The International Wednesday Psychoanalytical Workshop

Materials for the Pleasure of Psychoanalysis

Under the auspices of the Centre for the Studies in Contemporary Psychoanalyses – Milan, Italy

Director and workshop leader: Francesco Bisagni, MD – NCPsyA

The Workshop has been conceived of as a non-institutional apparatus for thinking – as close as possible to the analytical communities of the origins that were structured around the passion for pioneering research and discovery, and were continuously and creatively confronted with the obscurity and incommensurability of the unconscious mind that was explored with the limited, flickering but enduring and resilient light of consciousness.

The Workshop is meant to gather trained professionals in the field of psychoanalysis, analytical psychology and psychodynamic psychotherapy with children, adolescents and adults, who find continuous inspiration in the study of psychoanalytic theory and are supported by the desire of preserving the spirit of pleasure and passion in the art of the psychoanalytic method.

The Workshop is organised as an ongoing laboratory, where theoretical topics are explored with the aim to bridge the classical psychoanalytical writings with contemporary developments. It is not supposed to be a clinical workshop, and there will be no structured case presentations or supervisory work. The focus will always be on theory, where clinical examples or vignettes may be used to support or clarify theory, but not to have supervision. The workshop leader will indicate the topic to be studied over the academic year, and provides the list of readings.

Organization and method

The Workshop will meet via Zoom on the second Wednesdays of each month except August, at 7pm until 10pm UK time, starting from January 11^th, 2023 (or when the minimum number of 10 participants is reached). Maximum number of participants is 20.

The active role of all participants will be an essential part of the work method. Participants will rotate in presenting a synthesis of the reading(s) that are being discussed in each meeting. This presentation may take about 45 minutes and serves as an introduction to the general discussion.

It is of course recommendable that participants guarantee – as much as it is reasonably possible – their constant presence and a long-term commitment, the creation of a group mind and of a strong sense of belonging to a community being a founding principle of the Workshop.

Official language of the Workshop is English, in order to stimulate the participation of colleagues living in different Countries.

The role of the workshop leader is to enrich the initial presentation with further reflections and contributions and to stimulate in-depth discussion.

General topics for 2023 and 2024 (still to be confirmed and specified in details) are:

“Lose and gain: anxiety, mourning and depression(s)”.

“On loving oneself: the narcissistic conundrum”.

Fees and office assistance

A dedicated email address will be at the participants’ disposal for all practicalities and organizational queries.

The yearly fee (for 11 meetings) is 800 GBP (payable in two instalments)