XVI CONGRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION
FOR ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY
Barcelona, Spain

Juan Carlos Alonso
Colombia
October 27 /2004

The IAAP (International Association for Analytical Psychology) has among its responsibilities the organization of international congresses. This year Barcelona was host of the event from August 29 to September 3, with almost 700 participants from all over the world.

The event concentrated great part of its activities at the Fira Palace Hotel, but also offered additional activities in other parts of the city, such as Caixa Forum, the Institut del Teatre, and the beautiful Pedrera, in the Mila House, architectonic work of architect Gaudí.

The logo of the Congress was a dragoon designed by Gaudí. As each congress chooses an evocative themme of the presentations, the theme of this year was Edges of Experience: Memory and Emergence, which makes reference to the psychic processes that according to jungian theory emerge and are experienced in the interaction of liminar polarities such as conscious and unconscious, past and future, personal and collective, spirit and matter.

At the Congress were present some of the most known representatives of Analytical Psychology whose books we have read in Spanish, such as James Hillman, Andrew Samuels, Luigi Zoja, Murray Stein and Verena Kast. During six days 184 analysts presented 131 lectures in five official languages (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish) on very diverse jungian subjects.

Photo: Dieter Klein

The congress was opened by Christian Gaillard, new president of IAAP, and was closed by Murray Stein, salient president, whose farewell speech is worth mentioning and reading: " IAAP in its midlife: Where we are now? Where do we go to"). The themes worked on different lectures included classic concepts, such as individuation, sincronicity, symbolism, archetypes… Several were dedicated to the analytical process, to therapeutic techniques, the analyst-analyzed relation, and depression.

Christian Gaillard

These lectures created bonds between psychoanalysis and jungian theories (another "limit" of the experience, central theme of the congress). Other subjects lectured on were sandplay, neuroscience, art, psyche-soma relations, and "Jung's Humor"!. There were also panels, workshops and films. Worth seeing was the film "Ich hiess Sabina Spielrein" (My name is Sabina Spielrein) with an initial presentation from Elisabeth Marton, director of the film.

Murray Stein

For Latin American participants some activities were of special importance, such as a reunion with Developing Groups from different countries chaired by Christian Gaillard, new IAAP president , and until then Coordinator of these Developing Groups. Chile, Estonia, Bulgaria and Serbia, among others, presented their experiences.

The seat for next congress will be Cape Town, South Africa.