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Most years I go to The Freud Conference that is held in May of each year. I have mostly found it to be one of the most intellectually and clinically challenging. Together with lectures etc put on by the Melbourne or Sydney Institutes for Psychoanalysis it is where I learn the most and usually come away feeling really nourished and stimulated in my work.
This year’s theme was “The Centre Cannot Hold” from the book of the same name written by Dr. Elyn Saks. Dr Saks “came” to the conference via a video link that worked very well. Her “Bio” in the programme says in part, that Dr. Saks is “the Orrin B Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law; Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine….” Additionally Dr. Saks is very well known for her book in which she has written of her high achieving life carried on while, all the time struggling with severe schizophrenia. Dr. Saks’ own story is totally remarkable but gives hope of what can be attained by even extremely ill people when we do not give up on them and they receive the help they require.
The other presenter actually physically present was Dr. Carine Minne who- to quote from her “Bio” in the programme is a “psychoanalyst with the British Psychoanalytic Society, and Consultant Psychiatrist at the Portman Clinic and Broadmoor High Security Hospital, West London”. Dr Minne’s Bio also says she is “the first dual trained psychiatrist in forensic psychiatry and psychotherapy.”
Both these amazing women gave phenomenal insights into how it is to live as and to work with, psychotic patients. In Dr. Minne’s case we learned of her work with patients who were held in Broadmoor after committing crimes such as murder. Dr. Minne is an ardent advocate for the value of long term psychoanalytic psychotherapy for many psychiatrically ill people who have committed crimes and /or for those who have committed crimes following a life of terrible trauma and appalling attachment histories. She also spoke of the essential role played by the physical holding of the prison that enabled the person – and the therapist- sometimes to feel safe enough to do the necessary work and of the proper transitioning of the person back into the community.
It was an absolute privilege to hear such wonderful speakers and of the work they are doing.
You can read more about the programme and also about the Freud Conference on their website< www.freudconference.com>.