It publishes a quarterly journal, holds an annual national spring conference, offers dozens of panels at the annual APA conference, and supports local chapters throughout the country. In contrast to your grandmom's psychoanalysis, Division 39 explores issues such as the therapist's self-disclosure, the personality of the therapist in treatment, feminism, attachment theory, neuroscience and dreams, and psychoanalysis and technology. These are just a few of the provocative and exciting topics explored in the spring conferences. Division 39 also supports a graduate student committee that serves the graduate student members of the division. As co-chairperson of the graduate student committee, I encourage graduate students to become involved in all that Division 39 has to offer.
Involvement can mean many things.
All you need is some interest in psychoanalytic ideas or practice to make membership worth your while. Second, if you are working on a dissertation or have written a paper related to psychoanalysis, you can submit an abstract to the graduate student committee to present at one of our panels. The committee holds two graduate student panels a year, one at Division 39's annual spring conference and the other at the annual APA conference. These panels are designed to give graduate students the opportunity to present their original work and gain exposure and experience presenting. If you are selected for a panel, you will have the opportunity to have your work discussed by a nationally and often internationally known discussant.