Abstract of Panel for Buenos Aires Congress 2017

IPA ENCYCLOPEDIC DICTIONARY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS: INTER-REGIONAL PHASE OF WORK


This panel is a continuation of the last IPA Congress panel presentation on the IPA Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychoanalysis Task Force: Work in Progress, as we mark the transition from the intra-regional to the inter-regional phase, which is the most pioneering and unique aspect of the IPA Encyclopedic Dictionary, clearly distinguishing it from all excellent regional psychoanalytic dictionaries and glossaries.

After summarizing the basic tenets of the IPA Board mandate and the multi-phasic original methodology implemented to meet its objectives, together with the update of the work completed in the preceding intra-regional phase, the panel of the IPA President Stefano Bolognini and the Co-Chairs Arne Jemstedt (Europe), Elias de Rocha Barros (Latin America) and Eva D. Papiasvili (North America) will explore the specific issues arising amidst the transition between the intra-regional and inter-regional phases, and those emerging during the unprecedented inter-regional work itself. 

Accordingly, the panelists will present and elaborate on the complexities involved in assuring the completeness of the conceptual exposition in their historical and socio-cultural context, full intra- and inter-regional representation of various theoretical perspectives while preserving regional specificity and richness throughout the process of transitioning from constructing intra-regional drafts to their collation into inter-regional entries. Specifically, this concerns those concepts named by consultants of the three regions as most relevant to their thinking and work, such as the global concepts of TRANSFERENCE, COUNTERTRANSFERENCE, (THE) UNCONSCIOUS, PROJECTIVE IDENTIFICATION, CONTAINMENT, ENACTMENT, OBJECT RELATIONS THEORIES, CONFLICT, NACHTRÄGLICHKEIT; moderately regionally specific SELF, DRIVES, INTERSUBJECTIVITY and SETTING; and regionally highly specific AMAE, EGO PSYCHOLOGY, TRANSFORMATIONS, and others.

The issues pertaining to the transitional phase and the phase of the inter-regional work itself, including: inter-regional team building; construction of inter-regional conceptual templates capable of absorbing as well as highlighting different regional approaches; changing contours of the conceptual landscape (some concepts considered previously as regionally specific may turn out to be more globally inter-connected and vice versa); changing dialectic of the ‘mainstream’ and ‘non-mainstream’ perspectives; dynamics of multidimensional translations pertaining to preserving as well as bridging the inter-regional differences of psychoanalytic languages in both the content and the style; learning through ‘otherness’; (loss, consolidation, re-construcion of) regional identities; conflicts and reconciliation of regional and inter-regional loyalties; and others will be explored in depth in regard to the specific aforementioned concepts. Throughout, the new intimate connections in thought and experience will be reported on.

The panelists will also highlight the specific contribution that each of the three IPA regions are bringing to this common project that involves us all. 

As previously in Boston, so too presently in Buenos Aires, the intent of the panel presentation is, through information, transparency and dialogue, to engage a broad psychoanalytic community in this historical undertaking. Consistent with the philosophy and the objectives of the IPA Board mandate, such periodic updates and dialogues constitute a vital structural element of an ongoing reciprocal, ‘learning from experience’-driven, increasingly complex and multifaceted methodology. 

SUMMARY

This panel will present the transition of the IPA Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychoanalysis into the inter-regional phase of work. The IPA President Stefano Bolognini and the regional Co-Chairs Arne Jemstedt (Europe); Elias de Rocha Barros (Latin America); and Eva D. Papiasvili (North America) will present on specific methodological and dynamic aspects of the inter-regional work of the first 15 concepts, named as most relevant to today’s psychoanalysts at work world-wide.