Dear IPSO Members,
I hope this finds you and your loved ones well, and looking forward to the holiday season!
This Newsletter is full of interesting information about the last six months from the Vice-Presidents, the Editors and the Treasurers. It is uplifting to witness how, despite all the limitations the health crisis has imposed on us, IPSO’s ebullient imagination surges forth and consistently produces thought-provoking events that enrich our members’ training.
Please allow me to invite you to take the time to read the Newsletter fully so that you can acquaint yourself with the IPSO’s breadth of operations. We are fortunate to belong to such an organization.
Meanwhile, I’d like to begin by sharing something about this Executive Committee with you, and then I’d like to let you know about three new initiatives that we are proud to have recently launched.
As you may know, the IPSO Executive Committee (Ex-Com) meets in person at least once a year for a four-day Ex-Com Business Meeting. These meetings are intense, focused and usually adjacent to a major regional congress: They begin at 09h00 and finish at around 17h30. Non-stop, every day for four days.
Due to the pandemic, however, since the London Congress in 2019, the Ex-Com had not been able to have its Business Meetings in person. We were doing our best to compensate with online meetings, but we sorely felt the lack of in-person contact, and increasingly acknowledged how much personal relationships are the foundation for fluid work.
After much deliberation, and careful consideration of the safety measures that we’d have to take, we finally decided that we simply had to see each other if we were going to be able to do good work for IPSO. We chose to meet in Lisbon for the first four days of September 2021. Equipped with negative PCR tests, COVID-passports, difficult-to-obtain visas, and a generous dose of group enthusiasm, we traveled to Lisbon in airplanes departing from Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe.
Slightly shy and disoriented at first, the team coalesced quickly and took a deep dive into IPSO’s inner workings, sharing role-specific knowledge, creating new projects, streamlining procedures, and tackling thorny challenges. I want to let you know how impressed I was by the professionalism, hard work, and generativity of our Executive Committee. It was deeply heartening to be part of a such a friendly, serious and committed group. At the end we were exhilarated and exhausted, bursting with ideas and projects, many of which we are implementing now. IPSO is in good hands.
Here are three projects we discussed in Lisbon that we are pleased to let you know have now been launched:
- Our beautiful new website, designed by the Editors, and whose content was supplied by the whole Ex-Com.
- The Cross Regional Support Program (CRESP) that provides funding for travel to scientific events, and has been operationalized by the Vice-Presidents and the Treasurers.
- The Local Funding Project (LFP) which provides funding to support projects, IPSO members may wish to implement in their own countries, and has also been operationalized by the Vice-Presidents and the Treasurers.
We are eager to hear from you, dear members, with any ideas or constructive criticism that you may wish to share with us. Please don’t hesitate to write to me, or any other Ex-Com officer.
With many warm thoughts,
Charles E. Baekeland. IPSO President
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
It is an honor to officially address you as President-elect, it has been a long and exciting journey to get to this place!
During September, the IPSO Ex-Com had the opportunity to meet in person at the ethereal city of Lisbon; a cidade branca; the city that Fernando Pessoa fell in love with. We had intense and productive meetings: We defied our creativity in order to meet the challenges of maintaining an international psychoanalytic community strong, active and together within a pandemic reality.
Such an experience was possible thanks to vaccination and testing.
While I write these words to you, I realize today’s Europe is not the same as the one that the Ex-Com traveled to during September. A new COVID variant threatens our safety as well as the possibilities to meet in person for professional and personal purposes. As I write to you, I have freely-associated with the words expressed by Freud to Jones in a letter from 1919; “
I cannot remember a time of my life when my horizon was so dark (…) my sentiment is on the side of pessimism… We are living through a bad time, but science is a mighty power to stiffen one’s neck.” (Jones, E. (1957). The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud. Volume 3. Basic Books, Inc. New York.)
A lot has changed since 1919, but some things remain the same. In modern times, We rarely engage in epistolary exchanges. These days, much of our thought interchange occurs through virtual meetings.
It is in this spirit that I would like to remind you of the possibility of joining our Cross Regional Study Groups (CRSG).
While our technique is in constant need of adaptation, our CRSGs are a chance to horizontally supervise original clinical cases and discuss theoretical aspects with candidates from our three IPSO regions. Stay tuned for our April call.
From scientific meetings to online supervisions, I invite you to engage in the activities curated by IPSO throughout the next year. You may find in them some delightful food for psychoanalytic thought. If you have any doubts regarding the Cross Regional Study Groups, or the Visiting Candidate Program, do not hesitate to contact me on email.
With warm wishes for the holidays,
Erika Lepiavka, IPSO President Elect
Dear Colleagues.
These last six months have again been marked by the need to meet online. There have been many opportunities to meet, made possible by the work of the local IPSO Organization Committees and the valuable guidance and contribution of Jeremy Freeman, our IPSO Collaborator:
IPSO Study Day with Nancy Mc Williams, “Psychoanalytic Diagnosis: Culture, Fashion, Process?” (online event), June 11-12, 2021- Meet the analyst with Mark Solms, “A neuropsychoanalytic perspective on the unconscious”, (online event), October 5, 2021
- “Clinical Case Studies – with Angela Mauss-Hanke and Adela Abella”, (online event) November 15, 2021
- Meet the analyst with Salman Akhtar on December 11, 2021, titled “Nonverbal Elements of the Psychoanalytic Process” (online event)
In multiple parts of Europe, the pandemic is resurgent. It is difficult to know how it will play out in the coming months. The IPSO Europe team is working hard to provide opportunities, when possible, to meet in person. Several events, both national and international, have been organized and we welcome further contributions from IPSO members who wish to organize an event in their Country.
Over the next 6 months IPSO Europe offers the following calendar of webinars and conferences:
• Italian IPSO Meeting (for Italian speakers) on March 5-7, 2022, titled “Le forme
dell’intuizione” (event in person and online)
• Meet the analyst with Avner Bergstein, on March 6, 2022, titled “Truth shall
spring out of the earth – The analyst as gatherer of sense impressions.” (online event)
And afterwards more to come:
- EPF in Wien (IPSO Congress entitled “Ideals”), on July 13-17, 2022
We are happy to announce that at the next EPF Congress, IPSO will present the traditional pre-congress panel program, with two Specificity Groups and the supervision group with Heydee Faimberg “Listening to Listening” (you can sign up to these activities when you register for the EPF Congress). Moreover, this year there will also be the opportunity to win an award for the best European Candidates’ paper.
- IPSO Annual European Meeting in Madrid (Spain), in October 2022 (Dates to be defined) titled “Father figure”
- IPSO Colloquium in Paris (France) (Dates to be defined)
- Asia-Pacific Conference in New Delhi (India) (IPSO panels), 4-6 January 2023
To all the Organizing Committees, we want to recognize the value of your big efforts and great work! We also really want to thank the IPSO reps and IPSO members who participated with great efforts and enthusiasm in the work of the IPSO Europe group, enabling the group to grow professionally. If any of you wish to present initiatives that may need IPSO support, feel free to contact us, we’ll be glad to assist you in bringing these ideas to life.
For more information visit our website or send us an email.
We hope you continue to be safe and well, and we look forward to meeting you in person!
Monica Bomba. IPSO Vice President for Europe
Johanna Velt. IPSO Vice President-Elect for Europe
Dear Colleagues,
We hope this newsletter finds you and your beloved ones well and safe.
As you know, we had the virtual IPA Congress in Vancouver where many IPSO members participated and we want to once again congratulate Gabriela González-Polo for winning the IPSO writing award for Latin America and Daniel Castillo for winning the OCAL-IPSO award.
During the congress, we welcomed the new Ex-Com members, having Erika Lepiavka, from Mexico as President Elect, Susana Maldonado from Mexico as well, as Vice President Elect for Latin America. It is worth mentioning that Gabriela González-Polo,
from Mexico, is the new IPSO representative on the IPA ́s gender
and diversity committee. Good luck and congratulations Gabriela!
On November 27th we had the first virtual IPSO Study Day in Brazil, which was held in Portuguese, called “A psicanálise e a língua que habitamos”. Brazil warmly invited the candidates of Portugal to work together and we had the honor of the presence of Jean Marc Tauszik, Patricia Latosinski, Silvia Acosta, Rui Aragão de Oliveira and María Cristina Vasconcellos.
Furthermore, we have been approaching many institutes and we are soon going to organize a meeting with the Institute ́s Reps so we can get to know each other more and work together.
In October we participated in the Mendoza Symposium, coordinating the panel: “Panel of analysts in training: Intersections between training models, their application and transformations”. In this panel, coordinated by Lorena Belza (SPM, Mendoza, Argentina) and Florencia Biotti (Vice President for Latin America at IPSO), the following IPSO member candidates participated: Frederique Le Blanc (SPP Paris), Luisina Scampini Sanz (APU, Uruguay), Celeste Alvarez (APR Rosario, Argentina), Graciela Ficcardi (SPM, Mendoza, Argentina). Each of them shared their personal experiences from each of the three IPA training models. We had a very good discussion about it, which resulted in a great meeting among candidates that we all enjoyed very much.
On October, we had a wonderful zoom meeting with Esther Chaim and Gabriel Rivera from OCAL and Charles Baekeland our IPSO president where we talked about the importance of team work and communication, making emphasis on making bonds that can last over the years, so we are preparing with ABC and OCAL members some interesting things together, where Gabriela Piaccquadio, Valéria Silveira, Renata Morais, Fernanda Souza, Carlos E. and Alexandre Pantoja joined the team.
In November, Angélica Pateiro, Benazir Oróztico and Lourdes Valdés from Mexico, and Diana Poblete from Argentina participated in the event called “Dear Fred…IPSO members meet with Fred Busch and respond to the contributions of his recent book Dear Candidate” where they worked together and wrote a beautiful letter in response to analysts from Latin America. This gave them the opportunity to share their work and opinions with colleagues around the world.
Our goal is to continue working hand in hand, creating unity and having space for creativity and learning. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with your ideas and feedback. Finally, we hope you have a great vacation period and we look forward to seeing you soon.
Warmly,
Florencia Biotti. IPSO Vicepresdient for Latin America
Susana Maldonado. IPSO Vicepresident-elect for Latin America
Dear Colleagues,
We hope this message finds you well during these continued uncertain times and that you find encouragement and support with your colleagues. While we wait for the time when we can all meet together again, we hope you take advantage of IPSO’s online programs.
Thankfully, the IPSO Ex-Com was able to meet in person in early September, where we accomplished many things including setting goals for our regions and a thorough review of the IPSO Constitution and Bylaws. Goals for our North America and Asia (NAm) Region include expanding our network of IPSO Representatives and members, offering online programs, strengthening the emerging Asian IPSO programs, and exploring possible ways to partner with the APsaA Candidates Council.
Over the past several months we’ve accomplished some important things for NAm IPSO in the areas of administration, expanding our IPSO NAm network, and online programs. Administratively, we now have a NAm IPSO representative on the IPA Sexual and Gender Studies Diversity Committee: Alla Sheynkin of the New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute.
We also accomplished a thorough review of NAm dues collection procedures and established a NAm Candidate Annual Membership Letter that was emailed to all NAm IPSO members.
A question came up about whether candidates in distance training programs are eligible for IPSO membership and we were able to confirm a special category of IPSO non-voting members for candidates in distance training programs at institutes that offer IPA approved training.
To continue to grow our IPSO NAm network, we met online with IPSO Japan representatives, and in December with IPSO South Korea representatives as well. We will also continue to reach out to institutes that do not yet have IPSO Representatives to establish Reps for those institutes.
If your institute does not have an IPSO Rep and you’re interested in being the Rep, please contact us to answer any questions you may have and to get you appointed.
In an effort to expand NAm IPSO online programming, we held an online event, named “Dear Fred…IPSO members meet with Fred Busch and respond to the contributions of his recent book Dear Candidate”. Here candidates from each of the IPSO Regions wrote and presented personal responses in relation to their trainings and then had the opportunity to engage with Prof. Busch, and debate with the audience. This incredible event was organized by Kristin Whiteside of the San Diego Psychoanalytic Center, and Joe Behrmann of the St Louis Psychoanalytic Institute. We’re working on another online discussion about struggles in training, which we’ll announce once the date and participants are finalized. In addition, we’re pursuing the possibility of cosponsoring events and/or programming with the APsaA Candidates Council.
If you’d like to get more involved in IPSO, please contact us and we’ll find a way that fits your interests. For more information about some of the opportunities available with your IPSO membership, please explore our webpage www.ipso.world or email us directly.
Be safe and well, and we look forward to seeing you in the future!
Gerard Sobnosky. IPSO Vice President for North America and Asia
Caryn Mushlin. IPSO Vice President Elect for North America and Asia
Dear Colleagues,
We would like to greet you and introduce ourselves to all of you in our new positions: Joe Behrmann, from St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute, current IPSO Treasurer and Liliana Castro, from Portuguese Society of Psychoanalysis, current IPSO Treasurer-Elect.
Our main goals as a Treasurer Team are to work with the Ex-Com and all world candidates towards organizing psychoanalytical training and social activities in order to bring us closer in our analytical identities and paths. We are working to maintain and foster international bridges and communication that enables our meetings and friendship to continue and grow. We are currently planning and outlining a budget for the two upcoming years and calculating the IPSO budget, making it possible to maintain previous ongoing projects and foster new ones.
During the pandemic we have supported several virtual/online activities such as the Meet the Analyst webinars, IPSO study days, IPA/IPSO meeting and Cross Regional Study groups (CRSG). We are now in a period of transition trying to adapt to a new reality across the world: We are moving gradually from online activities to in-person events as well as creating hybrid activities. We will maintain a large part of our budget supporting educational opportunities and connecting colleagues by subsidizing educational programs, social events and travel for IPSO members.
We will continue to invest our human and financial resources in order to allow IPSO members to enjoy and experience different projects. More in detail:
- We are developing and investing in the CRESP (Cross Regional Support Program) and the LFP (Local Funding Program). This last program will allow the submission of proposals for educational or networking events at a local level, organized by the local members and representatives.
- We will continue to fund the IPSO writing awards to stimulate the sharing of clinical and theoretical papers by candidates.
- We aim to guarantee low fees for candidate participation in socio-educational events, stimulate the funding of Visiting Candidates Programs (we have money in our budget to subsidize a few of these experiences) and to help finance local candidate’s projects.
- We will continue to support with discounts/free dues for countries or individuals with socio-economic difficulties, taking into account the IPA policy regarding dues payment.
- We are improving our infrastructure including the following: The new IPSO website, IPSO database, improving our IPSO media communication, investing in our own Zoom license for organizing online events and online representation of IPSO for the upcoming online/hybrid conferences.
Furthermore, we are negotiating with the IPA and EPF for discounted registration fees for IPSO candidates for the international and European psychoanalytical Congresses. Another goal will be to convince local institutes to include IPSO dues in their candidates’ fees so that the system of payment and the documenting of members can be more centralized.
In addition, we are focusing on stimulating IPSO new membership by investing in attracting activities for candidates, supporting members so they can present and discuss their papers in conferences and participate in training and social activities. We are also developing a FAQ page to include in the website as well as some informative and educational handbooks regarding IPSO membership, representation and participation.
Regarding dues collection we are trying to make the dues payment more uniform. By 2023, March will become the permanent dues deadline in order to ensure eligibility for the Early Bird Rate for the IPA Congresses.
We also want to give you more specific feedback and update you on our current finances and accounts, by sharing stable balances as of October 2021:
- The IPSO Euro Account stands at € 150186.25
- The IPSO Sterling Account in the UK stands at £ 14651,29
- The IPSO US Account stands at $ 67341,38
- The Brazilian Real Account stands at R$ 1.518,45
October 2021
| Euro Account | € 150.186,25 |
| Sterling Account | £ 14.651,29 |
| US Dollar Account | $ 67.341,38 |
| Brazilian Real Account | R$ 1.518,45 |
We are looking forward to working with the Ex-Com and with all candidates over the next two years and are excited to share the projects and activities we are building and financing together.
Please contact us with your projects, initiatives and dreams regarding psychoanalytical training and together we can make them shared and real. In case you have any questions or requests regarding financial organization matters or planning of local events, don’t hesitate to contact us by email.
Warmly,
Joe Behrmann. IPSO Treasurer
Liliana Castro. IPSO Treasurer Elect
Last summer Sebastian Montes changed his function within the IPA, giving up the baton of IPSO Secretary to two colleagues of him: Ana Clara Paiva and Lucila Riascos Weber.
The whole IPSO Ex-com is pleased to take advantage of this newsletter to gratefully thank Sebastian for the timely and competent job he has done with us and to officially and warmly welcome the new secretarial team, who gives an uttermost contribution to everything related to IPSO.
IPSO Ex-com is pleased to introduce to all IPSO members Ana and Lucila:
Ana Clara Paiva. With a background in Psychology, law and Project Management, Ana has been IPA Membership Services Secretary for IPA since 2018 providing support for the Latin American Societies and works directly with the IPA Events Team planning seminars, webinars and Congresses. Fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese, Ana has enjoyed joining IPSO so she can continue to interact with members from around the world.
Lucila Riascos Weber. With a Bachelor of Business Administration and a background in marketing, Lucila joined the IPA in 2018 as Membership Services Secretary for the North American and Asia-Pacific regions. She also provides support to the IPA Congress team, candidate Loans panel, and the research and CAPSA committees. As a fluent English and Spanish speaker, Lucila looks forward to supporting international IPSO members.
Best regards,
Ana Clara Paiva. IPSO Secretary
Lucila Riascos Weber. IPSO Secretary
Dear Colleagues,
We Editors hope that our December Newsletter finds you well everywhere, despite the great differences between countries in respect to the state of the ongoing pandemic.
In the past semester many important things have happened in the IPSO Editorial field: Last July for the first time, we made use of the online modality in the
IPA-IPSO Congress 2021. 
The winners and the runners-up of the IPSO writing awards for the three Regions presented their works on that occasion.
Presenting a paper online is of course not comparable with the pleasure of discussing it with colleagues in person. Despite this, the virtual tool and the possibility to attend recorded content as well, gave colleagues (whose participation in the Congress might have been unlikely) the chance to share that experience. This also gave the presenters the possibility to be heard by a broader audience. The balance between the preciousness of the in-person modality and the potential of the virtual one, is something which we can think about further.
You can find the papers presented at the Congress in our IPSO Journal 2021, which has been recently published as a digital version and sent to all IPA candidates via email. Along with these contents, the Journal collects the winning paper of the OCAL writing award and two interviews; one with Florence Guignard and one with Bernardo Tanis, which talks about their recent papers and presentations. Indeed, both these IPA members gave wonderful contributions in the last IPA Congress on the main theme: “The Infantile”. We would like to thank both Florence and Bernardo for their kind availability in answering our questions. We hope you will enjoy reading these really interesting and thought provoking pieces of content.
During the Congress, we had our Business Meeting, where the new Elects officially took to their roles. The editorial team gained a competent and kind colleague: Andy Cohen, IPSO Editor Elect for the next two years. On this same occasion, Cláudia Antonelli ended her mandate, succeeded by Thomas Marcacci, as actual IPSO Editor. We would like to warmly thank Cláudia for her brilliant work and her valuable friendship.
Aware of the great importance of online tools, we are implementing the use of IPSO’s official social media platforms, which were launched in the past few months. IPSO can count on its own Facebook and Instagram account, as well as a YouTube channel:
- Facebook: International Psychoanalytical Studies Organization IPSO Facebook
- Instagram: ipso.world IPSO Instagram
- Youtube: IPSO WORLD IPSO YouTube
The constant work to nurture these social media profiles with interesting content has really increased IPSO’s visibility. For example, the Facebook Page coverage has increased by 82,3% since January. And in the past quarter our Instagram account has reached 58% more accounts, and enjoyed a 768% increase in engagement. These promising statistics will allow us to rapidly spread our communication and content to a large and growing community, both to IPSO colleagues but also beyond, reaching other colleagues and the general population. We hope this will provide a glance at what we call “the IPSO spirit” .
Furthermore, we are very happy to share with you the recent launch of our revamped IPSO website:
ipso.world. We are trying to make our new website more attractive than the previous one, for both colleagues and those generally interested in
our field. 
With this in mind, we created a
section titled “insights“, where we post brief
works regarding reflections and thoughts about cultural, scientific, costume & society issues. For example, creative reflections about films, books, articles (scientific or not), shows and exhibitions, and other news that can be looked at through an analytic lens.
If you are interested in having something of yours published in this section, please get in contact with us: Your precious contribution will be welcomed!
These works could be scripts but also videos, presentations or whatever format you would like to create. In the case of a script, it doesn’t have to be long – anything from 300 words onwards will be perfect. Of course, each work will be spread through our social channels as well, so this could be a good opportunity to make yourself known and to create links. We hope this section will be an opportunity for whoever sees it, to get a feel for the IPSO experience. That’s to say: The young vanguard of psychoanalysis, in touch with a contemporary and world wide perspective.
Finally, we would like to share an ambitious aim we Editors have for the future. We are convinced of the precious role that analysts in training could have in nurturing the whole analytical community with fresh contact with contemporary clinical and cultural manifestations. Therefore, we would like to sustain and promote the value of candidate’s works, giving them a container which helps them to be spread and be read by as many IPSO and IPA colleagues as possible. In order to reach this aim, we would like to increase the publications of our Journal up to a yearly basis, sustaining its diffusion through each IPA society. Along with this, we will work with our Ex-com colleagues to establish IPSO awards linked to the regional main Congresses from Asia, Europe, Latin and North America, and award a prize to IPSO members for works on clinical, theoretical and cultural issues. To pursue this aim, we need your contributions, both in sending response proposals to the calls for papers that will be spread in the future, and also by joining our reviewing committee.
If you are interested in becoming part of the IPSO reviewing team, please get in contact with us Editors.
We hope you have enjoyed hearing all our updates,
Warmly,
Thomas Marcacci. IPSO Editor
Andy Cohen. IPSO Editor Elect