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The Australian Psychoanalytical Society (APAS)
2015 Conference Open Days, Melbourne, Australia
A treatment for our times:
Contemporary psychoanalysis
and serious mental disorders
International Keynote Speaker, Associate Professor Rudi Vermote
Guest Speakers, Dr John Boots and Mr Neville Symington
Saturday 5th September, followed by a Cocktail Party
Clinical Workshops: Sunday 6th September (Morning)
The Royal Automobile Club of Victoria, 501 Bourke Street, Melbourne, Australia
Overview of the Open Day Conference
The 2015 APAS Open Day Conference, to be held on Saturday 5th September, will examine
the contemporary nature of psychoanalysis and its capacity to understand and deal with serious
mental disorders. A particular focus of the day will be on the application of contemporary
psychoanalytic ideas to understanding the current concerns with violence associated with extremism
and fundamentalism. The relevance of cognitive neuroscience to psychoanalysis and its role in
understanding the nature of psychic change will also be illustrated.
About the Speakers
Keynote Speaker: Associate Professor Rudi Vermote, M.D. is a Training and
Supervising Analyst with the Belgium Psychoanalytical Society. He is also
an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Departments of Psychiatry,
Psychology and Sexual and Familial Sciences at the Catholic University of
Louvain (Belgium). He is the Director of Postgraduate Training of Psychoanalytic
Psychotherapy at the same University and Head of the Hospitalisation Based
Psychoanalytic Treatment of Personality Disorders at the University Psychiatric
Centre (Ambulatory Psychodynamic Treatment Services). His empirical research
focuses on process outcome in the treatment of personality disorders. He has
lectured and published widely on the concepts of Bion and psychic change.
Guest Speaker: Dr John Boots is a Training Analyst and Child and Family
Psychiatrist and a Past President of APAS. He worked for over 30 years as a
Consultant Supervisor to various Child Protection Services, including the Child
Protection Unit at Westmead Children’s Hospital. He has had an ongoing
interest in trauma and the application of psychoanalytic thinking to its
presentation and consequences, both within and outside the consulting room,
as well as considering its long term vicarious effects on therapists and other
health professionals.
Guest Speaker: Mr Neville Symington is a Psychoanalyst in private practice
in Sydney. He trained in London and is a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical
Society. He has been the Chair of the Sydney Institute of Psychoanalysis and
is a Past President of APAS. His recent books include: The Spirit of Sanity,
A Pattern of Madness, Becoming a Person through Psychoanalysis and
The Psychology of the Person. He is also joint-author with Joan Symington
of The Clinical Thinking of Wilfred Bion. In 2007 he started a clinical
organization called Psychotherapy with Psychotic Patients (PPP). He was
also the recipient of the prestigious Sigourney Award in 2014.
The Australian Psychoanalytical Society (APAS) is a professional organization with members from a variety of
disciplines such as psychiatry, psychology and social work, who have undertaken further training in
psychoanalysis. APAS offers training in the theory and practice of psychoanalysis & ongoing education
in the form of lectures, seminars & conferences, for both its members and the wider public.
Front page image: Moonshine Paul Klee1879-1940
Open Day Program: Saturday 5th September, 2015
9.00am
Registration and coffee
9.30am Welcome and Introduction to Keynote speaker: Dr Vivienne Elton, President of APAS
9.45am
Keynote Lecture: Assoc Prof Rudi Vermote
Contemporary psychoanalysis: A treatment for our times
The lecture will present a model that integrates contemporary concepts of
psychoanalysis with cognitive neuroscientific findings which may help to understand different ways of psychic functioning and change. The clinical and technical
implications of the model will be discussed and illustrated.
Chair: Dr Vivienne Elton
Discussant: Dr Ron Spielman
11.00 - 11.30am Morning coffee
11.30am
Questions and discussion
12.30 - 1.30pm Lunch
1.30pm Lecture: Dr John Boots
Finding a dark light: Experiences in and reflections on terror
This paper arose as a personal response to trauma, whilst visiting Paris at the time
of the Charlie Hebdo and Kosher Supermarket tragedies, and is intended as one
among many psychoanalytic contributions to the current, urgent and uncertain global debate. This presentation questions whether our understandings from the consulting room are transferable in comprehending the nature and origins of hate and terror in the immediate world around us, especially in troubled young people who ultimately
seek radical and dark solutions.
Chair: Dr Ron Spielman
Discussant: Dr Deborah McIntyre
2.40pm
Questions and discussion
3.00 - 3.30pm Afternoon tea
3.30pm Lecture: Mr Neville Symington
The creation of sanity Sanity is the product of a creative act in the core of ihe personality; madness is the
failure of this creative act. This paper examines the details of this inner activity. Chair: Ms Milena Mirabelli
4.15pm
Response from Assoc Prof Rudi Vermote
4.30pm
Questions and discussion
4.50pm Closing address: Dr Vivienne Elton
5.00 - 6.00pm
Cocktail Party*
*Representatives of APAS will be available in Room 1 to talk with anyone who is interested in training in psychoanalysis.
Sunday Workshops
Workshop I 9.30-11.00am This workshop will outline the process of psychoanalytical assessment
of adults with particular reference to identifying possible indicators of more serious underlying mental
disorders. This approach will be illustrated with case material, including vignettes that participants
bring to the session.
Presenter: Ms Margaret Berkovic
Workshop II Two sessions exploring the experience of working with a child and an adolescent
with serious mental disturbances impacting on their development.
Part A (Child) 9.30-11.00am
This workshop will offer an opportunity to explore and discuss the psychotic anxieties and defences
illustrated by clinical material from the analysis of a 4 year old boy presenting with autistic features.
The clinical narrative will follow the process of containment and working through which enabled his
developmental arrests to be unblocked and show how symbolic thinking became possible.
Presenter: Mrs Jyotsna Field
Part B (Adolescent) 11.30am-1.00pm
This workshop will explore the difficulties of working with 16 year old ‘Ian’. Ian’s fear of ‘growing up’
and his serious and debilitating emotional retreat from human contact significantly disrupted his adolescent
development. The workshop will discuss a particularly powerful and uncomfortable transference in the
analysis and how Ian was gradually drawn back into the relationships with his friends and family.
Presenter: Ms Louise Hird
Workshop III Two Balint Groups, one run by Dr Bill Betts (9.30-11.00am) and another run
by Dr Tom Wilmot and Mrs Leonie Sullivan (11.30am-1.00pm).
Workshop Presenters
Ms Margaret Berkovic is a Training Analyst and Adult Psychoanalyst with the Sydney Branch of APAS.
Mrs Jyotsna Field is a Training Analyst and Adult and Child Psychoanalyst with the Sydney Branch of APAS.
Ms Louise Hird is a Clinical Psychologist and Child and Adult Psychoanalyst with the Sydney Branch of APAS.
Dr Bill Betts is a Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst with the Melbourne Branch of APAS. He is an accredited Balint Group
Leader, Trainer and Supervisor.
Dr Tom Wilmot is a Psychiatrist and a Psychoanalyst with the Sydney Branch of APAS. He is an Accredited Balint Group
Leader, Trainer and Supervisor.
Mrs Leonie Sullivan is a Psychoanalyst and Training Analyst with the Sydney Branch of APAS. She is an accredited
Balint Group Leader, Trainer and Supervisor.
The Australian Psychoanalytical Society
P O Box 27 High Street, Ashburton, Victoria 3147
Email: [email protected]
www.psychoanalysis.asn.au
Conference Organising Committee: Dr Timothy Keogh (Chair), Ms Milena Mirabelli, Ms Roslyn Glickfeld and Dr Jenepher Thomas
2015 Conference Open Days, Melbourne, Australia
Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV) 501 Bourke Street, Melbourne, Victoria
A treatment for our times: Contemporary
psychoanalysis & serious mental disorders
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Accommodation
Budget accommodation is available at the Ibis Melbourne Hotel (600 Little Bourke Street)
and at the Rydges Hotel (186 Exhibition Street).
(tick appropriate
box)
Open Day Saturday, 5th September including Reception Cocktail Party (5 - 6pm).
Cost
$275 inc GST
Early bird
$240 inc GST
Pensioner/Concession/Full time students
$195 inc GST
Pension card holders and full-time students under 35 years - ID must accompany registration.
Clinical Workshops
Sunday 6 September
(tick ONE box below)
It is possible to attend either:
Workshop I and Workshop III (11.30-1.00pm session)
Workshop II in its entirety
Workshop I and Part B of Workshop II
Workshop III (9.30-11.00am session) and Part B of Workshop II
Cost for any combination of the above Workshop options
Pensioner / Concession / Full time students
EARLY BIRD by 30th June
$200 inc GST
$175 inc GST
$150 inc GST
Discount Registration
All Events - Saturday & Sunday
or EARLY BIRD (registration by 30th June 2015)
$395 inc GST
Concession for all event attendance
$345 inc GST
$250 inc GST
All costs includes full catering (workshops include morning tea).
I enclose a cheque/money order for $
Made payable to Australian Psychoanalytical Society ABN 63 218214 356
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Please send this form with your remittance to: The APAS Conference Administrator
P O Box 27 High Street, Ashburton, Victoria 3147 email: [email protected].
You may also pay either Online or Direct Deposit
The APAS Direct Deposit Bank Account details:
For Online Booking:
Account: The Australian Psychoanalytical Society
http://www.trybooking.com/134629
Bank: St. George
BSB: 333 013 Account: 700 069 973
Refunds (less $50 administrative fee) will be given only
for cancellations received in writing by 7th August 2015.
Please assist by entering your name in the Description
field when entering the details for your payment.