Recent posts
Elia, I., 2009. A Call For Papers On The 3rd International ACAT Conference. Reformulation, Winter, p.25.
Analytic Therapy Association (ICATA). But so far we have had only one item to do with conference presentations: Norma Maple Anderson’s summary of the dialogue stream that she facilitated (‘What constitutes a CAT Group Experience?’). There were seven other dialogue streams and eight satellite meetings, not to mention the three guest speakers: Rupert Sheldrake, with his unorthodox but thought-provoking ideas about the nature of mind, and Michael Holquist, whose talk, entitled ‘Integration of the Self in Dialogism’, gave us an over-view of the philosophers’ struggle to understand the divided consciousness (‘self and itself’) and the unity it claims despite and through its ‘proclivity to link’ in dialogue with others. The third guest speaker was Valerie Sinason, whose poignant answer to ‘What does it mean to have a learning disability?’ brought tears to our eyes. Her incredibly positive therapeutic approach with even the most severely mentally and physically disadvantaged people inspired wonder and respect. I hope that someone will write about her talk.
There were also five important presentations of new CAT research: Andrew Chanen and Louise McCutcheon’s work on early intervention for borderline personality disorders in youth; Sue Llewellyn and Anne-Marie Daly’s ‘Validation study of the Bennett and Parry ‘rupture repair model’ in CAT in adolescents’; Claire Tanner and Alison Carolan’s ‘Audit of 100 CAT cases of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa…’; Stella Compton’s ‘…exploratory RCT into the effectiveness of Group Cognitive Analytic Music Therapy for … offender in-patients with PD’; and Stephen Kellett’s qualitative and quantitative results from a controlled study using CAT as a consultation tool.
There is so much to share with those unable to attend the conference. So please send your summaries, comments, and reflections. The next deadline is May 10th.