Presidential Letter

November 2001

On behalf of the Board of Directors of IFPE I would like to welcome you to our Twelfth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference at the Lago Mar Resort and Club. For those of you who have attended our conferences in the past I want to welcome you again, and for those of you who are attending or participating in your first IFPE conference I want to extend a special welcome and thanks for taking the time and effort to join us this weekend.

I donít have to tell you that recent events have brought shock and alarm to everyone across our nation, and that many of us continue to feel a measure of anxiety and foreboding about the future. As we gather together this weekend to explore the relationship between Psychoanalysis and Culture, our hearts go out to our colleagues who have lost loved ones, friends, or acquaintances in the September 11 attacks. Understandably, many of our colleagues have decided to stay home this year in these frightening and uncertain times, and some have contributed donations to IFPE in support of our conference. I want to thank each of them for this extraordinary expression of generosity at a time when IFPE is in need of contributions of any size. I also want to extend a special thanks to each and every one of you who are attending the conference this year, whether you are giving a paper or coming as a show of support, including those who were obliged to travel by air at a time when many of us would have preferred to stay home. Needless to say, this conference would have been cancelled were it not for your courage and dedication to our small and fledgling organization.

In fact, IFPE's size is what makes us such an intimate organization and the experience of being here so special. This year, as we meet to share our common interests and exchange our thoughts and ideas with one another, we have the opportunity to reflect on what psychoanalysis means to us and the role that it plays in our lives. Despite the unsettling events of recent weeks, many of our presenters have traveled to Florida from far and wide to participate in this yearís meeting. I think you will find the program we have organized for you both challenging and enriching and one that will take us, if only one step further, toward a better understanding of the culture of psychoanalysis.

This year we are pleased to honor Professor Paul Roazen, the esteemed psychoanalytic historian and author whose achievements are known to us all. Dr. Roazen will give the Keynote Address on Saturday afternoon at which time he will receive IFPEís highest honor, the Hans W. Loewald Memorial Award, for his intellectual contributions to psychoanalysis. Moreover, I hope you will join us for cocktails Friday evening immediately following the Presidentís Address for an opportunity to meet old friends and make new and enduring ones. I also want to invite you to join us Saturday evening for IFPEís complementary poolside barbecue dinner, our way of saying thanks to all of you for supporting our conference. And last but not least, I would like to extend an invitation to join us on Sunday morning following the final portion of our program for our conference "wrap-up" session, conveniently scheduled before check-out time at the hotel. This is the only opportunity that the IFPE Board and Program Committee have to hear your feedback about the conference and to solicit your suggestions about how we can make next yearís conference even better.

Next year IFPE will return to the Lago Mar for our Thirteenth Annual Conference, when the theme will be Psychoanalytic Space. I hope you will plan to join us again in 2002 for another exciting program of presentations in an atmosphere of enthusiastic and convivial inquiry.

Sincerely,


Michael Guy Thompson, PhD
President and Conference Co-Chair