The world is experiencing historic levels of ideological, racial, class, caste, health, ecological and domestic conflicts. Conflict, in its various enactments, dominates our media, politics, and communities. This annual conference of the International Psychohistorical Association will explore CONFLICT psycho-historically, in its relation to personal and group traumas, identities and constructive and destructive potentialities.
Schedule
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Virtual Meeting
9:30-9:55 AM Check in: Zoom Practice Session
10:00-11:00 AM (session 1) 1 APA; NYS Psy CE1 SW Nationally; NYS LMHC CE
Invited Speaker: Linda Lausell Bryant, MSW, PhD
Topic:Self as Data from the Adaptive Leadership Lens
Linda Lausell Bryant is Clinical Associate Professor and the Katherine and Howard Aibel Executive-in-Residence at NYU Silver. She is the co-author of A Guide for Sustaining Conversations on Racism, Identity and Our Mutual Humanity (2017). Dr. Lausell Bryant currently serves as the president of the board of the National Crittenton Foundation, which seeks to empower young women and girls, including young mothers. She has served as member-at-large on the board of the New York City Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers from 2011-2014 and was featured in New York Times journalist Adam Bryant’s “Corner Office” column. Her insights were featured in Mr. Bryant’s 2014 book Quick & Nimble: Lessons from Leading CEOs on How to Create a Culture of Innovation. She is a frequent presenter on panels, in conferences, and on television appearances including WABC’s Tiempo, Here and Now, One to One with Sheryl McCarthy, and NY1. She was selected to receive the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latino Social Work Coalition.
11:05-12:05 AM (session 2) 1 APA; NYS Psy CE1 SW Nationally; NYS LMHC CE
Invited Speaker:Vamik D. Volkan, M.D.
Topic:Historical Traumas and Physical Borders During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Vamık D. Volkan is an emeritus professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia and an emeritus training and supervising analyst at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, Washington, D.C. During his 39 years at the University of Virginia, Volkan was the medical director of the University’s Blue Ridge Hospital for eighteen years. A year after his 2002 retirement, he became the Senior Erik Erikson Scholar at the Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Dr. Volkan is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of over fifty psychoanalytic and psychopolitical books some of which has been translated into Turkish, German, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Greek, and Finnish. His texts include the psychohistorical classic The Need to Have Enemies and Allies and most recent book Large-Group Psychology: Racism, Who Are We Now? Societal Divisions and Narcissistic Leaders. He has written hundreds of published papers and book chapters and has served on the editorial boards of sixteen national or international professional journals, including The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Volkan is the founding editor of the journal Mind & Human Interaction, which examines the relationship between psychoanalysis and history, political science, and other fields.
12:10 – 1:10 PM
GENERAL DISCUSSION: Origins and Dynamics of Group Identities.
How do racial, political, and other large group identities arise from the socialization of children and adults? What role do group identities play in social and political conflict? How can clinicians work with group identities in therapeutic settings? This one-hour symposium will provide all conference participants an opportunity to exchange ideas and clinical practices on these topics. The discussion will refer to the current historical context, including the racial reckoning unfolding in the United States, and the conflict in the U.S. and elsewhere between movements seeking racial/ethnic dominance and those seeking multicultural solidarity.
Topic:The Psychodynamics of Nationalism and South Tyrol/Alto Adige
Peter Loewenberg is an Emeritus Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He teaches European cultural and intellectual history; German, Austrian, and Swiss history; Psychohistory; and Political Psychology. He was Dean and Chairman of the Education Committee and Director of the Training School of the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute and the New Center for Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles. In collaboration with Nancy Chodorow and Bob Nemiroff, Loewenberg was one of the founders of the University of California Interdisciplinary Psychoanalytic Consortium.
Loewenberg is the author of numerous psychohistorical publications including the classic texts Decoding the Past: The Psychohistorical Approach and Fantasy and Reality in History and recipient of numerous honors and awards.
Participants:Vamik Volkan, MD, Peter Petschauer, PhD & Paul Elovitz, PhD
Panelists Drs. Elovitz and Loewenberg have dual training as psychoanalysts and academic historians. This one-hour panel will extend the themes of Dr. Loewenberg’s preceding session to a more general discussion of the interface between clinical work and academic historical research. The panelists and audience will discuss how a knowledge of history enriches the work of clinicians, and how insights from the consulting room deepen our study of the historical past.
4:40-5:10 PM
Group Process Meeting
Thursday May 20, 2021
Room 1
9:30-9:55 AM Check In and Zoom Practice
10:00 AM – 12:05 PM (session 5) 2 APA; NYS Psy CEs2 SW Nationally; NYS LMHC CEs
Parenting and Parenthood: Four Lenses (Panel)
Dr. Faye Snyder, PsyD:The Predictor Scale and Score Sheet: Lessons for Parenting Education
Brian D’Agostino, PhD: Parenting Courses in Schools
Inna Rozentsvit, MD, PhD:A New Paradigm: From Parenting to Parenthood, and Its Neurobiological Vicissitudes
Marc-André Cotton, MA:Positive Parenting: Eradicating Violence in Education and Parenting Support
Duke Wagner, PhD: Identifying with a Group to Establish One’s Identity: What are the
Consequences?
Thursday May 20, 2021
Room 3
9:30 – 10:00 AM: Check in & Zoom Practice
10:00 AM – 12:05 PM (session 15) 2 APA; NYS Psy CEs2 SW Nationally; NYS LMHC CEs
Integrating Psychosocial Theories of Discrimination and Oppression to Innovate Clinical Practice (Panel)
Chair: Denis O’Keefe, PhD
Dylan Marks, LCSW: Treating Toxic Masculinity: Speaking to the True Self Outside of Gender Binaries
Alana Pudalov, LCSW: Understanding the well-being of children from preschool playtime during the COVID-19 pandemic
Fran Mendelowitz, LCSW: Psychosocial Development, Intervention and Collective Trauma: A Study of Holocaust Survivors
Carlton Jean, LCSW: Faith and Liberation: An Integrative Approach to Psychotherapy with Christian African American Males utilizing the Liberation Health Framework
12:10 – 1:10 PM (session 16) 1 APA; NYS Psy CE
Paul Elovitz, PhD:The Autobiographies and Psychobiographies of Psychohistorians
2:00 – 3:00 PM (session 17) 1 APA; NYS Psy CE
Howard F. Stein, PhD:Applied Poetry and the Data of Psychohistory
3:05 – 4:05 PM (session 18) 1 APA; NYS Psy CE
Ellen Toronto, PhD:Matriarchs of the Old Testament: An Absent Presence
4:10 – 5:10 PM (session 19) 1 APA; NYS Psy CE
Peter Petschauer, PhD: Death, the Fear of Death and Caritas: Hospices in the 13th Century Germanies
Friday May 21, 2021
Room 1
9:30 – 9:55 AM: Check in and Zoom Practice
10:00 – 11:00 AM (session 20) 1 APA; NYS Psy CE
Ruth M. Lijtmaer, PhD:Where are the Women In Classical Music? Why are their Voices Silent?
11:05 AM – 12:05 PM (session 21) 1 APA; NYS Psy CE
Ken Fuchsman, EdD:Forever Young: Counterculture Rock of the 1960s and 1970s
Susan Kavaler-Adler, PhD, ABPP, D.Litt., NCPsyA:British Psychoanalytic Trauma Theory Blocked by New York Psychoanalytic: Institutional Polarization Then and Now; The Case of Anne Sexton’s Failed Treatment
Denis J. O’Keefe, PhD, LCSW: Racial and Gender Variations in Identification with the Aggressor
2:00 – 4:05 PM
The Ernst Troeltsch Controversy and the Ideological Politics of Christianity (Panel)
Chair: Brian D’Agostino, Ph.D.
Panel Participants:
Constance L. Benson, M.Div., M.Phil., Ken Fuchsman, EdD, Brigitte Demeure, Ph.D. , William Everdell, Ph.D.
4:10 – 5:10 PM
Discussion of the Documentary Who is Afraid of Alice Miller
Marc Andre Cotton, MS & Daniel Howald
NB: If you plan to attend this session, please be sure to view the 100-minute film beforehand. It is currently only available in North America and can be rented for $12 on Vimeo at:
If you are registering for this year’s Annual Conference, your Membership Dues will be included in your registration.
Accreditation Statement
In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Amedco LLC and International Psychohistorical Association (IPA). Amedco LLC is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
Psychologists (APA)
Amedco LLC designates this activity for a maximum of 16.50 Psychologist contact hours.
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for Counselors: AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, MD, ME, MO, NC, ND, NH, NE, NJ, NM, NV, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WY
MI: No CE requirements
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for MFTs: AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IN, KS, MD, ME, MO, NE, NC, NH, NJ, NM, NV, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WY
MI: No CE requirement
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for Addictions Professionals: AK, AR, CO, CT, DC, DE, GA, IA, IN, KS, LA, MD, MO, MT, NC, ND, NE, NJ, NM, NY (outstate held)*, OK, OR, SC, UT, WA, WI, WY
MA / MFTs: Participants can self-submit courses not approved by the MAMFT board for review.
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for Social Workers: AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IN, KY, ME, MN, MO, NE, NH, NM, OR, PA, VT, WI, WY
* If the activity is held live in the state of NY, then direct addictions board is required, ie: NAADAC. If the activity is held outside NY, is virtual, enduring or remote, it is considered “outstate” and this reciprocity applies.
New York Board for Psychology (NY PSY)
Amedco is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0031. 16.50 hours.
NYU SILVER SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK
CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDITS FOR LICENSED SOCIAL WORKERS (LMSW/LCSW/LSW/LISW Nationally) AND LICENSED MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELORS (LMHC in New York State)
This conference is approved for up to 16.5 Continuing Education Contact Hours. New York University Silver School of Social Work is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed Social Workers {#SW-0012}.
New York University Silver School of Social Work is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors {#MHC-0083}.
For Mental Health Practitioners: Please check with your state, if you are not licensed in New York, to determine if these credits will be accepted for licensing renewal.
This organization (NYU Silver School of Social Work, 1415) is approved as a provider for social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) www.aswb.org through the Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. NYU Silver School of Social Work maintains responsibility for the program. ASWB Approval Period: 11/11/19 – 11/11/22. Social workers should contact their regulatory board to determine course approval for continuing education credits.
55 jurisdictions accept ACE-approved provider CE contact hours. ACE is not an approved Continuing Education Provider in the states of New York (though NYU Silver is NYSED CE approved in NYS) and West Virginia, unless the event is outside of West VA. ACE only approves individual courses in New Jersey, though NYU Silver is CSWE-accredited and therefore accepted for licensed NJ professionals.
For questions about the conference, please contact Brian D’Agostino at or Inna Rozentsvit at
Anyone interested in becoming a member of the IPA community, feel free to register for at least one day of the conference, and you will automatically become the member of the IPA.