Dear IARPP colleagues,
The world is on fire, and yet here we are, with bimonthly news of our analytic endeavors. To be sure, our psychotherapeutic and psychoanalytic work has a crucial role to play in generating understanding and healing wherever we manage to practice, teach, and live it. Our analytic attitudes matter. Yet as I’ve gone about compiling and editing this December edition of The IARPP Bulletin, I keep thinking of Winnicott’s famous intervention during the British Society’s Controversial Discussions as World War II raged: “I should like to point out that there is an air-raid going on outside.”
I can’t help but think most centrally right now of our colleagues in Chile, currently immersed in tumultuous social upheaval, an ongoing series of protests and repressive reprisals which carry hope alongside disconcerting signs of history repeating itself. I’m pained as well by the increasingly violent responses of the Chinese police to student protestors in Hong Kong, with its disturbing echoes of Tiananmen Square. Many other political upheavals; fires, floodings, species extinction. I could go on – the anguish of the world.
Here in the States, as I write this message, I toggle back and forth between assiduously (obsessively) tracking the House of Representatives’ impeachment hearings on one screen, and tending to the stirring posts that keep arriving from the IARPP Colloquium on another screen. Plus patients, readings for the class I teach and the reading group I attend, meetings and conferences … family time … a meal with an old friend … sleep. Is there time for more?
To invoke Betty Joseph’s phrase, everything happens at once.
And yet, news there is: reports from our committees and our chapters. We need community, we need purpose. Our common endeavor – which locates a commitment to truth, its own reward, and a commitment to relationship – is orienting and potentially galvanizing.
This issue marks the beginning of my second year as Editor of IARPP’s newsletter. Chief among the pleasures of overseeing it has been the opportunity to engage in both formal and informal modes with colleagues from all over the globe. I’ve enjoyed staying close to news of all the books, journal articles, and presentations produced by our members. It’s been a treat to have closer contact with our dynamo President, Steven Kuchuck, and to rely on my steady and good-humored team of IARPP staffers who do so much work to put together each issue, Elisa Zazzera and Valerie Ghent. It’s also a tonic to have periodic guidance from my editorial fairy godmother, Christina Emanuel, my predecessor in this position.
I look forward to continuing in my role in the year ahead as it affords me contact with so many IARPP members. It is gratifying to be a cog in the IARPP wheel, and I hope that the Bulletin helps you feel more connected to the strong work and the communal feel of this association.
For those celebrating the various end-of-the-year holidays, I wish you sustenance for the spirit, some rest and relaxation, and peace and joy to everyone. Perhaps now more than ever.
See you in the new year.
Sincerely,
Matt Aibel, LCSW
Editor, The IARPP Bulletin
Matt Aibel, LCSW
New York City
We invite all IARPP members to submit announcement of their publications and presentations. Our next deadline for submissions to the IARPP Bookshelf is Sunday January 26, 2020. Please include the following materials with your submission:
- Title of your recent or upcoming publication or presentation
(Note: We do not publish news of presentations given at the IARPP Annual Conference) - Brief description of its content (such as an abstract)
- 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 (email and mailing address)
- For presentations, please include location and spell out any acronyms
Please send submissions to matt.aibel[at]gmail.com.