On Saturday, November 6, 2021, in collaboration with The New Center for Psychoanalysis, PCC hosted a conference via Zoom, titled, “The Claustro-Agoraphobic Dilemma: Between Intimacy and Separation in Interpersonal Relationships.” The conference featured Heinz Weiss, MD, FIPA, reading his paper on the subject with Irma Brenman Pick, FIPA, as the discussant. The later part of the program had PCC post seminar candidate, Joseph Turner, PsyD,  presenting a case with both Heinz Weiss, MD, FIPA and Irma Brenman Pick, FIPA commenting in a lively discussion with audience participation.

PCC is conducting a twenty-week intensive psychotherapy course, “Principles of Psychoanalytic Diagnostics and Treatment of Early Developmental Pathologies.” The course will be led by Israeli Psychoanalyst, Joshua Durban. It will cover both theoretical concepts and clinical applications and begins on January 30, 2022.

Philip Lance, PhD, FIPA, Margarita Perez, LMFT, FIPA and Daria Spino, PhD, FIPA, have all completed their training and advanced to member status.

Deborah Bilder, PhD, FIPA and Susan Mitchell, PhD, FIPA have advanced to senior faculty.

On June 26, 2021, PCC Training and Supervising Analyst, Jennifer Kunst, PhD, FIPA, presented, “Suicidal States of Mind: A Psychoanalytic Case Study” to the PCC Community. In her very engaging paper, Jennifer Kunst, PhD, FIPA, explored a psychoanalytic approach to working with suicidal states of mind.

Also, in February of 2021, Jennifer Kunst, PhD, FIPA, spoke via zoom to the Community Institute for Psychotherapy in San Rafael, California on “Re-imagining Kleinian Psychoanalysis for the 21^st Century Clinician: Deeper Impact, Wider Reach.”

PCC Training and Supervising Analyst, Jennifer Langham, PhD, FIPA, has a forthcoming book from Phoenix Publishing House entitled Contemporary Klein and Bion in Los Angeles: Developments in Psychoanalysis. This two volume work is an account of the psychoanalytic climate in Los Angeles during the 1960’s and 1970’s leading to the formation of The Psychoanalytic Center of California as well as papers by current-day PCC analysts.

PCC Training and Supervising Analyst, Barnet Malin, MD, FIPA, had his paper, “R.B. Braithwaite’s Influence on Bion’s Epistemological Contributions” published in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis in 2021, volume 102 (4): 677-94.

Barnet Malin, MD, FIPA, will also have a chapter titled, “A Patient With Stillborn Dreams” in the previously mentioned forthcoming book edited by Jennifer Langham, PhD, FIPA.

Along with British colleagues, Bob Hinshelwood, MD, FIPA, Nicole Abel-Hirsch, FIPA and Sira Derman, FIPA, PCC member and Training and Supervising Analyst, Joseph Aguayo, PhD, FIPA, presented at the IPA Vancouver Congress, (July 2021) on Bion’s method of clinical inquiry.

Joseph Aguayo, PhD, FIPA, also served as discussant for Bernardo Tanis, PhD, FIPA, one of the main keynote speakers at the IPA Vancouver-Congress, whose theme was on “The Infantile-Just Below the Surface.”

On September 18, 2021, Aguayo presented to IPTAR’s Training Analysts on Bion’s Method of Supervision. On November 14, 2021, he presented to the Bion International Seminar Series originating out of Mexico City on Bion’s (1950) case of “The Imaginary Twin.” Dr. Aguayo has also been invited to speak by the Archives Committee of the British Psychoanalytical Society for either February/March 2022. He will speak on “Reappraising John O. Wisdom’s Critique of W.R. Bion’s (1962) Learning from Experience at a Meeting of the British Psychoanalytical Society, October 17, 1964.” This paper has been accepted for publication and will appear in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis in 2022.

PCC Training and Supervising Analyst Annie Reiner, PhD, FIPA, has written a new book for Routledge, due in 2022, entitled: Bion’s Theories of Mind: A Contemporary Introduction. The book begins with Bion’s intriguing quote: “The development of the mind has been a frightful nuisance and has caused an awful lot of trouble. I think we are still frightened of it.”(Bion, 1978).

Dr. Reiner has the following upcoming lectures in 2022:

On February 5, 2022, she will speak at the International Bion Congress in Mexico City (via zoom) as part of the Antonio Santamaria Psychoanalysis Mexico Foundation. She will present two pre-congress papers; “Clinical Applications: BIon’s Ideas on Language and the Selected Fact” and “The Relationship Between Bion’s Early and Late Periods.”

The Infant, Child and Adolescent Program of PCC with contributions from the PCC Infant Observation Program presented a clinical program of three talks via zoom. On November 2, 2021, Patricia O’Brien, PhD, FIPA, presented “Psychoanalysis of a Three and a Half Year-Old Child, Initial Assessment, and Transference-Countertransference Experiences.” On December 7, 2021, Persila Conversano, PsyD, FIPA, presented, “Infant Observation: An Exploratory Critique on the Nature of Observation as a Psychoanalytic Method to Propagate Layers of the Mind.” To complete the program, on January 25, 2022, Shirley Gooch, RN, PhD, FIPA, will present, “Sam: A Story of Psychoanalytic Containment, Reclamation, and Creativity in a Two-and-a-half Year Old.”

On October 21, 2021, The New Center for Psychoanalysis, hosted PCC fourth-year candidate, Scott Turner, JD, MA in a talk titled, “Law Enforcement, Containment, and Reverie: A Psychoanalytic Endeavor.” Scott Turner, JD, MA, discussed his work as a member of the executive management team of the Hayward Police Department in the Bay Area of California. His work in the police department and the community was recognized with the 2021 IPA in the Community Award for Psychoanalysis and Law.

PCC emeritus member, Judith Mitrani, PhD, FIPA published two books, a Memoir, The Most Beautiful Place in the World; A Memoir of a Psychoanalyst and the Realization of a State of Mind published in June, 2021 and a novel, Couched in Blood, published in September of 2021. She also has a Blog on her website: www.judithmitrani.com.