A surprise is coming from Siberia. There are 4 post-graduate university institutes of “psychoanalytic psychotherapy”, with some hundreds of students, in the almost million people (relatively reach) cities Yekaterinburg (Ural region), Novosibirsk (Western Siberia), Irkutsk (Baikal region) and Khabarovsk (Russian Far East).

The members from the Group in Alma Ata (Kazakhstan) also expressed an interest to take part in this Conference.

For some years these Institutes have been sending some of their students to the PIEE Schools. Last years the requests for strict collaboration in order to organize a psychoanalytic training for some of them have increased. Paolo Fonda, Tamara Štajner-Popović and Aleksandar Vučo have held seminars in Irkutsk in 2005.

The PIEE (its Outreach/Teaching Section) is planning from August 25th to August 28th 2006, a Conference in Irkutsk. (25.08 arrivals; 28.08 departures)

The aim of this Conference is to create an opportunity for the Siberian psychotherapists interested in psychoanalysis to meet psychoanalysts from neighboring areas and to get more direct and qualified information about what psychoanalysis is (mainly as an outreach goal).

A second aim (more strictly psychoanalytical), that could be further developed in the future, with the support of the IPA and of the EPF, may be to give further opportunities of creating and strengthening the net of links among analysts themselves in an area in which they are geographically distant from each other, like Japan, Australia, India, Korea, but now also China, beyond Europe and America.

One of the points where this year they may meet could be Irkutsk that is not too distant from the geographical center of Asia. We may look at this as an experiment, which may be worthwhile doing.

IPA Members from all over the world will be welcome!

The theme of the 1st Siberian Psychoanalytical Conference is: “The Development of Psychoanalysis in the XXI Century."

The preliminary program includes four invited lectures:
Igor Kadyrov (Russia),
Aira Laine (Finland),
Masahisa Nishizono (Japan),
Neville Symington (Australia).

Discussions of plenary papers in small groups, case presentations in small groups and workshops are planned as well