IPTAR

The IPTAR Society is a home for the community of IPTAR analysts. It offers opportunities for the continual reworking of our psychoanalytic identity through dialogue and reflection, in a dialectic between innovation and tradition. Our ongoing psychoanalytic exploration is enhanced by a series of structured programs, scientific meetings, workshops, study groups, research activities, and publications. These are open to the IPTAR membership and candidates, to interested analysts and analysts-in-training, and to the larger mental health community.

Program of Psychoanalytic Meetings

Open to the Analytic Community (Chair, Janice Lieberman, Ph.D.)

IPTAR presents a program of four to six open psychoanalytic meetings each year and a two-day conference. The themes that are selected for these presentations reflect currently vital psychoanalytic concerns and reveal both a commitment to classical psychoanalytic thought as well as a desire to hear new and challenging ideas from many different points of view. These meetings offer an avenue for creative discussion and have become significant events for the psychoanalytic community.

Program of Workshops for the Mental Health Professions

(Chair,Veronica Greenwald, L.C.S.W.)
These workshops open to mental health professionals outside of IPTAR, as well as for our own members and candidates, are an opportunity to study with a member of the IPTAR community who has expertise in a particular area. The workshops meet for two to four sessions in a seminar format, providing a space for in-depth psychoanalytic inquiry.

Friday Clinical Series

Evolution of the Third Avenue Programs

The Third Avenue Series invited members to make presentations and hosted discussions on topics related to the interests of the IPTAR community.  When  IPTAR moved its main administrative offices to the West Side, the Friday Clinical Series replaced the Third Avenue Series.  These intimate Friday afternoon meetings held in our Conference Room focus mainly on clinical issues and provide a forum for candidates and members to share their ideas.   Recent meetings included: Freud/Klein Controversies, Perverse Transference, Transference in Psychotherapy, and current issues in psychoanalytic training.

1. THE DEVELOPINGANALYST (Chairs,Gil Katz, Ph.D. and Tracey Strasser Vorus, Ph.D.)

In the Developing Analyst Series a supervisor-candidate pair present their work on the candidate’s control case.  Group discusssion often focuses on practical, technical, and theoretical aspects. All members of the IPTAR community are welcome.

2. IN THE SPOTLIGHT (Chair, Irving Steingart, Ph.D.)

In these programs senior analysts present actual clinical work from their practices.  The analyst then discusses their choice of interventions and the audience is encouraged to participate with questions and comments.  Here is an opportunity to view psychoanalysts at work.

Peer Study Groups (Chair, Carol Munter, Ph.D)

The IPTAR Membership Society encourages shared study. At the request of a member, the Chairperson of Study Groups tries to facilitate the formation of a small group to meet throughout the year. In the past, study groups have resulted in publications by their individual members, in monographs produced by the group, in the formation of conferences and other professional and general education workshops, as well as in the presentation of papers. Study group topics have included: Gender Related Issues, Anxiety of Authorship, Psychoanalytic Education, the Older Patient and Winnicott.

Program of Empirical Research Studies     (Chair, Norbert Freedman, Ph.D.)

The question of how to understand, let alone establish the validity of our analytic enterprise is a complex one. Along these lines, the Program of Empirical Research Studies us now pursuing four major research projects, each with its own database.

• First is the study of treatment effectiveness based on observations at the IPTAR Clinical Center (ICC).
• Second is a study of Therapy Remembered After Termination, a study in which former patients recalled in detail their treatment experiences after a lapse of several years.
• Third is a study of recorded psychoanalysis in which we look at the difference between working sessions and difficult sessions, thus studying the treatment process itself.
• The final study is of the recorded psychotherapy of a patient who suffered severe trauma in Africa.

For each of these studies, we seek to define central psychoanalytic concepts, for we hold that the language of psychoanalysis is the language of analytic concepts. Our empirical research has led to publications in major psychoanalytic journals and presentations at national and international conferences. In addition, the IPTAR Research Faculty has shared in sponsoring dissertation projects at various universities.

The Annual Program of the Investigative Section (Chairs, Jay Frankel, Ph.D. and Norbert Freedman, Ph.D.)

The Investigative Section offers a forum in which clinical psychoanalytic concepts are examined in a multifaceted, systematic, and critical way. Our aim is to bring together, into a single arena, information about these concepts gathered from various sources. The more familiar path of exploring the foundations or evolution of a concept through clinical observations and conceptual scholarship is augmented by assessment yielding systematic empirical research. The empirical research includes reports of the findings of IPTAR’s own program described above as well as the work of other investigators whom we bring in to widen our perspective. During 2006, the Section sponsored four meetings with each forum focusing on different concepts. The themes we explored included: the concept of internalization of the psychoanalytic experience, the ordinary and extraordinary counter-transference, and the effectiveness of psychotherapy with children.

Doris Bernstein Memorial Section on Gender-Related Issues in Psychoanalysis

In the spirit of Doris Bernstein’s writings, the Section on Gender-Related Issues is concerned with the exploration of gender as a specific and decisive force in human development and human experience. The Section sponsors several activities. It has established an ongoing study group on gender-related issues. Every other year, the Section also sponsors the Doris Bernstein Memorial Lecture, a part of IPTAR’s Program of Psychoanalytic Meetings. It serves as a resource for the IPTAR Clinical Center and offers workshops for members of the analytic community.

Linda Neuwirth Memorial Section on the Effect of the Work on the Analyst

In honor of Linda Neuwirth and her commitment to excellence in psychoanalytic training and practice, a Section on the Effect of Psychoanalytic Work on the Analyst has been established. Topics of consideration by this group may include: balancing personal, familial and professional demands; the impact of illness on the analyst; the pregnant analyst; and discussion of analytic cases in progress. In addition, a Linda Neuwirth Memorial Paper will be chosen annually from submissions by candidates, recent graduates, and members of IPTAR.

Section for the Study of Critical Issues in Psychoanalysis (Chair, TBA)

The Section for the Study of Critical Issues in Psychoanalysis (SCIP) was established by IPTAR to provide an institutional context for IPTAR analysts to work collaboratively with leading analysts from other societies to explore critical and controversial issues in psychoanalysis. At the present time, three study groups are addressing issues in psychoanalytic technique, while a fourth group is examining the current status of psychoanalytic developmental theory.

Art,  Psychoanalysis, and Society Project (Chair, Isaac Tylim, Psy.D.; Visual Arts Curator, Rob Fierstein, LCSW)

This project is  designed to “bring the  couch  into the  streets” and places IPTAR at the vanguard of a trend to highlight what psychoanalysis has to offer to diverse disciplines.  The Project functions as an umbrella under which visual arts, film, music, literature, and socio-political controversies may be explored through the lens of  psychoanalysis.

Ethics Committee (Chair, Arnold Wilson, Ph.D.)

The Ethics Committee is responsible for establishing the code of ethical and professional conduct for members and candidates of IPTAR, as well as the procedures for making, processing, and adjudicating complaints. The Committee has the responsibility for investigting such complaints, holding any necessary hearings, and reporting its findings and recommendations.

Diversity Committee (Co-Chairs: Richard Reichbart, Ph.D. and Tania Guimares, LCSW)

The primary task of the Diversity Committee is to encourage and facilitate dialogue and discussion in the IPTAR community with reference to Otherness and Difference. The Committee’s central approach consists of engaging in such dialogue and discussion through developing working relationships with the Admissions Committee, the Recruitment Committee, the Candidates’ Organization, and the Curriculum Committee, as well as with other groups at IPTAR. The members of the Diversity Committee share a commitment to psychoanalysis continuing as a progressive and inclusive movement and discipline.

Legislative Committee

(Chair, Fredric Perlman, Ph.D.)
The Legislative Committee was established in response to a series of public policy and regulatory issues that have recently become salient to IPTAR’s mission and functions. Members of this committee collaborate with other psychoanalytic societies and organizations, most importantly the Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies (CIPS), as well as the American Psychoanalytic Association (APA), the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA), and others. Recent activity has centered on licensing legislation and regulations for psychoanalysts in New York State and the development of lobbying approaches and model licensing laws to be applied in other states.

Communications Committee (Chair, Judy Ann Kaplan, L.C.S.W.) (Chair, Publications Projects Subcommittee, Joy Dryer, Ph.D.)

The Communication Committee’s (CC) mission is to create, in printed and electronic forms, an archival record of IPTAR’s activities and to present IPTAR’s contributions and accomplishments to both our internal community and the psychoanalytic community at large. The CC has responsibility for ongoing dialogue within the IPTAR community via The Manifest Content and E-talk and for reaching out to the general analytic community and the public via the IPTAR Bulletin and the Website. All these media formats reflect IPTAR’s current pride and forward-looking spirit as a contemporary psychoanalytic community.

For further detail about all of IPTAR’s activities and programs, please click here to download the IPTAR Bulletin.