The 23rd Annual International Conference
on the Psychology of the Self

The 23rd Annual Conference on the Psychology of The Self will be held at the Chicago Marriott Hotel on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, November 9-12, 2000. Most of you know Chicago, and know of the rich mix of art, architecture, music, theater, and restaurants the city offers. This year is no exception. There are special exhibits at the Field Museum, the Chicago Art Institute, the Oriental Institute, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, an exciting theater season, and music of all sorts. If you stay a little longer or go out several of the evenings, you will find many wonderful opportunities to refresh your spirit.

The conference itself promises a splendid intellectual feast. The title is Explorations into the Clinical Process and the Human Condition, and the conference will do just that. The first two panels will focus on central clinical issues. Panel I: The Role of Empathy and Interpretation in the Therapeutic Process, on Friday afternoon, will be structured around several questions about the clinical process posed to the panel and later to the conference participants. Salee Jenkins will present a case, and the discussants will be Dan Kriegman and Marian Tolpin. James Fosshage will moderate the panel and will offer clarifications and comparisons of the discussants' ideas. Panel II: The Role of the Relationship in the Therapeutic Process, on Saturday morning, will begin with a case presentation by Joye Weisel-Barth. The discussants will be Robert Stolorow and Lewis Aron. Estelle Shane will moderate the panel that will be structured the same way as the first panel. Small group discussions led by self psychologists from around the world will follow each panel.

Panel III: Self Psychology, Psychoanalysis and the Understanding of the Human Condition, on Sunday morning, will look at the way self psychology has changed our understandings of the human experience, its implications for psychoanalysis and for all of the social sciences. Charles Strozier, who has just completed his biography of Heinz Kohut, will begin; Judith Teicholz, the author of Kohut, Loewald and Postmodernism will continue, and Gerald Izenberg whose pre-analytic background was professor of the history of ideas, will be the third. Arnold Goldberg will chair the panel. It promises a Sunday of extraordinary richness.

The Kohut Memorial Lecture entitled Reflective Relativism and Kohut's Self Psychology will be given by Mark Gehrie, MD. Prior to the Kohut Memorial Lecture, a special award will be given to Miriam Elson for her lifetime contributions to self psychology. That is not all, of course. There will be 36 outstanding papers and discussions in three sessions covering clinical, theoretical and applied areas of discourse. The Pre-Conference Program will offer master classes, sessions on group, marital, and child therapy, special sessions on optimal responsiveness with Howard Bacal, a workshop on gender and sex, and a plenary with Paul Ornstein who will lead an exercise in the process of consultation with a colleague.

There is a lot of enthusiasm for the conference, and I suggest that everyone register at the earliest opportunity. This may be a fully subscribed meeting.

I look forward to seeing you all in Chicago in November.

David M. Terman, M.D.
Chair, 23^rd Annual International Conference

Conference Contents

The 23rd Annual International Conference on the Psychology of the Self

Explorations into the Clinical Process and the Human Condition

The Institute for Psychoanalysis of Chicago

CONTENTS

The 23rd Annual International Conference
on the Psychology of the Self

Explorations into the Clinical Process
and the Human Condition