NOTICE OF AGM AND ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION
4th October 2011
To Access The Document ‘Notice Of AGM’, please click here
To access the President Report, please click here
To access a summary of the contributions, please click here
College of Psychoanalysts-UK
Round Table discussion followed by AGM,
10 am, November 19th 2011, Room 414, Birkbeck College
Endings and Exits in Analysis
The course of an analysis is never predictable and there can be no promises made about the outcome. This is one of the differences between analysis and some other forms of therapy, where the outcome or aim may be established at the beginning of the work. In symptom focused treatments, the elimination of a phobia, for example, can be set as the goal of the work. If the phobia disappears, the treatment has been successful. Yet analysis offers something different: there is no promise to cure the symptom, but rather the offer to accompany the patient on a path, destination unknown, a path where signposts appear along the way pointing to false trails, perplexing questions and individual truths.
However, all analyses have to end at some point and sometimes this is with a smile and sometimes with a curse. Occasionally it is with a death. Sometimes people just stop coming. If we can’t predict an outcome in advance, how can we say that an analysis has ended? And what are the differences between genuine endings and precipitous exits? Can we speak of ‘good’ endings? Is the smile ‘better’ than the curse? Can we ‘work towards an ending’ as many trainings suggest? Does an analysis continue despite the absence of the analyst?
We will be discussing these and many other questions which arise with ‘endings and exits’ and hope you will be able to join us.
Panel: Darian Leader, Paul Atkinson, Kate Gilbert, Julia Carne, Werner Prall and Joe Suart.
The Round Table presentations and discussion will begin at 10 am on Saturday November 19th in Room 414, Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WC1. Coffee will be available from 9.30.
The 8th AGM of the College of Psychoanalysts-UK and the Academy of Psychoanalysis (CPUK registrants only) will take place after the Round Table, also in Room 414. This will begin at 12.15 and last approximately 45 minutes.