalysis in an Age of Catastrophes. The American
Historical Review, 123(3), 921-922.
Velykodna, M. (2021). Psychoanalysis during the COVID-19 pandemic: Several reflections on
countertransference. Psychodynamic Practice, 27(1), 10-28.
Volkan, V. D. (2021). Trauma, prejudice, large-group identity, and psychoanalysis. The American Journal of
Psychoanalysis, 81, 137-154.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 3-C: Despair and Healing
Paper 1: A Field Guide to Clinical Artifacts and Bones - Guilty Man; Tragic Woman
Presenter: Anna Stothart, PsyD
Paper 2: In the Heart of Darkness: Facing the World's Tragedy Together in Therapy
Presenter: Gökçen Bulut, PhD
Interlocutor: Michele Argalia, PsyD
Saturday, October 26, 4:30 – 6:00pm

Abstract: Paper 1:
The myriad of relationships we have with landscape and the creatures that inhabit it form a wholeness ofwhich we are apart. These places impress themselves upon us, as we in turn, impress ourselves upon them,taking meaning from one another, in a kind of call and response of reciprocal exchange. If we consider our
more-than-human environment as something that actively shapes and transforms our psyche, we mustgrapple with our understanding of its subjectivity, its agency, and its history within psychoanalysis. During
this moment of devastating breakdown of the earth’s climate, it seems crucial that we pay attention to these
relationships. In this paper, I will examine Freud’s case of the “Wolf Man,” illustrating the ways Freudimagined the wolf as a manifestation of “guilty man’s” Oedipal conflicts. I will then discuss two clinicalvignettes to illustrate a rethinking of the ways we listen for our relationship to “nature” by using theframework of Kohut’s formulation of “tragic man”.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Cultivate awareness of our interconnection with the more-than-human environment.
2. Identify the ways in which the more-than-human environment has shaped experience.
3. Discuss psychoanalytic thought regarding human relationships to the more-than-humanenvironment.
Abstract: Paper 2:
A lonely infant wailing in his cradle, enveloped in darkness as he awaited his mother’s return. Each passing
moment without her felt as if his mother had vanished forever. To ensure the mother’s presence, he devised
strategies to please her, warding off the overwhelming sense of aloneness. Sometimes enduring physicalviolence in silence, at other times sacrificing his own desires, he found fleeting solace in these actions. Later,
he moved from his hometown - a place in the Middle East - to Turkey for his PhD studies. Many destructive
political and economic developments occurred in Turkey and his home country during the long therapy
process. Turkey began to reiterate the history he witnessed almost like an echo. Occasionally, it turned intoa thorny cradle that pushed him away as he wanted to stay. As he strove to exist amid all this despair, andwith the world agenda posing such real threats, there were moments when it became a challenge for both
him and the therapist to distinguish the inner darkness from the outer. Although some realities may remain
immutable, this article details how we discovered bringing light into his dark chamber and bearing thedarkness together when the power goes out. In essence, this paper explores the intersection of personal
trauma and global crises and their implications for the therapeutic process.

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Utilize Brandchaft’s “pathological accommodation” concept to analyze and interpret the patient’s
adaptive strategies within the context of self-psychology, particularly as they pertain to the ‘tragic
person’ who endures suffering while striving for coherence and integrity.
2. Examine the impact of external crises on the therapy process regarding the emergence of empathic
failures and opportunities for attunement.
3. Discuss the facilitating and hindering effects of twinship experiences shared by the therapist andpatient on the therapeutic process.
Presenter Bios:
Anna Stothart, PsyD, LMHC is a graduate and faculty member at Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis.
She also teaches at Lesley University and maintains a private practice in psychoanalysis, psychotherapy andsupervision in Cambridge, MA.
Gökçen Bulut, PhD received her PhD degree in psychology from Middle East Technical University (METU) in
2021. In her doctoral dissertation, she conducted qualitative research utilizing Constructivist Grounded
Theory to explore the subjective experiences of parents after losing a child, and proposed a model
differentiating between different types of parental mourning. She continues her training and supervision at
the Anatolian Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies Association (APPA) in Ankara. She is a member of the Turkish
Psychological Association and the International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology. Gökçen iscurrently in private practice in Ankara, Turkey.
References:
Togashi, K. (2014). A sense of “being human” and twinship experience. International Journal of
Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 9(4), 265–281.
Doctors, S. R. (2017). Brandchaft’s pathological accommodation—what it is and what it isn’t. Psychoanalysis,
Self and Context, 12(1), 45–59.
Gardner, J. (2024). Forms and transformations of empathy: Subtleties and complexities of empathic
communication. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 19(1), 80-93.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 3-D: Personal Life and Personal Work: the History of Buber and Masud Khan
Paper 1: Relational Homelessness: The Tragedy of Masud Khan
Presenter: Ilene Philipson, PhD, PhD, PsyD
Paper 2: The Importance of intersubjective Systems Theory: An Agent for Change as Seen in the
I-Thou Perspective
Presenter: Donna Wolfskehl DiStefano, LCSWInterlocutor: Petra Purkarthofer, PhD
Saturday, October 26, 4:30 – 6:00pm

Abstract: Paper 1:
This paper argues that there is no better example of Tragic Man than Masud Khan, one of the most famousand reviled psychoanalysts of the twentieth century. Through an examination of his life, and particularly his
unsuccessful analysis with D.W. Winnicott, it is asserted that Khan never received what Tragic Man so
fundamentally needs, that is, what Robert Stolorow terms a “relational home” that offers “bonds of deep
emotional attunement within which devastating emotional pain can be held, rendered more tolerable, andhopefully, emotionally integrated.”
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Explicate the relationship between Kohut’s Tragic Man and the need for what Stolorow calls a“relational home.”
2. Evaluate the various explanations for why Khan’s analysis with Winnicott was unsuccessful.
3. Describe the forms of Khan’s otherness that were so radical that they fell outside of his four
analysts’ categorical imperatives.

Abstract: Paper 2:
Martin Buber was influenced by his intimate relationship with his wife, Paula Winkler, of whose relationshipgave Buber the elements that can be paralleled in The Intersubjective Experience and important in Buber’s
I-Thou ideas. This paper is a case for the importance of Intersubjective Systems Theory’s approach toexpanding reflective awareness and addressing trauma. A psycho-biographical analysis will show that Martin
Buber developed a sense of Being and genuine feeling from maternal loss at a young age and growing up
with caretaking relationships lacking attunement to his tragic experiences and need for the symbiotic
relationship in development towards language and symbol-based connection of painful experience.

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Describe the reality around the Traumatized individual around Finitude and loss.
2. Describe the pre-reflective unconscious and Organizing Principles.
3. Differentiate between first-person subjective experiencing, third person objective
experiencing, and mutuality and reciprocal aspects the second person is experiencing.
Presenter Bios:
Ilene Philipson, PhD, PhD, PsyD holds doctorates in sociology, clinical psychology, and psychoanalysis. She
is a training and supervising analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles, asupervising analyst at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis, and is in the private practice of
psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in Oakland, California. Her books include On the Shoulders of Women:
The Feminization of Psychotherapy; Married to the Job: Why We Live to Work and What We Can Do About
It, and Ethel Rosenberg: Beyond the Myths.
Donna Wolfskehl DiStefano, LCSW is a Clinical Social Worker in private practice in Highland Park, NJ. Donnaentered the field of Social Work as a result of becoming acquainted with Intersubjective Systems Theory
through George Atwood, during undergraduate studies in psychology at Rutgers University. Donna
graduated from the NYU Ehrenkranz School of Social Work in 2000 and has over 20 years working experiencein various psychiatric and addiction treatment settings. She currently works in Employee Assistance Program.
References:
Zahavi, D. (2015) You, Me, and We: The Sharing of Emotional Experiences. Journal of Consciousness Studies
22(1-2), 84-101.
Krohn, D. & Ganzer, C. (2018) The Therapist’s Needs Beyond Mutual Recognition, Psychoanalytic Social Work,25, 89-106.
Stolorow, R. (2022) Faces of Finitude: Death, Loss, and Trauma, Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 42,135-140.
Stolorow, R. & Maduro, P. (2022) Trauma and Illusion, Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 42,436-448.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 3-E: The Subjectivity of the Analyst in the Encounter With The Patients
Paper 1: Dismantling the Barricades: Ways into One’s Own Personal Experience as Gateways into a
Sense of Connection
Presenter: Margaret Allan, MSW, PsyD
Paper 2: The Flavour of the Intersubjective Encounter: “Finding” the Other in the Reciprocal “Hiding
Places”.
Presenter: Maria Tammone, MD
Interlocutor: Leslie Smith, MSW
Saturday, October 26, 4:30 – 6:00pm

Abstract: Paper 1:
While we may feel increasingly isolated and like barricading ourselves in from a world gone mad, we areenduringly connected, intertwined and formed in ways we can only partially know. On the one hand theseworlds we inhabit, inhabit us and make our lives, on the other we can feel spun out from that sense ofconnection and significance on a macro level. The emergency of our times is the heat under us. However, inthe very therapeutic action of the psychoanalytic relationship we are invited to discover and name ourexperience as real, this offers both a feeling of fit and a sense of connectedness to not just the person of theanalyst but to a world beyond ourselves.
In two compelling clinical vignettes I will discuss how making meaning in the particular, is relentlessly
entangled in the collective. Patient and analyst exist as worlds within worlds and in all the specificity of ourinteraction a repetitively, teetering sense prone towards disconnection is restored within and beyond our
dyad.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Describe the cocreation of meaning as an emergent property of the psychoanalytic relationship
2. Discuss the notion of Emmanuel Ghent’s distinction between submission and surrender as it
applies to the analyst/patient relationship.
3. Illustrate ways in which personal experience when named and discovered within the relationshipcan contribute to both a feeling of “fit” and a sense of connectedness.
Abstract: Paper 2:
In this paper I will focus on the meeting between two subjects in a crisis: one, the patient, having troubles
with her son. The other, the therapist, in a moment of perceiving herself as very physically andpsychologically vulnerable, feeling her strong physical limits as an obstacle also to her creativity,
assertiveness, and also to the possibility of feeling helpful and effective for patients. My paper will also cover
the patient-therapist relational dynamics, their gradual meeting, the mutual rigidities, and my
discouragement in a certain period of the relationship (about a year after the beginning) on the possibility of"breaking through" the patient’s emotional world, defended by walls that appeared progressively thicker
than I had realized until then. My patient and I were two vulnerable women, but also determined not to giveup, faced with the relational challenge of opening breaches in the wall that separates us from others, a wallthat is sometimes so thick that it prevents us from seeing and being seen, which deprives us of the pleasureof touching and being touched by the subjectivity of the other.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1.
2.
3.

Analyze the therapeutic relationship as a possibility to explore the reciprocal difficulties in therelational realm, and develop the possibility to overcome these challenges.
Discuss the meanings and the value of reciprocity, mutuality, recognition in the therapeutic
relationship.
Assess the meaning of guilt and shame in the context of the analytic encounter.

Presenter Bios:
Margaret Allan, MSW, PsyD is a Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst and Senior Member at the Instituteof Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles, California. She is a published author and won the Daphne
Stolorow Award for academic writing. She has been a frequent presenter at international psychoanalytic
conferences. She is Australian, having relocated to the U.S. some thirty years ago an hour north of LA. but
was moved to settle in California some thirty years ago, for love.
Maria Tammone, MD is a psychiatrist and a psychoanalyst, she works in private practice in Rome. She has
been a member of both Isipsé and IARPP since 2003. She teaches in Isipsé Institute, she is supervisor. She
has attended several IARPP and Isipsé Congresses both in Italy and abroad, presenting papers. She has been
co – editor of the IARPP eNews (2013 – 2018) along with C. Emanuel. She has been a member of the IARPP
Board (elected March 2018).
References:
Geist, R.A (2016). From Self-Protection to Relational Protectiveness: The Modification of Defensive
Structures. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 10,91-106.
Coburn, W. J. (2019) A Most Complex Paradox; Rethinking the Individual. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 39, 77-87.
Bauer, W.M. (2022) The Bereaved Analyst: Vulnerability in the Intersubjective Field. Psychoanalysis, Self, andContext 17,61-71.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 3-F: Couple Psychotherapy and Separations: Broken Bond, Broken Self
Paper 1: Terminable and Interminable Separations: The Relationship Without the Other
Presenter: Cristina Bonucci, PhD
Paper 2: Possible and Impossible Separations: Losing the Bond or Losing the Self?
Presenter: Rosetta Castellano, PhD
Interlocutor: Karen Bloomberg, LCSW, PhD
Saturday, October 26, 4:30 – 6:00pm

Abstract: Panel:
Inspired by the title of the Congress, this panel aims at drawing attention on a tragic topic, that appears tobe amplified in today’s world: the meanings and consequences of separations in couple relationships. Couple
therapy may represent the “last chance” to save the bond. In other cases, couple therapy addresses thedifficulty of taking into account separation, despite the pain, the violence, the despair. At the extreme,
separation may result impossible, to the point where death represents the only, fatal way to create theillusion of the dramatic attestation of “you are mine forever”. The two papers are presented in an ongoing
dialogue regarding what is “terminable and interminable” and what is “possible and impossible” inseparations. Our reflections are supported by a framework that integrates the Self-psychological concepts ofself-cohesion and fragmentation anguish, as well as the attachment theory’s concepts of the breaking of theaffectional bonds and separation anguish. The discussion will be enriched by revisiting Mahler’s concept of‘separations-individuation’ and Daniel Stern’s concept of ‘being-with’. Clinical vignettes inspire and support
our reflections, alternated with references to ancient myths, literature, and other arts, in order to better
highlight how separation powerfully combines the human struggles between bond and Self, union anddifferentiation, detachment and split, fusion and loss, abandonment and fragmentation.
Learning objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Identify two different meanings of separations in couple relationship;
Describe the concept of ‘being-without-the-other;
Use the concept of ‘self-objects needs’ in its application to couple functioning;
Describe the use of attachment theory in explaining the reactions to the threat of separation.

Presenter Bios:
Christina Bonucci received her analytic training at the Italian Society of Psychoanalysis; (IPA), before herstudies veered towards contemporary psychoanalytic models, mainly coming from North America.
Christina is currently a teacher and supervisor at Isipsè in Rome, where she teaches the intersubjective
perspective of Stolorow, Atwood, Brandschaft and Orange; furthermore, she conducts creative writing andpsychoanalysis workshops with a special focus on the application of psychoanalytic theories to clinicalpractice.

Christina has published articles on specialized journals on creative writing and psychoanalysis, as well as on
consultation and referrals. She coordinates a group Isipsé (Italy – Rome) that presents and discusses clinicalcases with the purpose of investigating in depth how settings vary and the therapeutic factors that fosterchange in the treatment of particularly serious patients and/or contexts. She has been working with couples
and parental couples for many years, always attentive to new stimuli and critical ideas.
Rosetta Castellano is a training and supervisory analyst at the Institute for Self-Psychology and Relational
Psychoanalysis ‘Isipsè’ in Rome and Milan, Italy, where she teaches “Infant Research and Psychoanalysis”
and “Psychoanalysis and couple psychotherapy”. She is author of several articles on attachment in couple
relationships, and co-editor of the book “What makes us stay together” translated into English by Karnac.
Her current research focuses on attachment disorganization in couple’s relationship. She is in private practicein Avellino, Italy.
References:Emde, R. (2017). Remembering Daniel Stern (1934-2012): A legacy for 21st Century Psychoanalytic Thinking
and practice. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 37(4), 216-219.
Nielsen, A.C. (2017). Psychodynamic couple therapy: A practical synthesis. Journal of Marital and Family
Therapy, 43(4), 685-699.
Reis, B. (2018). Being-With: From Infancy Through Philosophy to Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalytic Inquiry,
38(2),130-137.
Kanwal, G.S. (2023). Integrative individuation: An alternative to the Separation-Individuation model.
Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 71(3), 419-444.
Leone, C. (2023). Individual sessions as part of couple therapy? How concepts from self psychology canhelp us to decide. Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context, 18 (2), 218-233.
Shane, E., Gardner, J. (2023). Resting in uncertainty: Estelle Shane in conversation with Jill Gardner on thevalue of always questioning. Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context, 18(1), 65-78.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 3-G: Tragic Man and an Existential Self Psychology
Presenter: John Riker, PhD
Interlocutor: Gabriela Mann, PhD
Saturday, October 26, 4:30 – 6:00pm

Abstract:
In this paper I argue that it is necessary to add an existentialist ontology to Kohut’s self psychology in orderto have a psychology with enough darkness in it for persons to be called “tragic man.” I explain why selfconscious beings experience themselves as a contradiction of being both subject and object (Hegel) and why
this contradiction leads to violence and despair (Kierkegaard). I then elucidate why Nietzsche believes one
cannot live freely without descending into the void of meaninglessness, for without such a descent we will
be colonized by “the herd.” I add Heidegger’s claim that one must experience the angst (dread) of not-being
in order to wrench one’s self out of captivity in the They and live authentically. I conclude by saying what isneeded for a self psychological therapy to address these ontological realities of human existence.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Explain why self psychology needs the addition of Existentialist philosophy.
2. Explain why an Existential Self Psychology presents a truly tragic concept of human life.
3. Explain why concerns about mortality and social conformity need to be incorporated into a self
psychological therapy.
Presenter Bios:
For the past three decades, John Riker has been devoted to exploring the relation of psychoanalysis-especially Kohutian self psychology--to problems in ethics and philosophical anthropology. He has written
five books intersecting psychoanalysis and ethics (most recently, Kohut’s Self Psychology for a Fragmented
World (2024)), and published numerous articles and spoken in many conferences on this material, including
conferences in England, Belgium, Turkey, Austria, Canada, and Israel. John has been a professor ofphilosophy at Colorado College for over half a century and been named Professor of the Year a record fourtimes, and Advisor of the Year a record three times. He was the initial recipient of the award Colorado College
established to recognize someone who most promotes diversity and inclusion on campus. He has recently
been appointed co-editor-in-chief of Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context.
References:
Stolorow, R. (2015). A phenomenological-contextual, existential, and ethical perspective on emotional
trauma. Psychoanalytic Review, 102 (1), 123-138.
Phillipson, I. (2017). Fearing the Theoretical Other: The Legacy of Kohut’s Erasure of the Analyst’s Trauma.
Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 12(3) 211-220.
Riker, J. (2022). The Self and the Other: Hegel, Kohut, and the Psychology of Othering. Psychoanalytic
Inquiry, 42(2), 1-12.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 4-A: The World Today, Between Tragedy and Hope
Paper 1: My Patient is Not Getting Better!
Presenter: Amira Simha-Alpern, PhD
Paper 2: Meaning in Life of Tehran’s Recovering Homeless Men: A Phenomenological Study
Presenter: Sepideh Shirani, MA
Interlocutor: Lucia Maiorino, PsyD
Sunday, October 27, 9:00 – 10:30am

Abstract: Paper 1:
Contemporary psychoanalysis is highly influenced by the Western culture’s bias of idealizing resilience andpost trauma growth, while denying the inevitability of despair and the need to contain rather than dissociate
the latter. The author asks: Is resilience always possible? What if we cannot transcend trauma and hardship?
Are we defective or simply human? And, as therapists, are we useless if our patient is not resilient? The paper
addresses cases of severe complex trauma in which the idealized aims of facilitating “resilience” and posttrauma growth are extremely challenging and, in many cases, impossible to obtain. The paper explores therole of the therapist in cases of “no progress”. It draws from Stolorow’s and Atwood’s concept of “emotional
dwelling”, Stern’s “needed relationships”, and Grossmark’s “psychoanalytic companioning” to understandthe role of the therapist in cases of severe trauma where ushering the patient towards developing an agentic,
goal-oriented self is extremely challenging and at time, even impossible. The paper will share an extensive
clinical case illustration of a man who deteriorated during treatment only partly due to external financial,
medical, and familiar circumstances. Like a tragic hero, although he had heroic traits that earned him
sympathy and admiration for dealing with serious adversities, the combination of the unsurmountabledifficulties he faced, and his own flaws and mistakes ultimately led to his own downfall.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of the presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Describe the concept of “emotional dwelling.”
2. Describe the concept of “needed relationships.”
3. Describe the concept of “Psychoanalytic companioning.”
Abstract: Paper 2:
Homelessness is a profound psychopathological challenge, yet some homeless individuals successfully
navigate life changes without the support of a social or personal network. This study employs Interpretive
Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore the meaning in life of recovering homeless men in Tehran. The
research focuses on those voluntarily residing in Toloo Bi-neshanha organization, with seven participants
selected through purposive sampling. Semistructured in-depth interviews reveal eight main themes andtwenty-three minor themes, analyzed for internal construction and chronological sequence. Themes include
addiction as a transformative experience, being a stranger to everyone, despair, the annoying nature ofhomelessness, better dead than alive as a homeless, a glimpse of hope, recovery as introspection, and thenewborn self against the past self. Notably, the study identifies selfcoherence and narrative consistency assignificant outcomes of recovery. The findings underscore that motivations for change, coupled with a desire
for reconnection with loved ones, propel homeless individuals to engage in recovery programs, mitigating
the risk of suicide. These findings offer valuable recommendations for shaping interventions and strategicplanning in residential service centers, enhancing motivation and facilitating access to services, ultimately
improving the quality of life for the homeless population.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1.
2.
3.

Enhance their ability to conduct a more precise assessment of the human condition duringcrises and states of meaninglessness.
Engage in a comprehensive analysis of individuals' motivations to actively seek meaning andre-establish connections with life.
Reevaluate the approach to complex conditions associated with severe pathologies, placing
equal emphasis on the abilities of individuals alongside their injuries.

Presenter Bios:
Dr. Amira Simha-Alpern is a clinical psychologist, a certified psychoanalyst and clinical supervisor. She is the
Director of the Postgraduate Programs in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy at the Derner School of
Psychology, Adelphi University; as well as Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Stony Brook University.
She maintains private practice in Smithtown, NY. She published journal articles and book chapters in
relational psychoanalysis, trauma, and the clinical application of attachment theory on psychotherapy.
Sepideh Shirani, an Iranian psychodynamic psychotherapist and member of the Tehran Center for
Psychoanalytic Studies and IARPP, holds an MA in Psychology. Her primary research focus centers onunderstanding the impact of individual and shared traumas on individuals, clinical scenarios, and groupdynamics. Recently, Sepideh has played an active role as the assistant to the scientific committee chair of
the Fourth Iranian Congress of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychotherapy. Also, alongside her colleagues,
she presented a symposium at the same congress, exploring the challenges faced by psychotherapists in theaftermath of the shared trauma in Iran in 2023. Notably, their symposium received acclaim as the mostfavored session by the audience.
References:
Atwood, G. E. & Stolorow, R. D. (2016) Walking the Tightrope of Emotional Dwelling. Psychoanalytic
Dialogues, 26,103-108
Grossmark, R. (2016). Psychoanalytic companioning. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 26(6), 698–712.
Stolorow, R. D. & Atwood, G. E. (2018). The Power of Phenomenology: Psychoanalytic and Philosophical
Perspectives, chapters 10 & 11. London, UK: Routledge.
Allan, M. (2022). The Intimacy of Not Knowing and the Experience of Transcendence in the Clinical
Relationship. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 42,681-688.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 4-B: On the Power of Music as a Self Object Experience
Paper 1: A Musical Adolescent’s Self and a Tragic Mother: After the Father’s Traumatic Loss
Presenter: Marco Bernabei, PhD
Paper 2: "Silence the pianos … Let the mourners come": How a moment of musical rupture
transformed Kohut's Tragic Man, in life and in the analytic hourPresenter: Ephrat Havron, PhD
Interlocutor: Andrea Harms, PhD
Sunday, October 27, 9:00 – 10:30am

Abstract: Paper 1:
The selfobject function performed by the male therapist of 15-year-old Matteo in a therapy that began two
years ago, three years after the traumatic loss of his father, is the focus of the narrative that spans the firsttwo years of treatment, which also involved Miriam, the mother, in separate sessions. The paper looks at
how the therapist’s thirdness regulates the distance between the son and his mother. Miriam’s failure tostay true to her innermost design led me to regard her in terms of Kohut’s Tragic Man. This design, involving
her pursuit of a career in music, seems to be taken up by the son who studies clarinet. The paper shows how
the cultural selfobject function performed by played music for the son, falls short in the mother, partly as
the result of a chain of bereavements. The dissociative potential of Matteo’s motivations, to fulfil himself as
the son - as Mitchell remarks - imagined by his mother or as the son dreamed of by his father, are examined.
His desire to continue to enjoy music, following in his’s mother wake, is linked to the aspiration to study
medicine, following in his father’s footsteps. (Bernabei, Pedroni 2017). The implications of the son’s way of
coping with grief, accepting that his father is gone, as opposed to the mother’s inclination to feel her husband
always at her side, are also considered. Some of the therapy’s results are described from the instances when
it can be used as a specific “needed relationship” always “unique” (Stern, 2019).
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Explain how a relationship with a male therapist can help an adolescent, who has suffered thetraumatic loss of his father in preadolescence, to partially surrogate the loss of a caring mirroring
selfobject.
2. Discuss how the tracks of successful attachment experiences in infancy, together with the therapist’s
thirdness can help to better regulate the insufficient distance in adolescence between a mother andher child and continue to support a firmer individuation at this developmental stage.
3. Analyze how a Tragic Mother, with her failure to fulfill her own project in music, may have as muchbearing on the project of an adolescent son, a musician in the making, as the professional medical
legacy of a father lost in preadolescence.
Abstract: Paper 2:
In my paper, I wish to present a small, modest musical moment from a concert that demonstrated thepotential for the Tragic Man to escape the tragic nature through art. I will first address how thetransformative moment became possible in the concert hall, and then explore the clinical implications of thisexperience by presenting a vignette from an analytic session the morning after the concert. To begin, I willoffer some personal reflections on the tragic existential situation currently faced by Israeli and Gazan citizens
following the events of October 7th. After considering the potential of music, specifically the art song, totranscend the tragic, we will examine the musical moment in question – a 2-minute song where the singer
choked up and could not continue singing. I will illustrate how, precisely because of the singer’s rupture, allthose present assumed a selfobject role: the singer to the audience, the pianist to the singer, the audienceto the artists. For one fleeting minute, this musical moment elicited a selfobject presence with an inspiring
impact, allowing us all, if only briefly, to transcend tragicness. The second part of the paper will explore how
this experience and its interpretation engendered an empathic stance, enabling me to function as a selfobject
in the analytic session the following day. I hope I can modestly contribute to understanding art’s potential totransform, even temporarily, the state of the Tragic Man here in conflict-ridden Israel, and perhaps
elsewhere too.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Describe the potential for the Tragic Man to transcend his fate through art in troubled times.
2. Discuss the transformative power of music in the therapeutic setting and its clinical implications.
3. Explain how the dialogue between music and psychoanalysis can mutually inspire one another, witheach acting as a selfobject for the other.
Presenter Bios:
Marco Bernabei, PhD is a faculty member and supervisor of IsipSé, the Italian Training Institute and Schoolof Psychotherapy in Self Psychology and Relational Psychoanalysis, member of IAPSP (International
Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology), of IARPP (International Association for Relational
Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy) and of IARPP’s Child, Adolescent and Parent Psychotherapy Committee.
At the Rome section of IsipSé he teaches how to work with parents using a relational-systemic approach. The
main focus of his papers, featured in books published in Italy and France and in North American and European
journals, is clinical work with children, adolescents, young adults and their parents. His scientific interests
have currently been focusing on a reflection about clinical work with those born in the third millennium (theso-called zeta generation) and on the therapeutic achievements of the work of one analyst following, inparallel settings, both adolescents and/or young adults and their parents. He works in private practice in
Florence with children, adolescents, young adults, parents /parental couples as well as with adults and adultcouples.
Ephrat Havron, PhD is a bibliotherapist and psychotherapist, a 6th year candidate at the Human Spirit
Psychoanalytic-Buddhist Training Program. She is a lecturer at the at David Yellin Academic College of
Education in the graduate program training bibliotherapists and in the Special Education Department.
She is the author of Saying It Differently: Talking About Incest Through Poetic Language (Moffet, 2019). Her
published articles have addressed self-psychology and its connections to literature, educational benefits, andimplications for multicultural contexts. Additional articles have examined trauma and its manifestations inlanguage.
Havron co-founded the Yoga-Therapy project for survivors of sexual abuse and works as a therapist andsupervisor in private practice in Jerusalem.

References:
Bernabei, M., Pedroni, I.(2017). Coordinated Treatment of Adolescents and Their Parents: Working
Together in Italy. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 12(4) ,358-364.
Doctors, S.R. (2017). Attachment-Individuation: Clinical Notes Toward a Reconsideration of “Adolescent
Turmoil”. Psychoanalysis Self and Context, 12(4), 386-397.
Stern, S. (2019) Airless Worlds, The Traumatic Sequelae of Identification with Parental Negation.
Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 29 (4),435450.
Kulka, R. (2020). From civilization of pessimism to culture of compassion: Self psychological reflections on
Freud’s essay “Civilization and Its Discontents.” Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 40(5), 288-299.
Aibel, M. (2023). And He Showed Me Things: The Transformative Power of Sondheim’s Songs – A Discussionof Philipson and Jones’ Stephen Sondheim: Relational Psychoanalyst of the American Musical Theater.
Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 43(8), 665-672.
Havron, E. & Ariel, I. (2023). The therapist as a collaborative pianist. The Psychoanalytic Review, 110(4), 391412.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 4-C: Is Losing Guilty Man a Tragedy?
Paper 1: Guilty Man and Tragic Man in Dialogue: Rethinking Difference as Dynamics
Presenter: Cheryl Goldstein, PsyD
Paper 2: Toward The Co-Existence of Guilty Man and Tragic Man: A Social-Psychoanalytic
Perspective
Presenter: Ilene Philipson, PhD, PsyD
Interlocutor: Judith Aronson, PhD
Sunday, October 27, 9:00 – 10:30am

Abstract: Panel:
In Kohut’s writing “Guilty Man” and “Tragic Man” serve as embodiments of psychoanalysis’ past and future.
“Guilty Man,” at the mercy of the Freudian drives and destined to struggle with intrapsychic andintergenerational conflict, represents a biological destiny at the core of traditional analysis. “Tragic Man,” asthe representation of Kohut’s Self-Psychology, offers the hope of “joyfully experienced development” andthe potential, even if generally unrealized, of fulfillment through expressing the “nuclear self.” According to
Kohut, “Tragic Man” displaces “Guilty Man” much as Kohut’s Self-Psychology moves beyond the Freudian
drives.
This panel reconsiders the dynamics at work between Kohut’s “Guilty Man” and “Tragic Man” in acontemporary context. Re-evaluating the definitions and limitations of “Guilty Man,” we suggest ways thattoday’s Tragic Person maintains, and in fact potentially benefits from, ongoing interactions with a more
relevant version of “Guilty Man” or “Guilty Person.” Rather than positioning the Tragic Person as a
psychoanalytic overcoming, we suggest how an ongoing dialogue between “Guilty Man” and “Tragic Man”
expand our psychoanalytic perspectives and therapeutic options.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of the presentations the participants will be able to:
1. Describe the different concepts “conflict” from a Freudian, Kohutian, and contemporary SelfPsychology perspectives.
2. Compare and contrast Kohut’s idea of a “nuclear self” with other genetic or “biological” psychic
constructs.
3. Identify how tensions within the therapeutic dyad reflect dynamics of “cohering difference.”
Presenter Bios:
Cheryl Goldstein, PsyD holds doctorates in Comparative Literature/Jewish Studies and psychoanalysis. Her
areas of research include the works of Hans Loewald, psychoanalysis and the Other, and the intersection of
psychoanalysis, Jewish thought and ethics. She is a member of the New Center for Psychoanalysis and of theInstitute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis where she serves on the faculty. Cheryl has a private practice in
Los Angeles, CA.

Ilene Philipson, PhD, PhD, PsyD holds doctorates in sociology, clinical psychology, and psychoanalysis. She
is a training and supervising analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles, asupervising analyst at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis, and is in the private practice of
psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in Oakland, California.
References:Slavin, M.O, (2016) Relational Psychoanalysis and the Tragic-Existential Aspect of the Human Condition,
Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 26,537-548.
Christian, C. (2015) Intersubjectivity and Modern Conflict Theory, Psychoanalytic Psychology,32,608-625.
Thompson, M. (2019) Hierarchy, Social Pathology and the Failure of Recognition Theory, European Journalof Social Theory, 22,10-26.
Stern, D. (2020) Thinking Absence: A Discussion of “The Analyst’s Necessary Nonsovereignty and theGenerative Power of the Negative,” Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 30, 150-159.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 4-D: Facing Together the Pain of Personal and Collective Trauma
Paper 1: Storytelling in Times of Acute Trauma. The story of June Within the Tragedy of October 7th
Presenter: Edna Lahav-Zimmermann, MA
Paper 2: The Guilty, the Tragic, and the Transformed: Contemplating Human Potential from Patients’
Experiences in the Israeli-Hamas War
Presenter: Uri Moshovitz, PhD
Interlocutor: Raanan Kulka, PhD
Sunday, October 27, 9:00 – 10:30am

Abstract: Paper 1:
With both analyst and patient experiencing life-threatening circumstances, this presentation will
demonstrate the value of a slow, meticulous, step-by-step revealing of the different pieces of one’s larger
story. June’s growing ability within the therapeutic process to tell her story, recall various traumatic events,
put them into words, and write a deeply personal text about them, displays the inner constitution of theselfobject empathic matrix. It is a counter-reply to a current “visualism”, that gives dominance to one sensual
modality only. Kohut’s idea of the historian, as well as the therapist, serving as the collector of the scatteredpieces will help understand June’s storytelling. When during therapy June, a survivor of the October 7th
massacre in southern Israel, reclaims her idealized selfobject function regarding herself and for others, sheteaches us a lesson of resilience and mental courage.
Learning objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Apply the idea of storytelling to their clinical work.
2. Explain the value of narrative-auditory clinical therapeutic work and its relation to Kohut’s
understanding of history as a selfobject of culture.
3. Discuss contemporary “visualism” and its consequences on victims of deep collective trauma.
Abstract: Paper 2:
In the history of (classical) psychoanalysis, war is considered proof of the existence of a death instinct thattakes over the mental and social arena. Kohut interpreted this as an example of the guilty man concept. On
the other hand, he boldly saw that war can be a time for the emergence of the 'tragic man', a man who
strives to realize his nuclear self as a whole. Following this line of thought, the current work will present 3
personal angles, from the clinic, of the experience of the war currently taking place between Israel andHamas. An officer who was wounded and lost a soldier in battle lives the Greek tragedies that 'raised dust'
from high school. An Israeli Arab man experiences compassion for suffering wherever it may be, and bravely
faces a reality that silences and divides. An educator from the Gaza Strip whose life, like the lives of her
pupils, was turned upside down on October 7, teaches and learns about the human spirit, humanity, andtotal contextuality through the state of war. This mosaic will demonstrate, as Kohut envisioned it, how SelfPsychology can offer a crucial space for human society, not just as a psychotherapy method, but as aselfobject of, and for, culture. The 'tragic man' and the 'transformed man' (Kulka) will emerge through theexperiences in the clinic, as an epistemic, ontological, and ethical horizon for the survival of both individuals
and society, infusing life with meaning and even fostering spiritual development.
Learning objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Describe the concepts of the guilty man, the tragic man, and the transformed man, throughmeeting different angles of the experience of the war currently taking place between Israel andHamas.
2. Assess the healing potential of Self-Psychology psychotherapy, and specifically the concepts of theguilty man and the transformed man, for individuals living in a divided world in a state of war.
3. Identify the role of Self-Psychology as a selfobject of, and for, culture, and its potential to enable
the space for the transformation of conflict and war into a horizon of brotherhood and spiritualdevelopment.
Presenter Bios:
Edna Lahav-Zimmerman, MA is a clinical psychologist and has completed her studies in a seven year long
Psychoanalytic Program. She is the future head of the Psychotherapy Program for Self-Psychology beginningfrom October 2024. She has studied extensively philosophy as well as the history of arts. Edna presented
original papers in three international psychoanalytic conferences and was a 2018 Gradiva Award nominee
for the student category. She is a mother of three and has worked both in her private practice in Tel Aviv andin different public institutions as a clinician supervisor and teacher. Her professional interests include
psychoanalysis, philosophy and the history of arts.
Uri Movshovitz, Ph.D., Supervising Clinical Psychologist. Sixth year candidate at Human Spirit PsychoanalyticBuddhist training program. Mental Consultant to top Israeli athletes and teams, on behalf of the Olympic
Committee. Former Head of the Psychology Unit in the Israeli prime minister's office. Worked as a
Psychologist in post-hospitalize boarding school. Member of the Israel Association for Self-Psychology andthe Study of Subjectivity. Practices Meditation & Tai-chi, long distance runner. Private practice,
psychoanalytically oriented, for adolescents, adults, and couples in Tel Aviv & Modiin.
References:
Riker, J. H. (2015). What Do Humans Need to Be Human? Self Psychology and the Problem of Social Justice.
International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 10, 192-204.
Davis, D. R. (2018). Bounded Openness: A Secure Base for Expansion and Creativity. Psychoanalysis, Self
and Context, 13(3), 288-289.
Frie, R., Kohut, T. (2019). Psychoanalysis and History in Conversation. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context,
14(1), 62-85.
Sucharov, M. S. (2019). We are all located somewhere: Thoughts on History, Trauma and thePsychoanalytic Process. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 14(2), 93-103.
Kulka, R. (2020) Selfobject Psychology for a Troubled World. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 15(4) 324337.
Gardner, J. (2024) Forms and transformations of empathy: Subtleties and complexities of empathic
communication. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 19(1), 80-93.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 4-E: Self-Realization and Freedom in the Analytical Field: Theoretical and Clinical Insights
Paper 1: The Ice Mother Melting
Presenter: Sara Khosravi, MA
Paper 2: Analytic Freedom and The Loving Gaze
Presenter: Shir Shanun, PsyD
Interlocutor: Massimo Segù, PsyD
Sunday, October 27, 9:00 – 10:30am

Abstract: Paper 1:
The absolute silence of a young anxious man in therapy sessions, had made the analysis almost impossible.
Stuttering was introduced the main problem, but in my opinion the lack of true self development. (Winnicott1960) due to the relation limitations with external and internal objects had made him confused in life. I had
learned the framework of taking risks in Tehran psychoanalysis institute, so "I dared to employ a new methodof communicating that after two years of my patience and his strong resistance it worked and became areason for sharing this essay with psychoanalysis enthusiasts.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Describe how a disorder of the self manifests as stuttering.
2. Explain how breaking the silence is necessary for the formation of the transference.
3. Identify trauma in the gaps of the patient’s history.
Abstract: Paper 2:
This paper explores the creation of meaning within our experiences in the intersubjective field as impacted
by analytic freedom and modulated by the loving gaze. The loving gaze transforms and contributes toRelational Freedom as emergent in the complex system. The analyst can make use of orienting to restriction
on the Loving gaze as alerting to restrictions in the field. Restoring the loving gaze through specific techniques
can increase degrees of freedom. Post Bionian Field Theory as well as other field theories such as Storying
are explored in service of the loving gaze and analytic freedom.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Describe the concept of analytic freedom.
2. Describe the concept of the loving gaze.
3. Describe how field perspective can increase freedom modulated by the loving gaze.

Presenter Bios:
Sara Khosravi, MA holds a master’s degree in psychology. She has also passed the psychoanalytic self
psychology course, in Tehran Psychoanalysis Institute. It has been almost 6 years since she started analyzing
patients as an intern in this institute. She is interested in broadening her knowledge in contemporary
psychoanalysis.
Shir Shanun, Psy.D. Is a licensed clinical psychologist in California, and a candidate at the Institute ofContemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles. A graduate of the EDCAS (eating disorders compulsions andaddictions from a relational perspective) at the William Alanson White Institute in New York and is currently
at the ReCAST program. Working with individuals, couples, and poly-relationships in Arcadia, California, andpassionate about Post-Bionian Analytic Field Theory and Storying.
References:
Stern, D. (2020). Field Theory and Dream Sense: Continuing the Comparison ofInterpersonal/Relational Theory and Bionian Field Theory. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 30(5), 538-553.
Coburn, W. J. (2023). Freedom and Self-Ownership: An Emergence Theory of Free Will. Psychoanalysis Self
and Context, 18(3),2-18.
Civitarese, G. (2024). We-ness as. An expansion of Bion’s psychoanalytic Function of intuition.
International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 105(1) 13-39.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 4-F: Tragic Scenarios: Research and Personal Stories Offer New Hope
Paper 1: Reflecting on the Intergenerational Impact of Early Experiences of Being Fostered or Raisedin Alternative Care Settings from Clinical Observations of Chinese-Canadian AdolescentsPresenter: Cherry Qi, RCC, MCP, MA
Paper 2: A Self Psychologist in Public Service: Tragic Communities. From the Bronx to Newtown witha Stop in Methadonia
Presenter: George Hagman, LCSWInterlocutor: David Poulin-Latulippe, MA
Sunday, October 27, 9:00 – 10:30am

Abstract: Paper 1:
The clinical experience working with Chinese-Canadian adolescents in Canada has allowed me to see theearly upbringing of their Chinese parents, many of whom have either long or short experiences of being
fostered at their grandparents' homes or being sent to boarding schools. The intricate connections between
their parents' early experiences and the lives of the children are worth noting. This paper attempts to bringin some observed commonalities of similarity and repetition from clinical practice for observation anddiscussion. It is hypothesized that parents who have been fostered or sent to boarding schools early on are
more likely to send their children to distant places for education and the investigation on the factors will bemade in this study.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Analyze intergenerational emotional traumas of people who own the early experience of being awayfrom home, fostered, or boarded.
2. Explain what the unconscious psychological predicaments repeated and transmitted between
generations are.
3. Discuss how the lack and scarcity of "selfobject experience" might lead to insufficient emotional
attunement and bonding functionality during the childrearing process.
Abstract: Paper 2:
This paper describes clinical work in a variety of community settings ranging from homeless outreach, tomethadone maintenance, community mental health and crisis intervention. Various clinical challenges are
discussed, such as severe mental illness, addiction, AIDS, forensics, and school violence. The paper explores
how an expanded and open approach to analytic practice informed the author’s clinical and managerial
thinking, interventions and relationships. In particular, it shows how psychoanalysis and self psychology
became increasingly important to clinical and managerial approach across a range of communities, service
types and treatment modalities.

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Identify specific opportunities for psychoanalytic practice in the community.
2. Integrate psychoanalytic principles into community practice.
3. Integrate analytic clinical ideas into non-analytic forms of therapy.

Presenter Bios:
Cherry Qi, RCC, MCP, MA has been practicing counselling for eight years in both China and Canada working
with clients at adolescence and adulthood with a variety of issues. Her Asian cultural background as well as
her personal experience as an immigrant to Canada also afford her an insight into immigrant and second
generation ways of being as well as their mental health concerns.
George Hagman, LCSW is a clinical social worker and psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City andStamford, Connecticut. He is on faculty of the Training and Research in Intersubjective Self Psychology, andis a training analyst, supervisor, and faculty member of the Westchester Center for the Study ofPsychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. George is co-editor with Peter Zimmermann and Harry Paul ofIntersubjective Self Psychology: A Primer (Routledge, 2019). He is also the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal
Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context.
References:
Hagman, G. (1995). A psychoanalyst in methadonia. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 12(3), 167 –179.
Hagman, G, (2014). Helping Newtown: Reopening a School in the Aftermath of Tragedy. Clinical Social
Work Journal, 45, 168 – 175.
Banai, E., Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2015). "Selfobject" needs in Kohut's Self Psychology: Links with
attachment, self-cohesion, affect regulation, and adjustment. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 22(2), 224–
260.
George, L. S., & Park, C. L. (2016). Meaning in life as comprehension, purpose, and mattering: Toward
integration and new research questions. Review of General Psychology, 20(3), 205-220.
Sloan Donachy, G. (2017). The caregiving relationship under stress: foster carers’ experience of loss of thesense of self. Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 43(2), 223-242.
Zare, Z. (2018). The Relationship between the individual factors with the frequency and durationof homelessness. Quarterly Journal of Social Work, 7(2), 40-45.
Hagman, G. (2023). Destruction, survival and the use of the Clinician. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context,18(1),14 – 25.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 4-G: Clinical Process and Integrative Functions of the Self
Paper 1: Self-Involvement, Selfobject Presence, and Cohesive self : A Perspective Based on the Tragic
Person today
Presenter: Weifeng Huang, MA
Paper 2: A Dancing Robot
Presenter: Homa Khorsani, MA
Interlocutor: Fulvio Ambrosio, PsyD
Sunday, October 27, 9:00 – 10:30am

Abstract: Paper 1:
This paper aims to provide a new perspective on understanding the psychological state of modern individuals
in complex relationships, based on Kohut's theory of the tragic person. Firstly, we focus on self-involvement,
explore how individuals navigate psychological contradictions and pain, analyse how individuals confront
and resolve these internal conflicts through participation and engagement in relationships. Secondly, we
explore the significant function of selfobject presence. Individuals gain attention and recognition throughthe presence of selfobjects, and these selfobjects need to maintain a certain continuity and stability toprovide a psychological field that harmonizes internal polarities. Finally, we focus on the cohesive self,
delving into Kohut's view that individuals achieve internal integration through participation in relationships.
This process involves "experience-near" and "experience-distant". Guided and sustained by empathy, recent
and distant experiences continuously integrate, confirming and respecting the ongoing need for integration.
Based on the processes outlined above, the threat of self-disintegration hanging over the tragic person
diminishes, and individuals begin to express their ideals of self-realization.
Learning Objectives:
By the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Explain Kohut's perspective that empathetic understanding of the tragic nature of modern
individuals' psychological lives is essential for truly alleviating existential challenges.
2. Describe three key aspects of selfobject presence.
3. Identify the two processes of emotional comprehension and cognitive understanding that empathy
plays in the process of self-integration.
Abstract: Paper 2:
The case presented in the article has been able to revive its existential mission. Through the creation of neworganising principles, from re-experience in the treatment room to the creation of a new relationshipthrough his own experience or the therapist was able to enjoy his function and his existence. The self, thecore of the self that was unknown become known, a living, dynamic interaction in which both psychoanalyst
and therapist were free and overcoming institutionalized fear opened the way to help self-fulfillment.

Learning Objectives:
By the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Identify the developmental deficit that leads to a need for a mirroring transference.
2. Describe the formation of the idealizing transference and the difficulty it poses for therapists.
3. Assess the value of flexible boundaries in fostering the relationship and growth.
Presenter Bios:
Weifeng Huang, MA is a university lecturer in China, holds a master's degree in Mental Health Educationfrom Beijing Normal University and is a Nationally Certified Second-level Psychological Counselor. With acommitment to continuous learning, she has undergone extensive training in psychoanalysis, including
participation in: (1) the Self Psychology Educational Project (SPEP), (2) Assessment, Diagnosis and Treatmentof Personality Disorders: Clinical Application of Transference-focused Therapy, (3) Arthur Lynch's Modern
Conflict Theory Course and Case Supervision, and (4) Xu Jun's Modern Self Psychological Training, etc. Since
2015, she has been actively involved in psychological counseling, specializing in areas such as personal
growth, intimate relationships, and emotion-related issues. Moreover, she imparts her knowledge throughteaching courses on Positive Psychology and Psychological Health Education for College Students. Dedicatedto the development of psychological health education, she plays a pivotal role in creating provincial-level
online courses for college students. Additionally, she has translated three books related to mental healthand served as an editor for the "College Student Psychological Health Textbook." In 2024, she became amember of IAPSP, aspiring to further her studies and practices in Self Psychology.
Homa Khorasani, MA holds a master's degree in psychology from Azad Rodehen University in Iran. Homa
has been studying and seeing patients at the Institute of Psychoanalysis in Tehran since 2017.

References:
Magid, B. & Shane, E. (2017) Relational Self Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 12(1),3-19.
Corpt, E. (2020) Ethical Labor: The Ground Between Experience Near and Experience Distant: Discussion of
Cushman’s Two World’s or One, Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 15(3), 227-229 .
Gardner, J.(2024) Forms and transformations of empathy: Subtleties and complexities of empathic
communication, Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 19(1), 80-93.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Paper Session 4-H: Complexity of Life and Complexity of Clinical Work: From Despair to Resilience
Paper 1: Loss, Grief and the Mourning of Gay Men
Presenter: Robert Benedetti, PhD
Paper 2: Tragic Man Evolved: Navigating Existential Challenges Through Therapeutic Transformation
Presenter: Douglas Zimmerman, MA. Ed., LCSW-R
Interlocutor: Deborah Sherman, BC-DMT, LMHC
Sunday, October 27, 9:00 – 10:30am

Abstract: Paper 1:
Nearly thirty years after the height of the AIDS epidemic in the United States, when there was not yet hopefor a cure and when it was at its most grim, there remains an aging group of gay men who are confoundedin their grief. There is a paucity of psychoanalytic literature interrogating grieving experiences of individuals
from stigmatized groups, such as gay men who often knew selfobject failures from an early age. When AIDS
appeared, their sexual behavior was linked with illness and death further contributing to their sense of
precarity and their experience of alienation. When survival became possible the relief and excitement of
having been spared alongside the destabilizing awareness of having come so close, and then beating an early
death confounded and confounds to this day the mourning of gay men. Creative acts allow a meeting of thecomplexity of what has been lost with the loss itself (Ogden, Bollas). This paper will consider some of theseacts while also reviewing the psychoanalytic literature beginning with Freud’s foundational distinction
between the meanings of mourning and melancholia, and the self psychological and intersubjective offerings(Ornstein, Stolorow, Estelle and Morton Shane, Hagman), among others. Clinical material as well as theauthor’s personal experience are woven into the paper.
This paper has been awarded the Ralph E. Roughton Award by the American Psychological Association forbest paper on Gender and Sexuality this year.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Describe why the current psychoanalytic literature fails to provide an adequate description of theunique grief experiences of individuals from a stigmatized group, such as gay men post AIDS.
2. Discuss the effect of the selfobject milieu on the mourning process of gay men.
3. List examples of how and why aging gay men are confounded in their grief.
Abstract: Paper 2:
In this paper, the author acknowledges the shift from tragic man to tragic person, and the paper illustrates
the work that the patient and therapist undertook –a profound journey of self-discovery, navigating thedepths of despair to emerge with newfound resilience. Ketamine assisted therapy is introduced as part of
the therapist’s personal journey and becomes part of the therapeutic process with the patient. Drawing
inspiration from Roman Theater, the author reframes its traditional 5-act structure into a contemporary 3act framework, comprising a setup, a confrontation, and a resolution.

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Describe how psychedelics, such as ketamine, can promote growth in therapeutic relationships.
2. Identify insights into the effects of one’s personal journey on treatment.
3. Discuss when to confidently disclose personal experiences and when discretion is advisable.
Presenter Bios:
Robert Benedetti, PhD is a psychologist/psychoanalyst in private practice in Washington, D.C. He received
his certificate in contemporary psychoanalysis from the National Training Program in Contemporary
Psychoanalysis (NTP) — National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NIP) in New York, New York. He hasserved as Co-Director of Curriculum and is a Training Committee member and Consulting Faculty member of
the NTP. He is on the Executive Committee and is a Faculty Member and Supervisor in the Psychoanalytic
Training program at the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis (ICP+P) in Washington,
D.C. He has served as a member of the Webinar committee for The International Association for Relational
Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP). Dr. Benedetti was Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry,
Georgetown University Medical Center and Director of Forensics and Clinical Operations, Saint Elizabeths
Hospital, Washington, D.C. before he trained to be a psychoanalyst. He has given papers nationally andinternationally and has publications in psychoanalytic and forensic psychology journals. His paper being
presented in Rome has won the Ralph E. Roughton Award, as the best paper on Sexuality and Gender thisyear.
Douglas Zimmerman, MA lives and works in Manhattan, with over 25 years in mental health and 20 in private
practice. He is affiliated with the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity (IPPS), and with theInternational OCD Foundation in Cambridge, Mass, and am a supervisor for Journey Clinical/Assisted
Psychedelic Psychotherapy/NYC. Having trained both analytically and behaviorally, he uses this unique skill
set in treating adults with OCD, ADHD, and high-functioning Autism (ASD). Those with a neurodivergent
mindset seek my assistance. Personally, he is passionate about ice hockey, drawing, writing, and family timewith my wife and 6-year-old daughter.
References:
Pagano C. J. (2012). Exploring the therapist's use of self: enactments, improvisation and affect inpsychodynamic psychotherapy. American journal of psychotherapy, 66(3), 205–226.
Benedetti, R. (2015). Belonging: Ontogeny of a Gay Psychoanalytic Candidate. International Journal of
Psychoanalytic Self Psychology 10: 398-407
Akhtar, S. (2017) Open-Mouthed and Wide-Eyed: Psychoanalytic Reflections on Curiosity. Journal of theAmerican Psychoanalytic Association 65,265-304.
Muscat, S. A., Hartelius, G., Crouch, C. R., & Morin, K. W. (2021). An Integrative Approach to Ketamine
Therapy May Enhance Multiple Dimensions of Efficacy: Improving Therapeutic Outcomes With Treatment
Resistant Depression. Frontiers in psychiatry, 12, 710338.
Guzzardi, S. (2022). The Only Fag Around: Twinship Needs in Gay Childhood. Journal of the American
Psychoanalytic Association, 70, 437-458.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical PracticeChild & Adolescent Initiative: The Importance of a Psychological Hand in Child Psychology
Presenter: Lynn Borenstein, MSW
Interlocutor: Denise Davis, LCSW
Friday, October 25, 1:00 – 2:00pm

Abstract:
The clinician’s challenge is to offer the child patient, often inwardly defeated and discouraged, an
opportunity for growth and forward development. The actual experience in treatment, from the moment apatient enters the office until the final goodbye, requires the clinician to convey to the child that she is notalone. By providing a psychological hand to hold, a sense of safety and security reawakens in the child,facilitating an enlivened self. This occurs through the clinician’s consistent gestures of psychological andphysical safety, which over time, builds a scaffold for and around the child. Though they may experience
many bumps along the way, a foundation of connection between clinician and child is forged, strengthening
the self. Clinical vignettes elaborate how the clinician and patient experience this strengthening process.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Describe the concept of psychologically holding the child patient’s hand through treatment, tobroaden the clinician’s use of self with vulnerable children.
2. Gain an understanding of the child patient’s experience of feeling the clinician’s commitment andcapacity to psychologically hold her hand.

Presenter Bios:
Lynn Bornstein, LCSW is in private practice in Northfield IL. She is on the faculty of the Chicago Institute for
Psychoanalysis, (supervisor and instructor in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program) and the faculty(Emeritus) of the Institute for Clinical Social Work in Chicago, IL. She has taught many courses and workshops
on child treatment. She has consulted throughout her career in nursery schools and high-risk daycare
centers. She specializes in consultation with nursery school and day care children.
She has published numerous articles. Her favorite publications include:
Stop, Look and Listen: Being a Child Psychotherapist (20) Smith Studies in Social WorkI am, I Can: A Writing Duet with Marian Tolpin (2009) International Journal of Self Psychology“When More “We” Becomes More “Me”: Transitional Objects and Forward Movement in Child
Psychotherapy (2019), Journal of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy
Imagination and Play in Teletherapy with Children (2022) in American Journal of PlayThe Therapist as a Dream Catcher: Holding the Dream (2003) Clinical Social Work Journal.

References:
Geist, R. (2016). From self protection to relational protectiveness”. International Journal of Self Psychology,
11(4), 368-380.
Herzog, B. (2016). Establishing the therapeutic impact of empathy through Affect Sharing. International
Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 11(2),152-168.
Borenstein, L. (2019). When more ‘We’ becomes more ‘Me’: Transitional objects and forward movement inchild psychotherapy”. Journal of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy,18,223-23.

45th Annual IAPSP International Conference
The Tragic Person Today: Existence and Meaning,
In Life and in Clinical Practice

Couples Therapy Interest Group: Variations in the Couple Setting
Presenter: Cristina Bonucci, PhD
Moderator: David Shaddock, PhD
Friday, October 25, 1:00 – 2:00pm

Abstract:
The paper examines some dynamics characterizing the crisis, dissolution, or creative transformation of acouple. Variation in the setting makes it easier to explore defensive limitations that may prevent
understanding the motivations organizing the partners’ shared experience of each other’s lives.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
1. Consider introducing variations to the setting in order to promote the creative regeneration of thebond or its conscious dissolution.
2. Enhance self-narrative capacity in the presence of the other as an opportunity to expand
mentalization and mutual emotional knowing.
Presenter Bio:
Christina Bonucci received her analytic training at the Italian Society of Psychoanalysis; (IPA), before herstudies veered towards contemporary psychoanalytic models, mainly coming from North America.
Christina is currently a teacher and supervisor at Isipsè in Rome, where she teaches the intersubjective
perspective of Stolorow, Atwood, Brandschaft and Orange; furthermore, she conducts creative writing andpsychoanalysis workshops with a special focus on the application of psychoanalytic theories to clinicalpractice.
Christina has published articles on specialized journals on creative writing and psychoanalysis, as well as on
consultation and referrals. She coordinates a group Isipsé (Italy – Rome) that presents and discusses clinicalcases with the purpose of investigating in depth how settings vary and the therapeutic factors that fosterchange in the treatment of particularly serious patients and/or contexts. She has been working with couples
and parental couples for many years, always attentive to new stimuli and critical ideas.
References:
MacIntosh, H. B. (2018). From Application to Approach: A Systematic Review of 50 Years of Psychoanalytic
Couple Therapy. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 38(5), 331–358.
Prowe, D. (2023). Couples therapy as intention: A flexible approach to treatment. Psychoanalysis, Self andContext, 18(2), 234–246.
Shaddock, D. (2023). Couples therapy as therapy: Fostering individual growth in conjoint contexts.
Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 18(2), 314–326.