The maximum number of attendees for this activity has unfortunately been reached and registrations are now closed. We hope to see you next year. Thank you!

*The morning half of the conference will be in French, and the afternoon half, on a wide screen, will be in English, both without simultaneous translation.

Date: Saturday, September 28th, 2013
Time: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Registration starts at 9:30 a.m., lunch on site)
Location: HEC Montréal - Côte-Sainte-Catherine building (not Decelles building), Quebecor room (first floor), 3000 Côte-Sainte-Catherine Road, Montréal (Indoor parking accessible from Côte-Sainte-Catherine Road / Metro Université de Montréal)

This activity has 5 CEUs (continuing education unit) credited by the OPQ. No. OPQ: RA00375-13. A certificate of attendance will be given to each participant according to the actual number of hours attended for a maximum of 5 hours.

To register, please refer to the Online registration section at the bottom of the page.

The conference
Again this year, the GEI has the pleasure of presenting another of the main authors of intersubjectivity theory, Dr George E. Atwood. From the beginning of his studies, Dr Atwood has been drawn to the psychotherapy of severe mental illness. He is now offering us reflections on almost 50 years devoted to this work.

Despite the many ways in which extreme psychological disturbances become manifest, they are ultimately human events arising out of human contexts. As such, they can be understood in an intersubjective manner, removing the stigmatizing boundary between madness and sanity. Utilizing the post-Cartesian psychoanalytic approach of phenomenological contextualism, George Atwood will present an in depth case study of an individual suffering from a severe psychological disturbance and of his psychotherapeutic treatment. From this post-Cartesian perspective, all the phenomena that have traditionally been the focus of psychoanalytic investigation are grasped not as products of isolated intrapsychic mechanisms but as forming within intersubjective systems constituted by interacting worlds of emotional experience. Throughout he emphasizes the underlying essence of humanity demonstrated in the most extreme cases of psychological and emotional disturbance.

This conference will be of interest to therapists from the humanistic-existential and psychodynamic approaches, and also to all those who are looking for a phenomenological contextualist understanding of a wide range of human experiences.

The speaker and co-trainers
The main speaker, Dr George Atwood, Ph. D., is a psychologist, psychoanalyst and Professor Emeritus of Clinical Psychology at Rutgers University, New Brunswick NJ. He has more than 50 years of clinical practice during which he treated the most suffering patients while pursuing his research and teaching of a phenomenological contextualist understanding of all forms of human experiences. He is the author of The Abyss of Madness (2012) and the co-author of many other books (see Bibliography). The co-trainers, Annette Richard and Jean-François Bernard, are both psychologists and psychotherapists in private practice since respectively 45 and 17 years. They have both been using the phenomenological contextualist perspective in their work for many years.

Learning objectives

1. Defining the main principles of phenomenological contextualism in contemporary psychoanalytic theory.
   
2. Elaborating a phenomenological understanding of the most severe so-called mental disorders.
   
3. Questionning the traditional and current understandings which obstruct a phenomenological vision.
   
4. Evaluating one’s therapeutic intervention after reflecting on the difficulties encountered in the psychotherapy of the most severe forms of emotional disturbances.

Recommended prerequisite
Each participant is strongly encouraged to view in advance, partially or totally, the 22 video lectures available on line (links available on the GEI website: 1er VI George Atwood, 2e VI George Atwood, et 3e VI George Atwood), given by Dr George Atwood in 2012 at Rutgers University. This 30 hours course focuses on psychopathology and psychotherapy from a phenomenological-contextualist perspective.

Content
In his video lectures, Dr George Atwood exposes the assumptions of a phenomenological contextualist approach with detailed case studies depicting individuals in crisis and the successes and failures that occurred in their treatment. Topics covered include factors in contemporary psychology obstructing phenomenological understanding ; the interpretation of meaning in delusions and hallucinations ; felt states of personal annihilation and their centrality in so-called schizophrenia and bipolar disorder ; trauma and dissociation and the so-called dissociative identity disorder; states of despair and their role in suicide ; the psychotherapeutic healing of rifts in self-experience, and finally the psychological stress and trauma encountered in conducting psychotherapy.

During this 10th GEI Annual Conference, a short presentation of the theoretical premises of phenomenological contextualism by Annette Richard, M. Ps., will be given in the morning followed by exchanges led by Jean-François Bernard, M. Ps. among the participants on the theoretical and applied aspects of this perspective as elaborated in the lectures previously viewed, in parts or totally, by the participants. This will be an opportunity for participants to formulate questions to be presented to Dr Atwood during his afternoon presentation. In the afternoon, Dr George Atwood, via a Skype session transmitted on a wide screen, will present an indepth case study of his work with one of his patient. This presentation will be followed by exchanges and discussions between the speaker and the participants.

Partial bibliography

• Atwood, G.E. (2011) The Abyss of Madness. New York: Routledge
  
• Atwood, G.E. & Stolorow, R.D. (1993). Faces in a Cloud: Intersubjectivity in Personality Theory. Northvale NJ: Routledge
  
• Brandchaft, B. (2010) Toward an Emancipatory Psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge.
  
• Orange, D.M., Atwood, G.E. & Stolorow, R.D. (1997). Working Intersubjectively: Contextualism In Psychoanalytic Practice. Hillsdale NJ: Analytic Press
  
• Stolorow, R.D. & Atwood, G.E. (1992) Contexts of Being: The Intersubjective Foundations of Psychological Life. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press
  
• Stolorow, R.D., Atwood, G.E. & Orange, D.M. (2002) Worlds of Experience: Interweaving Philosophical Dimensions in Psychoanalysis. New York: Basic Books. (especially chapter 8, written by G. Atwood: Shattered worlds/Psychotic states: the experience of personal annihilation.)
  
• Stolorow, R.D., Atwood, G.E. & Brandchaft, B. eds. (1994). The Intersubjective Perspective Northvale NJ: Jason Aronson

Schedule
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.: Short presentation by Annette Richard, M.Ps., followed by discussion led by Jean-François Bernard, M.Ps.
12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.: Lunch at the HEC cafeteria (at participant's expense).
1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.: Presentation by George E. Atwood, Ph. D. and discussion with participants.

For more informations
Email: info@intersubjectivite.com
Phone (Annette Richard): 514-277-6408
Address: GEI, a/s Marie Noël
832, av. Bloomfield, Outremont (Québec) H2V 3S6

Organizing committee

• Annette Richard, psychologist, chair of the GEI
• Marie Noël, psychologist

Online registration
and either online payment or mailed cheque

Registration fees (lunch fee at the HEC cafeteria not included)
Until September 13th, 2013
GEI members ¹: 100$
Non-members: 115$
Students ²: 50$

After September 13th, 2013
GEI members ¹: 115$
Non-members: 130$
Students ²: 60$

¹ All 2012-2013 GEI members are admissible to member’s fee, as are the 2013-2014 GEI newcomers (applications from the 9th of June). To join the GEI, please go to the membership application page.
² Full time university students only: copy of student ID required.

Refund policy:
Upon a registration cancellation in writing before September 13th, 2013, the registration fee, less a 25$ administration charge, will be refunded. There will be no refunds after this date.

You already have a GEI web site user account?
(You do have an account if you have applied for membership or registered to a GEI activity in 2012-2013)
GEI members (2012-2013 application):
When registering online, it is necessary to login to the web site to benefit from GEI member's reduced fee. While logged in, the fee shown below will automatically adjust to member status fee.
Non-members:
When registering online, login to the web site to make your payment as this will link your registration to your site user account. This will enable you to print your receipt and to view this current registration status or your registrations and membership applications history (from Mon compte / My account in your personal menu that will show in the right margin after connection to the site).
Student members and non-members:
When registering online, it is necessary to login to the web site to benefit from student reduced fees. While logged in, the fee shown below will automatically adjust to student status fee. If your site user account does not already have a student status, contact the site administrator to request a status modification (student status will be added in less than 24h).

You don't have a GEI web site user account?
GEI members (2012-2013 application):
All GEI members have a site user account. Your username is your name in the "FisrtName LastName" format, and your password is only known to you. You can retrieve your password in the automated email you received upon the creation of your account and titled: GEI - Confirmation de création de compte d'utilisateur (Confirmation of the creation of your site user account). You can also create a new password by clicking on the Créer un nouveau mot de passe link located under the connection box in the right margin of the site.
Non-members:
An account will be automatically created for you while registering. You may use this account to print your receipt and to view your current registration status (from Mon compte (My account) in your personal menu located in the right margin after connection to the site).
Student members and non-members:
When registering online, it is necessary to have a student status account in order to login to the web site and benefit from student reduced fees. You can create a new account by clicking on the Créer un nouveau compte link located under the connection box in the right margin of the site, and then contact the site administrator to request a student status for your account (student status will be added in less than 24h). Once your account has been updated, the fee shown below will automatically adjust to student status fee when logged to the site.

You are not a GEI member and you wish to apply for, or renew your membership and benefit from member's reduced fee?
To register at member's reduced fee, you first have to complete your GEI membership application. After registration of your payment by our treasurer (in usually less than 24h), you will receive an automated confirmation email of the new member status of your existing account (or your new account created when applying for membership). From then, your member status will give you access to member's reduced fees for your next activity registrations when logged to the site. If you prefer to pay your membership application by mail, allow a week more before your account status change. N.B. Our membership year goes from the October Member's general assembly to the following one, and all applications received after the last activity of the current year's calendar will be applicable to the following year.

Registration and payment modalities:
After indicating if you intend to use simultaneous translation, click on Add to cart. On the following page you will be able to complete your billing information and choose to pay your registration either way:

• By credit card on PayPal's secure web site (it is NOT necessary to have a PayPal account)
  
• Or by cheque mailed to the GEI

N.B. You can add different registrations to your cart (ex: Annual conference + Clinical workshop, etc.). But you cannot register more than one person for a specific activity, ex: yourself and a colleague. Each participant must register with his/her own site user account.