IPA Working Parties Committee

Working Parties have been operating in the EPF for a number of years, and, from there, they have been developed in the three IPA regions. Their development and approval in the international community of psychoanalysts came about as a result of the WPs proving to be very useful tools for reflecting on clinical work, developing psychoanalytic listening, understanding concepts and analytic training.

The WPs and Working Groups are devices that stimulate professional development, inter and intraregional integration, as well as Psychoanalysis itself. In this regard, they serve the three strategic objectives of the IPA (the ‘3 Ps’): professionalism, promotion and participation. 

It is important to foster the development of the WPs and WGs within the context of the IPA, at least for three reasons: they help to meet the IPA’s strategic objectives (‘3Ps’), they provide the IPA with the opportunity for further scientific activity, beyond the IPACs, and are a good way to reinforce the connection with the Regional Federations (EPF, FEPAL and NAPSAC). 

In addition, it is hoped that the WPs and WGs may be encouraged to achieve a greater level of abstraction and conceptualization, going beyond the rich clinical discussions in the workshops. To this end we would ask the members of WPs who are invited to participate in specially organized scientific activities to produce texts in publication format so that these may be published in international scientific journals or in the e-Journal. 

We intend also to create bridges between the different WPs and WGs that usually work isolated in their "islands" and also to construct bridges inside each one of the WPs between the groups from different regions. We think that with the activities proposed below, we will be able to promote a dialogue between the working parties, which we consider of the utmost importance since they often work in isolation.