The Thirteenth International Evolving British Object Relations Conference (EBOR) is a virtual event spanning two weekends, October 8-9 (individual papers) and October 15-16 (plenary presentations) with Nicola Abel-Hirsch and Avner Bergstein. Sessions are 9:00 am - 1:00 pm (PT) each day.
Bion observes that truth is to the mind what food is to the body. When the truth about reality cannot be faced, meaning is lost. Paradoxically, Bion suggests only lies require a person to think them. Furthermore, that lies are used to escape what is unconsciously perceived to be an emotional disaster. Since truth is an essential component of successful analysis, individual papers will examine questions such as:
- How do we define emotional truth?
- What differentiates truth from lies in the clinical situation?
- Can we analyze a liar?
- Are illusions lies?
Nicola Abel-Hirsch is the author of Bion 365 Quotes (Routledge, 2019) and a training and supervising analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society with a full-time psychoanalytical practice in London. She has given clinical and theoretical papers and seminars on Bion in the UK, Taiwan (annually 2005-2012), the USA, and Europe. From 2013 to 2015, she was the visiting professor at the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex. Her publications include "The Life Instinct" Int. J. Psycho-Anal. (2010); "A Note and a Short Story" in The Bion Tradition (2015); "Bion, Alpha-Function and the Unconscious Mind" Brit. J. Psychother. (2016), and "The Devil is in the Detail" in The Melanie Klein Tradition (2017). She is the editor of Hanna Segal’s last book, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (2007). Under the auspices of Understanding Primitive Mental States (NYC), she has recently given a series of online seminars on ‘Bion’s Questions.’
Avner Bergstein is a training and supervising psychoanalyst and faculty member of the Israel Psychoanalytic Society. He works in private practice with adults, adolescents, and children and has worked for several years at a kindergarten for children with autism. He has authored numerous papers and book chapters elaborating on the clinical implications of the writings of Bion and Meltzer. His papers are translated into many languages, including German, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. He is the author of Bion and Meltzer's Expeditions into Unmapped Mental Life: Beyond the Spectrum in Psychoanalysis. He conducts reading seminars internationally, focusing on the writings of these two authors.
Learning Objectives:
1. Participants will be able to differentiate truth (absolute reality) from psychic truth (personal emotional reality).
2. Participants will be able to define lies in a psychoanalytic context.
3. Participants will be able to differentiate between emotional experiences that promote relationships and those that pervert them.
4. Participants will be able to link lies to the fear of absolute reality and the threat of catastrophic change.
A Zoom link will be emailed to each participant before the first session on October 8, 2022.
