You may enroll for just one weekend, for several, or come to them as part of the two-year Object Relations Theory and Practice Program.

Conferences begin at 9:00 a.m. on Friday and end at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday. Conferences feature didactic and clinical presentations and daily large and small group discussion. Saturday morning workshops, 9:00 – 10:30 a.m. are open to all mental health professionals, and will be followed by a reception and an optional small group discussion from 11:00 a.m. to noon for participants attending the workshop; the cost for Saturday morning only is $30 (IPI Members can attend for free with a guest), with the exception of the Saturday morning workshop in Salt Lake City, which will be free to the public. Pre-registration is required for all Saturday morning only workshops. Schedules, reading lists and educational objectives will be provided. Weekend courses for the 2011-2012 academic year will be held in the Washington, DC area, with the exception of the March 16-18, 2012 weekend to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Registration fee for the weekend conferences is $505 ($485 for registrations postmarked 21 days in advance of the conference (Full IPI Members: $350; Associate Members: $400). There will be a student discount (proof of full-time enrollment required) rate of $95 for the Kernberg conference (March 16-18, 2012) in Salt Lake City.

Registration

See General Information for complete details about IPI, registration, and the location of the 2009-2010 weekend conferences.

To download our registration form, see the Registration page.

2011-2012 Weekend Conferences

October 21-23, 2011

Facets of Psychoanalytic Treatment and Research

With Horst Kächele, MD, Ph.D.

Dr. Kächele is Professor and former Director, Clinic for Psychosomatic Research, University of Ulm, Germany. He is the author of many of the leading books and articles on psychoanalytic outcome research, and is a practicing analyst. This weekend he will introduce us to the findings and issues of psychoanalytic research, in addition to lending his unique perspective on the psychoanalytic process.

Saturday morning workshop: Examining a psychoanalytic case: process and its outcome.

February 10-12, 2012

Suffering and Sacrifice in the Therapeutic Encounter

Featuring IPI Faculty including: Charles Ashbach, Ph.D., Karen Fraley, M.S.S., and Paul Koehler, M.S.W.

The evolution of psychotherapy has revealed a component of the self that seems to consider suffering and sacrifice to be an absolute psychic and moral necessity. The purpose of the conference will be to understand the historical and clinical contexts of these states and the ways we may begin to consider them anew. The deep sources of guilt, masochism and trauma, in both patient and therapist, sometimes seek to transform the therapy into the sacrifice of one or both parties, or of the therapy process itself. We will examine the concepts of suffering and sacrifice in historical, mythological and anthropological forms to seek the psychic significance they possess for the patient, and the therapist. Clinical material will be used to reveal the impact of these conditions on the goals of treatment as well as on transference, counter-transference and the overall understanding of the therapeutic process.

Saturday morning workshop: TBA

Join us in Salt Lake!

March 16-18, 2012 – Held in Salt Lake City, Utah

New developments in psychoanalysis: theory, development and treatment.

With Otto Kernberg, MD.

Dr. Kernberg is Director, Personality Disorders Unit, Institute Payne-Whitney Clinic, Westchester, Cornell University, New York Presbyterian Hospital and Past President, the International Psychoanalytical Association. He is one of the world's leading analytic theorists, and author of numerous books and papers. This weekend he will lead us in the study of several aspects of analytic thinking including his critique of neo-Bionian and Relational theory, narcissism, suicide and new developments in Transference Focused Psychotherapy.

Saturday morning workshop: "Limitations to the Capacity for Mature Love Relations"

April, 13-15, 2012

Creativity as a Family Affair in Couple and Families.

With David Hewison, Tavistock Center for Couple Relationships.

This weekend will feature explorations of couple, family and child therapy from many aspects. It will feature the contributions of David Hewison on the internal worlds of the couple, negative capability and phantasies of the ‘creative couple’ in adult couple relationships. David Hewison is Senior Faculty, Tavistock Center for Couple Relationships, and author of many seminal articles exploring developmental and treatment issues in couple therapy and in psychoanalysis.

Saturday morning workshop: Thoughts on Creativity and the Internal Couple

2011-2012 Summer Institutes

July 10-16, 2011

Object Relations Theory and Practice

Paul Koehler, M.S.W., Chair

This institute will cover the basics of object relations theory from Kleinian and British Independent object relations points of view, and applies them to clinical practice.

July 18-21, 2011

Join us in London for a summer institute on couple therapy!

THE UNCONSCIOUS WORLD OF THE COUPLE

Hosted by the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships (TCCR)

Chair: Caroline Medawar, TCCR, Senior Couple Psychotherapist

IPI and TCCR are teaming together to provide an exciting exploration of the couple unconscious. Presenters will include Christel Buss-Twachtmann, Mary Morgan, Jo Rosenthall, and James Fisher (tentative) from TCCR and Jill and David Scharff, Janine Wanlass, Yolanda Varela, and Carl Bagnini from IPI. Topics will span discussion of couple dream work, the ways children unlock the couple unconscious, the location of desire in couple relating, unconscious beliefs about the couple relationship, brief couple work in the transference, and technical challenges in addressing the couple unconscious. A combination of lectures, discussion, clinical vignettes, video material, and a trip to the theatre will comprise the institute program. Small group discussions of clinical case material with IPI and TCCR staff will help participants integrate and apply the concepts learned. Registration deadline is June 25, 2011. Registration fee is £550 (approximately $885).

For more information on the institute, registration, location and lodging options, please contact IPI ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 301-215-7377).

July 2012

Infant Observation and Research Contributions to Object Relations Theory and Practice

Infant observation, non-human primate research, and attachment research applied to containment and countertransference in clinical work.