Yesterday was excellent.
Dr. John Meyer did a plenary speech on re-analysis which was very fine. He particularly noted the limitations of training analyses, and the common desire of analysts to do it again, and to go further. General point: Second analyses are better than first.
Overheard in a research poster session between a Belgian analytic researcher and an American attendee, Dr. Y:
Dr Y: Have you read the work of Dr. A in France, and Dr. B. in Sweden, which are closely related to your research?
Belgian Dr: Yes I have...but who are you?
Dr Y: I am Dr. Y.
Belgian Dr: Oh, of course I know who you are. I am so pleased to meet you.
Dr Y: Have you read my book?
Belgian Dr: Yes, of course.
Dr. Y: In the English or in the German?
Belgian Dr: In the German.
Dr. Y: Good. That's the good one.
A thought clarified during a presentation by Dr. Catherine Lee on Romantic Mirroring and Erotic Transference in the Female Analytic Dyad: How come analysts tend to call it homoerotic transference when analyst and patient are the same gender, and erotic when they aren't? That's silly - it's all ordinary human love-seeking in the transference.
A new concept, generated while kidding around waiting for a discussion group to begin: We need to come up with a new diagnosis, called Normal Personality Disorder, with a DSM 4 code, for all of the people who can benefit from psychoanalysis.
Observation: From conversations, more and more analysts are doing couples work. They like it.
More later. Last night, though, dinner with Bird Dog and daughter, and some other folks, at one of my favorite NYC restaurants, Cafe des Artistes - always a special treat - and then to Spamalot, which is a vaudeville-style Bway thing which was constantly hilarious with mindless, adolescent humor with an irreverence which does not spare gays, Jews, Les Miserables, Brits, kings, heros, Vegas, Camelot, Broadway, theatrical cliches, and everything else Eric Idle could think of.
The theatrical talent available in NYC is always utterly mind-boggling - and deeply humbling. I always wonder, Who are these amazing people who can act, dance, tap-dance, sing up a storm, ham it up, and produce laughter with a single eye movement? A perfect ending to the day. "Tis only a flesh wound. Come back here, you filthy coward."
