Division 39 Program

(113th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association)

Psychoanalysis in the Real World

August 18 - 21, 2005
Washington, D. C.

Psychoanalysis is not just a profession, a set of ideas, a method and a sensibility, but a powerful force in contemporary life. We are in constant, dynamic interaction with psychological science, other sciences, the arts and humanities, and broader social forces, both influencing and influenced by contextualizing trends and currents. At times our daily practice can feel insulated from the social and professional debates that swirl around it. At other times, the outer world intrudes palpably on the inner life, and on our daily professional lives as psychologists and psychoanalysts. At still other moments, psychoanalytic practice exerts powerful, shaping influences on politics, cultural developments, gender and sexual realities, and the texture of daily life. How do we capture, examine, and act upon this sometimes confusing, sometimes exhilarating confluence of dynamic forces?

Our summer 2005 meetings will take place in Washington -- the national capital, a center of world power, and a vibrant city in its own right. Our location will afford us particular opportunities to be in dialog and interaction with other constituencies within the APA, federal and international organizations, and the wide variety of communities and institutions based in Washington. We have an opportunity to present our thinking and our work in a place where the public meets the personal in unique and particular ways.

Among the topics our meetings hope to explore: What are the diverse activities and ideas with which contemporary psychoanalytic psychologists are engaged? How does contemporary psychoanalytic thinking contribute to general understandings of politics, culture, race, gender, sexuality, work, and media, and to advances in the sciences? What is the developmental edge within psychoanalysis itself -- how are we co-evolving with our own shaping contexts, and what are our own realities?

For details about the convention, go to www.apa.org