By Allison Katz (USA) and André Sassenfeld (Chile)
Co-chairs of the Webinar Committee

The Webinar Committee has presented a series of very successful programs so far in 2016, each geared toward different groups within IARPP. Together with the Candidates’ Committee, in January we presented a webinar featuring the inimitable Irwin Z. Hoffman (USA) presenting on his theory of dialectical constructivism. John Skrovan (USA) moderated this lively discussion attended by candidates and early-career psychoanalysts from around the world.

The candidates’ webinar was followed in February by a program entitled “Somatic Experience in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis,” featuring William Cornell (USA) as faculty, with Eyal Rozmarin (USA) moderating. In this webinar Bill discussed his ideas as presented in his recently published book, Somatic Experience in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. The webinar participants engaged in a discussion about the somatic experience of therapist and patient and the use of direct body-level interventions in the practice of psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy.

The third webinar of the year also took place in February, and, importantly, was presented entirely in Italian. The program was entitled, “The Birth of Intersubjectivity: Psychoanalysis and Infant Research,” and was led by Massimo Ammaniti (Italy), with Maria Tammone (Italy) and Carmine Schettini (Italy) moderating. Given the success of this program, we look forward to offering more webinars in languages other than English in the future.

This fall we eagerly anticipate a webinar featuring the work of Margaret (“Peggy”) Crastnopol (USA) entitled “Micro-traumatic Experience:  Identifying and Healing its Cumulative Toxic Effects.” This program will be moderated by André Sassenfeld (Chile) and will take place from October 17 through October 31. Peggy describes micro-traumas as the small, subtle psychic hurts that build up, undermining a person’s sense of self-worth, skewing his or her character, and compromising his or her relatedness to others. These injuries amount to what has previously been called “cumulative” or “relational trauma.” In this webinar Peggy will amplify the themes she presents in her recent book, Micro-trauma: A Psychoanalytic Understanding of Cumulative Psychic Injury.

Finally, we are already planning our webinars for 2017. We look forward to Sheldon Itzkowitz (USA) and Elizabeth Howell (USA) leading a webinar based on their recent book, The Dissociative Mind in Psychoanalysis. Also planned for next year is a Spanish- language webinar led by Juan Francisco Jordán (Chile). Stay tuned for further announcements of these and other events coming soon.

Allison Katz, LCSW
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André Sassenfeld, MA
Email André Sassenfeld