By Chana Ullman (Israel)

Dear IARPP Members,

It is truly an honor to serve as the new president of IARPP and a pleasure to address our international community of members here in the eNews.

In my role as president I will be moving forward along the road paved by Susi Federici-Nebbiosi (Italy), our past president, and our other previous presidents, who have led us with energy and wisdom to become a fast-growing, complex, and vibrant professional home to over 1,700 members from 35 different countries. We have a flourishing organization and I believe we can grow further and develop internationally, reaching out to different places around the globe where an interest in relational psychoanalysis is still in its nascent form.

In this spirit of expansiveness we look forward to our upcoming international conference to be held this June 9 through 12 in Rome, Italy. The conference, under the leadership of co-chairs Susi and Gianni Nebbiosi (Italy), is entitled The Arts of Time: Relational Psychoanalysis and Forms of Vitality in Clinical Process. The conference will be held at the Teatro Argentina, one of the oldest theatres in Rome, located in the historical center of the city. Many excellent papers were submitted and reviewed for this conference, and we are pleased to include over 120 papers representing contributions from 27 countries. This is the first conference for which we will be offering stipends for 20 IARPP members to attend, enabling even more of our members to partake of the opportunities our international conferences offer.

Other other events include our recently concluded colloquium featuring Eyal Rozmarin’s (USA) paper, I Am Yourself: Subjectivity and the Collective, which gave us the opportunity to discuss the powerful relationship between psychoanalysis and socio-political contexts. And plans are already underway for our 2017 international conference taking place in Sydney, Australia.

These programs and all the other activities of IARPP are carried out by members of the board of directors and by our committees. This is demanding and time-consuming work, conducted voluntarily, with love and devotion, by many dozens of IARPP members throughout the world. I wish to thank them here. I look forward to our collaboration. In particular, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome our four newly elected board members, beginning their terms on April 1: Jessica Benjamin (USA), Roberto D’Angelo (Australia), Juan Francisco Jordan (Chile), and Carmine Schettini (Italy). They are an appreciated addition to the collective leadership and international diversity of our board.

As many of our members know, Muriel Dimen (USA), a founding member of IARPP and a member of the board since its inception in 2001, passed away on Feb 14 in New York City. A wise and generous colleague, scholar, and clinician, Muriel will be missed and remembered with gratitude and appreciation by the IARPP community. In addition to an article about Muriel in this issue of the eNews, we will have a gathering in her memory in Rome on Friday, June 10. The board of directors of IARPP mourns her loss and extends our condolences to her family and friends.

Relational psychoanalysis emphasizes inevitable multiplicity and dialectic tensions in human experience, and values processes of dialogue, mutuality, and recognition in promoting health and development. I believe the same values should guide our development as an organization. Along with all those involved in the leadership of IARPP, I will aspire to maintain and enhance them.

Sincerely,

Chana Ullman

Chana Ullman, PhD
17 Neve Matz
Rehovot 76100   Israel
Email Chana Ullman