Iaap newsletter 28 - The new Israeli Jungian society

France
SOCIÉTÉ FRANÇAISE DE PSYCHOLOGIE ANALYTIQUE (SFPA)
SFPA at home…
Due to a general strike late last year, our November 2007 tri-annual seminar was held
in January 2008. Our institutional reorganization continues, debates have been lively –
and sometimes difficult – all year long. The President’s Council, composed of the
President and the heads of the six committees that were put into place last year to
assure a more democratic functioning, is the decision-making organ of the SFPA. It
met for the first time in December 2007, and in an animated debate, it was largely
question of the transition of power that was to take place in June of this year, since
the mandates of the majority of the members of the SFPA’s Directors’ Committee,
including that of the President, would end at that date. Due to an insufficient number
of candidates in June, the definitive election took place in November, at our last
triennial seminar. Henri de Vathaire was elected President and Françoise Le Hénand
Vice-president; they have chosen to work together as co-presidents. Léa Hauteville
was elected General Secretary, and Geneviève Malafaye Treasurer. The six
committees – administration, scientific, communication, statutes and institutional
evolution, ethics, and the thesis evaluation committee – are functioning well, and as
hoped, have opened up participation to a broader number of members and lightened
ever so slightly the work-load of the President.
Following much discussion in January, in March, and in June, twelve members –
including six training analysts – were elected, partly in June and partly in November,
to the new Admissions Committee. One of the novelties of this committee is that it
includes members who are not training analysts in the process of determining
passages of candidates through the training program.
Aside the heavy load of institutional work that was done during our seminars, several
very interesting scientific papers were presented and followed by group discussions.
“Training as Theater”, “Shadow-games in Transmission”, “Transference Ethics and
Training Analysis” were some of the papers presented on the theme of transmission
and training. In the vast theme of art, one presentation featured the work of Lee
Miller: “The Heritage of Women Surrealists: the Muses are not Mute”; and a second
one: “Dreams: The Spoken and Unspoken - Federico Fellini’s Libro dei Sogni”. A
further interesting contribution was the presentation of Arthur Coleman’s work: Up
from Scapegoating: Awakening Consciousness in Groups. In June, we ‘de-centralized’:
our seminar was held in the beautiful southwestern city of Toulouse.
In January, the Adolescent and Child Therapists group met for their second weekend
of work on the theme of “The Fraternal”. If the group’s leaders were enthusiastic
regarding the quality of the papers presented and the discussions that followed, there
was deep regret expressed that the meetings do not attract more participation on the
part of analysts who do not necessarily work with adolescents or children. All were
pg. 39