Candidate Webinar

“This essay explores my reactions to evident suffering in strangers. How are they (partially) a product of many years of personal and profes sional experiences of witnessing pain? What are some results of defensively avoiding registering these moments? In addition to my own reflections, I call upon statements by some well-known poets, including Sherman Alexie, W. H. Auden, Emily Dickinson, and Rainer Marie Rilke. The interpersonal analytic writings of H. S. Sullivan offer one description of the process of defensive avoidance. More generally, when my “mind’s eye” looks away, it might be imitating my reluctance to stare at sufferers on the visual plane. While this may offer me some protection, how does it limit my capacity for empathy?” (Sandra Buechler)

Bios:
Sandra Buechler, Ph.D., Training and Supervising Analyst, W. A. White Institute, author, Clinical Values: Emotions that Guide Psychoanalytic Treatment, (Analytic Press, 2004), Making a Difference in Patients’ Lives, (Routledge, 2008), Still Practicing: Heartaches and Joys of a Clinical Career, (Routledge, 2012), Understanding and Treating Patients in Clinical Psychoanalysis: Lessons from Literature, (Routledge, 2015) Psychoanalytic Reflections: Training and Practice, (IPBooks, 2017) Psychoanalytic Approaches to Problems in Living, (Routledge, 2019), Poetic Dialogues (IPBooks, 2021), Erich Fromm: Contemporary Introduction (Routledge, 2024).

Adriana Cuenca, PhD Mexico/ LMFT USA, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist.
Faculty and supervisor in the Master’s Program in Relational Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at the Universidad Marista de Mérida, Mexico. Member of the Board of Directors of IARPP and Co-chair of the Webinar Committee.

Carmine Schettini, M.D. Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst; Faculty Member Isipse (Institute of Self Psychology and Relational Psychoanalysis); Co-chair of the IARPP Webinar Committee; Member of the IARPP Stipends Committee; IAPSP Member.