Dear Colleagues,

I hope this note finds you well.

If you haven’t already submitted a proposal for the Rome Conference, set for June 24–27, 2027, you have until Tuesday, October 20 to upload it to our portal.

As ever, there is no shortage of new psychoanalytic writing to discover. In addition to journal articles and presentations, our IARPP members have written books whose recent publications I am pleased to announce. Below you’ll find six new titles. Also featured in this issue of The IARPP Bookshelf is another absorbing interview from Berta Loret de Mola (Mexico), who here speaks with Lauren Levine (USA) about her recent book, Risking Intimacy and Creative Transformation in Psychoanalysis (Routledge).

Paul Renn (UK) has written Relational Foundations: A Relational-Neurodevelopmental Approach to Cumulative Trauma in Clinical Practice (Routledge), centered on the subtle, ongoing misattunements that accrue over time, which he calls “cumulative relational trauma.” The book shows how early relational experience becomes embedded in mind and body and shapes emotional life across the lifespan and how this can be recognized, worked with, and gradually repatterned in therapy.

Tahirí Rojas (Uruguay) is the author of Recidivist Victims in Psychoanalysis: The Attachment to Suffering and the Hope for Repair (Routledge), which examines why some people repeatedly return to relationships and situations that cause suffering, even when they recognize the harm involved. She coins the concept of “recidivist victim” and develops a spectrum for understanding different ways in which repetition, suffering, desire, and relational hope become intertwined.

From Ofra Eshel (Israel) comes a new book, Reinventing Psychoanalysis for the Great Unknown: The Never-Ending Challenge (Routledge), in which she explores extreme experiences in psychoanalysis and examines how to work with and understand them both theoretically and practically. Together with an international panel of distinguished discussants, Eshel ventures into the great unknown of psychoanalysis – from massively traumatic states and enigmatic telepathic dreams to the sudden, shattering death of a patient.

Shir Bar-Emet Gradman (Israel) has written a psychoanalytically-informed guide for parents and the clinicians who work with them. In Heart Wisdom: A Psychological Journey into the Early Years of Parenthood (Free Association Publishing), Bar-Emet Gradman draws on contemporary psychoanalytic thought and developmental research to posit early parenthood as a site of psychic transformation in the adult, offering a deeper language for parents’ ambivalence, collapse, confusion, and repair as part of their growth.

Johanna Dobrich (USA) has edited a new volume bringing psychoanalytic thinking and practice directly into the social forces that shape our lives, in Moving from Grievance to Hope in Psychoanalysis: Applied Case Studies (Routledge). The book explores themes such as intergenerational trauma, the legacies of both war and refugee displacement, cultural difference, matrescence, gun violence, environmental degradation, and the ways that entrenched social hierarchies shape our theories of mind.

Psychoanalytic Group Psychotherapy: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge) is the latest offering from Richard M. Billow (USA). The book integrates contemporary psychoanalytic thinking with Freudian and Kleinian core concepts, Bion’s early group theory and his later metapsychology, major psychoanalytic thinkers outside the American relational mainstream, and Billow’s own contributions to provide a unique, holistic and interdisciplinary overview of the subject.

Joyce Slochower (USA) has recently written papers on the theoretical convergences in Loewald and Winnicott and on grieving America’s massive political and social upheavals without being crushed. Willow Pearson Trimbach (USA) has presented on dreamwork and on her new album, Caesura’s Cry, whose songs welcome the listener to be held in the intimacy of the sacred feminine.

* * *

If you want to share news of your recent or upcoming publications or presentations in the next (February) IARPP Bookshelf, please send the following materials to me at MattAibel@gmail.com by Sunday, January 24, 2027:

• Title of your recent or upcoming publication(s)/presentation(s) (“Recent” means within the prior year; IARPP Annual Conference presentations are not eligible)
• Abstract of the content, up to 150 words
• 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 (city/town in which you practice or work; email address)
• Book authors, please provide a brief bio of up to 100 words
• Presenters, please spell out organizational acronyms and include the location, if in-person

Wishing you well in the months ahead.

Matt Aibel
Editor, The IARPP Bulletin

Matt Aibel, LCSW
New York, NY, USA
Email Matt Aibel