This year's theme has emerged from the workshops we held in Vienna and Buenos Aires in 2017 and then the discussions we had afterwards. We found ourselves thinking about how our patient’s most difficult early experiences (and the ways they are held back by how they survived in response to them) get into the sessions. Is there common ground about how they can become transformed or not in psychoanalysis, or if not, what are the lines of divergence?

Papers on countertransference are the most downloaded on PEPWEB. It is a sign, perhaps of what we feel most uncertain about and want to know more about. Certainly, what struck us about the invariably difficult cases discussed in in the last few months, was the intense and sometimes lonely pain that we thought analysts were experiencing as they were exposed to their patient’s behaviour or stories in session. Pain in the analytic session, it seems, known or hidden, is experienced in many and varied ways – sometimes apparently paralysing the analytic process and sometimes becoming transformed to be used as an opportunity for progress.

Pain seems to be around a lot in current discourse. Some psychoanalysts and their institutions are experiencing profound existential pain: at the institutional level, some think psychoanalysis is endangered because modern economic, social and emotional pressures are creating patients who do not fit classical descriptions so that practice and training needs to be much less “rigid”. Others feel this will obliterate any specific distinction between psychoanalysis and psychotherapies. In the sessions we discuss, taken from our workshops, the psychoanalysts presenting or group members responding to presenters, often seem to feel painfully under threat and obligation, as we have noted before. Sometimes, despite the 2-Step method, group members find themselves more or less subtly attacking presenters, at other time protecting and praising them a bit too lavishly. 

On the first Friday afternoon, we will attempt a spontaneous roundtable discussion between the moderators to talk about why we chose this theme and to open up what we think may be crucial about it. We think recognising and differentiating when and how one is in pain and when and how the patient is feeling pain, may be crucial if analysts are to seize any opportunity there may be to transform pain into change.

We will also be presenting some working papers addressing some of the relevant issues we discover in the working models of psychoanalysis that we have been finding. 

Large Group Plenaries Friday and Saturday Afternoon, Sunday morning.

We will devote the first plenary on Friday to an introduction and to some discussion of the progress of the project in 2017 - reflecting on the evolution of the two-step method, the role of the workshop groups, the work of the moderators and why we have taken Pain the int Analytic Session as the theme for 2018. The workshops help to fund travel for the moderators to meet to discuss the workshops and we have been mulling over the issues and experiences. 

On Saturday afternoon, we will elaborate our thinking on some topics and hope to facilitate discussion in the groups by feeding back some of the core issues relevant to the theme. 

In the final session on Sunday morning there will be an opportunity for evaluation and feedback.

Friday Evening

Friday evening is free for participants to enjoy the City.

Saturday Evening

An informal self-service buffet will be arranged for all those attending the meeting who wold like. You will receive an email invitation near the event.

Moderators in 2018

The workshops will be moderated by one or two moderators who have experience of CCM groups and take part in the moderator groups.The moderators and CCM members organising the 2018 symposium are:

Dana Birksted-Breen: British Psychoanalytical Society

250 Euros for participants enrolled before February 28th 2018
350 Euros thereafter.

Note the large jump for those after January 31^st, so please apply early. Presenters have to be arranged well ahead for these workshops and so we wish to incentivise those registering early. This will also make your travel and accommodation more reasonable.

The fee covers participation in all events and coffee and snacks during the meeting Participants make their own arrangements about meals and accommodation.

Note: Up to 10 CCM associate fellowships will be offered to participants from countries in the former Soviet Union or what were its previous satellites. Associate fellow receive a 50 Euro reduction in their fee.  

• The earlier you book your accommodation the better.
• booking.com or similar websites have many hotels near the Vienna Academy and past participants have found relatively inexpensive apartments on these sites.
• Be sure to arrive before 14.00 on Friday. We end at 14.00 on Sunday.
• Vienna airport is very close to the City by bus (from near the Academy), train or taxi.

 

Registration, Administration and Payment

The Association is “virtual” (and so administered by the moderators with no support) and the Vienna societies are not able to receive phone calls or provide information.

You register by completing the form available at the link below and then by sending an Internet money transfer to the association’s bank account in Lausanne.

Please be sure that the name you use for your money transfer refers to the name with which you register!

To be on the safe side, please send an email to CCMmeeting@gmail.com when you send your bank transfer. If you have problems making a payment please also advise us. 

It will be possible to pay cash in Vienna, if this has been agreed beforehand.

Tax receipts will be made available at the meeting.