Dear colleagues,

In a recent article in The New York Times Style Magazine, the author Sigrid Nunez offers a reappraisal of a now-obscure novel written by Paula Fox in 1970 called Desperate Characters. Nunez expresses particular appreciation of Fox’s talent for conjuring, in Fox’s words, “the chaos that most of us live in.” Noting how apt Fox’s prose feels for our current moment, Nunez writes piquantly of

the anarchy ticking away, threatening at any moment to be explosively loosed upon the world. “Rabid” strikes me as a good way to describe how “what is outside” can feel to us today: the race and class conflicts, the polarized rage, the fear that at any moment we or a loved one could be the victim of some violent act. The center not holding, the thin veneer of civilization and how little it takes to fall through – how often, lately, do we come across these sentiments? Resonant, too, is the book’s sharp analysis of gentrification: the inequality and social segregation and displacement of the have-nots that are among its consequences, as well as the hapless flailing of the displacing haves over what position to take in regard to this harsh reality.

These words resonate with me for a number of reasons, including, perhaps surprisingly, with respect to our recent conference at the gorgeous Luskin Conference Center on UCLA’s campus in Los Angeles. The conference was a joy, a gift, a balm, sumptuously and thoughtfully arranged and administered. You’ll read about it throughout this edition of The Bulletin, most centrally in a special section of reflections by a number of conference attendees.

But the pleasures and privileges of the conference, held in the lap of the Luskin’s luxuries, were at times pitted in sharp relief against very sobering alternate realities. Leaving the impossibly serene outdoor patio with its vista of palm trees on a perfect evening dusk for the first plenary, we were reminded of the enormous strain and ongoing peril faced by Ukraine, as Alyona Chukanova addressed us, resolute but weary at 3:00 am her time, and spoke fervently of her and her Ukrainian colleagues’ determination to continue studying psychoanalysis and to fight to preserve the language, customs and culture of her people, none of which can be taken for granted.

Roe v. Wade had just fallen here in the States, and so had numerous victims of gunfire.

Leaving the campus for some wonderful local lunch and dinner excursions, I met a number of Uber drivers whose take-home pay was dwindling scarily in light of LA’s $6/gallon gas price. The slight gas surcharge we were charged hardly covered our drivers’ added costs. Even more starkly, getting into a high-end omakase sushi restaurant meant stepping around a homeless person asleep at our feet on the sidewalk.

I don’t mean to invoke the old ‘limousine liberal’ trope, though it could indeed be lobbed at me and my companions as we enjoyed a taste of the high life in LA during a time of such intense social unrest and an ever-warming climate. Coming together on a retreat of sorts in order to focus both inwardly and upon one another – to “get away for a few days from the hustle and bustle of everyday life to enter a state where we could listen to and comment on the work uniquely,” as Marie Saba (Peru) puts it in her Conference Reflection – felt not like a luxury for the jaded but rather like a necessity for the beleaguered.

We have all individually sustained ourselves, variously, these past two-plus years in our individual practices and related professional lives, periodically overcoming professional isolation with the aid of Zoom seminars and occasionally lifted up by carefully arranged in-person gatherings. But right from the start of the conference – in fact, right from the 8:30am start of the pre-conference – it was immediately clear how much we needed to communicate, commune and come together. We immediate sensed how much we’d been lacking these past years, and there was a heightened sweetness in seeing (the upper half of) each other’s faces and the (full) dimensions of each other’s bodies, in rows or circles of chairs, on either side of a table, in passing as we negotiated twisting and turning hallways ever in search of the right room. (At one point I wandered into the “Imagination” room despite seeking “Exploration,” surely a metaphor for something.)

Steve Mitchell and Manny Ghent long ago helped us try to parse the differences among wants, wishes and needs. Into which category did this gorgeous and gratifying conference fall? I’d say all three.

So, herewith you’ll find a half-dozen committee reports, the aforementioned reflections on the conference from 8 attendees as well as the conference co-chairs, along with a conference photo slideshow, as well as reports from 11 chapters around the globe. I thank the 8 contributors – one of whom was attending her first IARPP conference, another of whom recalls attending the inaugural conference 20 years ago – for their reflections, and I thank our conference co-chairs, and all their helpers, for their tireless dedication in putting together and pulling off this most wonderful and most needed IARPP conference. In conclusion, as many of us now pause for a summer (or winter) break, let us remember our colleagues who continue to practice, fight and persevere in Ukraine, those for whom a vacation may these days be only a longed-for luxury.

Should you have news of a publication or presentation you wish to share in the next IARPP Bookshelf edition, please email me the following information and materials by Sunday, September 25, 2022:

• Title of your recent or upcoming publication or presentation
• An abstract or brief description of its content
• Link to a publisher (if applicable) so that members might access or purchase a copy
• Book cover photo or artwork (if applicable)
• Digital photograph of yourself (jpeg format)
• Professional contact information as you would like it to appear publicly for our readers (town/city and email)
• Book authors: please provide a brief bio of 75-90 words.
• Presenters: please spell out organizations’ acronyms.
• Please note that we do not publish announcements of IARPP Conference presentations.

Wishing you well,

Matt Aibel, LCSW
Northport and New York, NY
Email Matt Aibel