IPAA Event – Sept 14 2019 – Circumcision – Video Art Presentation by Robin Buick RHA

In Thais, a Cenobite Monk, Atanael, travels to the city of his birth to try to convert Thais, a courtesan and priestess of Venus. He is warned against this course of action by others advising that he will suffer the revenge of Venus. He and Thais have a long and dramatic journey together replete with the conflict between earthly love and the eternal love of god in heaven.

The opera forms the backdrop to a video art presentation which was specially commissioned for our conference.

It is the work of Robin Buick RHA who is an Associate Member of our Group. He is a sculptor, artist and film editor and is currently an officer of the Royal Hibernian Academy.

His film is based around a talk entitled ‘Circumcision, Self-Analysis and Countertransference’ which he was writing for the Monkstown Group. It is based on the work of Carlo Bonomi.

Following the extraordinary interest after its first showing at this year’s IPAA conference, we are hosting a special showing with Q&A from the artist on Sept 14 at the Lexicon theatre Dun Laoghaire.

You can register for the event here.

Carlo is President of the International Sandor Ferenczi Network, a training and supervising analyst at the Societa Italiana di Psicoanalisi e Psicoterapia Sandor Ferenczi based in Florence Italy. Carlo’s major work is a Two Volume exploration of Freud’s work and inner life and his relationship with Sandor Ferenczi.

The Cut and the Building of Psychoanalysis examines Freud’s inner life and influences based on new interpretations of his dreams and his self-analysis. It explores how the trauma associated with the surgery performed on his patient Emma Eckstein influenced him and his construction of his theories of trauma.

Citing what she called ‘Freud’s neglect of the feminine’ Judith Dupont writes that Freud and Ferenczi interpreted these sources differently ‘resulting in a cut between their two conceptions of psychoanalysis which had lasting consequences on the evolution of the psychoanalytic community, its way of thinking and practicing’.

This video art presentation, named ‘Circumcision’ illustrates these conflicts symbolically thought the artist’s attempts to put together his thoughts for his talk and his own analysis. It was recently shared at our 2019 Conference, the Budapest School of Psychoanalysis: Ferenczi, the Balints and Beyond.

Join us for a special showing with Q&A from the artist on Sept 14 at the Lexicon theatre Dun Laoghaire.

We hope you enjoy the experience.

You can register for the event here.

IPAA2019 Final Programme

The IPAA 2019 conference will cover themes of the theory and practice of Ferenczi and the Budapest School including:

  • Innovations in therapeutic approach.
  • Counter-transference in the therapeutic relationship.
  • Regressive States.
  • A therapeutic model for treatment of Adult Survivors of Sexual abuse.
  • Balint Groups and Multi Disciplinary Team approaches in Health Service settings.

Final Programme
09.30 Registration
10.00 Welcome
10.05 President’s Address – A Budapest State of Mind – Fergal Brady
10.45 Dr Marcus Bowman – The Development and Consequences of Freud’s Seduction Theory
11.10 Coffee Break
11.30 Dr Arnold Rachmann – The Evil Genius of Psychoanalysis
13.00 Lunch
14.00 IPAA@The Movies – A special documentary on Ferenczi made as part of the ‘Major Figures of the 20th century series’ – Introduced by Dr Judith Mezaros
15.00 Dr Judit Mezaros – ‘Why Ferenczi Today?
15.20 Coffee & Animated Short: The Confusion of Tongues – Em Cooper (2018 Emmy Nominee).
15.40 Dr Arnold Rachman – ‘The Confusion of Tongues’
16.00 Panel Session – Chair: Ros Forlenza
16.20 Bringing Psychoanalysis To The NHS: The Balint Group – Christine Christie
17.00 Video presentation: Circumcision, Self-analysis and Countertransference by Robin Buick RHA.
17.45 Conference Close

Register Here…

What are Balint groups?

Christine Christie

Michael Balint the originator of Balint Groups realised that doctor/patient relationships can be very difficult on both sides, writes Psychotherapist and Balint Group facilitator Christine Christie.

Balint wanted to provide opportunities for practitioners to think about their patients in a different way. Not purely in terms of their symptoms but as whole persons suffering understandable distress.

Read more…

Healing Your Heart: Learning to Forgive Yourself & Others Two-day workshop – Benig Mauger

In this workshop, we will work with ‘the pain that heals’ with the archetype of the Wounded Healer, with what is wounded within us that still needs to be released, and we will learn how to Heal from Within. No healing can happen from a closed heart. We need to value our vulnerability and in doing so our hearts will open. Compassion is where our heart pain will lead us. Join me for a two-day workshop on Healing Your Heart.

Read more…

IPAA19: Not just a Conference . . . An Experience.

At the Irish Psycho-Analytical Association this week much of our usual dialogue has been replaced by talk of the opera. In particular the opera Thais by Massenet.

In Thais, a Cenobite Monk, Atanael, travels to the city of his birth to try to convert Thais, a courtesan and priestess of Venus. He is warned against this course of action by others advising that he will suffer the revenge of Venus. He and Thais have a long and dramatic journey together replete with the conflict between earthly love and the eternal love of god in heaven.

Read more…

Sandor Ferenczi : A retrospective.

The IPAA conference this May will be the first retrospective on Ferenczi’s work to be held in Ireland.

Sándor Ferenczi (1873-1933) was one of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis. He became a student of Freud in 1908 and remained a close associate of his for the rest of his life. A Hungarian of Jewish descent, he lived and worked in Budapest where he established one of the most innovative schools of psychoanalysis outside Freud’s Vienna. Read more…

Coming Together – Can psychoanalysis gives us perspective as Europe becomes more divided?

At the Irish Psycho-Analytical Association we have been having conversations about the current political upheavals. This week marks the expiry of the time period during which the U.K. was to leave the European Union. As we write it is not clear what kind of withdrawal agreement is going to be in place, if any.

The splitting from Europe is worrying on the island in no small part not only for economic reasons but also for what it might mean for the future of the Good Friday Agreement. Read more…

The Seduction Theory – IPAA19 Speaker Dr Marcus Bowman

We asked Dr Marcus Bowman to tell us a little about Seduction Theory an area he will discuss at IPAA19 on May 11. Read on for a brief preview of his presentation…

“In the 1890s Freud was trying to clarify what were the factors leading to the psycho-neuroses – that is, hysteria and obsessional neurosis.

Freud knew that one common kind of trauma that could result in hysteria was so-called “seduction” in childhood, in other words, the induction by an adult of a child into some kind of sexual activity. Read more…

A Budapest State of Mind.

We asked IPAA President Fergal Brady to tell us a little more about The Budapest School and why it is important for psychoanalysts today….

I want to take a few minutes to address a question we are being asked in relation our IPAA Conference 19. What is the Budapest School?

“I suppose it’s only fair to say that it was not a School in the first instance in that there was never a single location or a lineage of teachers who were working from a particular point of view.

The Hungarian Psychoanalytic Society was founded by Sandor Fereczi and three others in 1913. It was as much a cultural phenomenon as anything else and involved some of the burgeoning Avant Garde scene in Budapest at the time. It was a creative multidisciplinary group which included literary and medical influences. Something of that early spirit is retained and included in the innovative and creative approach to the work of psychoanalysis that grew out of those beginnings.

Sandor Ferenczi himself was the catalyst for great change, but sadly, great change that would not relay even properly take hold until long after his premature death from pernicious anaemia at just 59 years of age.

His fearless instinct for the therapeutic encounter and acute listening to his patients led to some innovations which we are only reaping today and which through this conference we hope to bring to a wider audience in Ireland. There is a focus put on the countertransference experience of the analyst, the psychoanalytic training; the mother child relationship and the doctor patient relationship. Relationship is key.

There were huge upheavals in Hungary over the period in the sixty years after the foundation of the Hungarian Psychoanalytic Society. This resulted in the exile to different part of the World of some major Hungarian figures. These included Michael Balint, Margaret Mahler. Melanie Klein was an analysand of Ferenczi’s, she had sought him out for treatment of her depression. These Hungarians and many more brought the essence of Ferenczi’s way of working to Psychoanalytic Societies the World over.

Listening acutely to his patients, especially his women patients led Ferenczi to develop theories and a way of working with trauma which differed from the views of Freud. We will describe and develop these ideas in the programme for our conference and hope to bring the attendees to a new level of understanding if what has become a major international movement within the psychoanalytic field, the Budapest School.”