RKSG 2026 Dues

[Craig Piers]

Dear Rapaport-Klein Study Group Members,

As you're probably aware, Chris and John have put together a very interesting program (see letter and links below).  Thank you both for all your work.  I also want to take a moment to acknowledge the contributions of Paolo and Nadine.  Thank you!  And yes, Nadine agreed to help one more time.  Lucky us!  As you all know, the meeting will take place on June 12-14, 2026 in Stockbridge.  Members can attend in-person or remotely via Zoom.  We will send a Zoom invite closer to the day of the meeting.

As treasurer, I'm also writing to remind you of yearly membership dues and guests fees.  As always, our finances are tight and the group needs everyone to pay their dues.  Dues are $150 for members and guest fees are $100 (yes, the guest fee has increased).  Remember, dues apply even if you can't attend this year's meeting.  They also apply if you attend in-person or remotely, or some combination.  Please send a check payable to:  Rapaport-Klein Study Group and mail checks to me at:

Craig Piers

69 Church Street

Lenox, MA  01240

This email is going to all members.  I will follow this email with a second email sent ONLY to members who did not pay dues last year.  If you don't receive a second email, you don't have a past due amount.  

One more time - if you don't receive a second email, you owe just this year's dues of $150.  If you do receive a second email, you owe dues for this year and last year - $300.

That's all for now.  Hope to see you all soon.

Warm regards,

Craig

Craig Piers, PhD

RKSG - Treasurer

69 Church Street

Lenox, Massachusetts  01240

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Rapaport-Klein Study Group 

www.psychomedia.it/rapaport-klein c/o Nadine Desautels 

Austen Riggs Center, P.O. Box 962, Stockbridge, MA 01262 

Tel. 413-931-5236, e-mail <nadine.d...@austenriggs.net> 

 

 

 

April 2026 

 

Dear Rapaport-Klein Study Group Members, 

 

We are pleased to invite you to the 64th Annual Meeting of the Rapaport-Klein Study Group, which will be held on June 12-14, 2026. The meeting will be held in a hybrid format. The Saturday evening cocktail party will be held at the Berkshire Waldorf High School (formerly the historic Stockbridge Town Hall), 6 Main Street, Stockbridge (a short walk from Riggs).

As you will see, we have put together an excellent program based on recommendations made by our members. Below is a list of speakers, including a description of their presentations and biographical statements.  

 

Friday night, June 12, 2026 

 

8:00-10:00 pm: 

Keynote: George Makari, “Xenophobia, War, and Social Disorder” (hybrid) Introduced by Chris Christian. This presentation will be live online with CME credits: 

https://education.austenriggs.org/content/xenophobia-war-and-problem-social-disorder-keynote-64th-annual-meeting-rapaport-klein-study

 

In Of Fear and Strangers: A History of Xenophobia (2021), I considered how different psychological models – behaviorist, cognitive, phenomenological – accounted for xenophobia, and, in the end, considered psychoanalytic theories of projection to most clearly define the most intractable form of this problem. With ethnonationalism and militarism on the rise around the world, I wanted to explore the social conditions that fostered such projected hatred. For that, I turned to Einstein and Freud’s 1932 exchange, Why War? In Freud’s brief letter, he proposed a model for collectives, in which the problem of self-defense and the risk of social disintegration were central. How, we might ask, does this model apply to our present? 

 

George Makari, M.D., historian, essayist, psychoanalyst, and psychiatrist, is the author of Of Fear and 

Strangers: A History of Xenophobia (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2021), winner of the 

Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and IPA’s Elizabeth Young-Bruehl Award; it was a Bloomberg Best NonFiction of the year, and a New York Times Editor's Choice. Previously, he wrote Soul Machine: The Invention of the Modern Mind (New York: Norton, 2015), a 2015 Guardian Best Book of the Year and the widely acclaimed Revolution in Mind: The Creation of Psychoanalysis (New York: Harper Collins, 2008). His books have been translated into twelve languages and his essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Director of the DeWitt 

Wallace Institute of Psychiatry: History, Policy, and the Arts, Dr. Makari is Professor of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he teaches psychoanalytic models of the mind to the residents and is in clinical practice. He conducts a podcast with artists and writers on the nature of the imagination and is Guest Professor at Rockefeller University. A graduate of Brown University, Cornell University Medical College, and the Columbia Psychoanalytic Center, he lives with his family in New York City.  

Readings:  

Sigmund Freud, Why War? (1933 [1932]). SE, XXII, pp. 197-215. 

Saturday, June 13, 2026 

 

9.00-10:15 am:  

Informal go-around and introduction of guests 

Saturday morning will open with our traditional informal go-around to discuss members’ current work and introduce guests. This will be followed by our two Saturday speakers. 

 

10:30 am-1:00 pm: 

Paul Wachtel, “Missed Opportunities and Untapped Potentials in the Evolution of Psychoanalytic Theory and Practice” (hybrid) Introduced by Chris Christian 

 

The difference between observations in the clinical setting and how those observations were interpreted theoretically has frequently been obscured in the history of psychoanalytic thought.  The result has been, in essence, that psychoanalytic speculations or constructions have mutated, over time, into psychoanalytic verities, leading to problematic and constricting reifications.  I will examine a number of choice points in the history of psychoanalysis that illustrate this and examine the costs and the alternatives, with an eye especially toward other observations that are left out once the verities dominate perceptions and theory development. 

 

Paul L. Wachtel, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of Psychology in the doctoral program in Clinical 

Psychology at the City College of New York. He received his undergraduate degree from Columbia, his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Yale, and his psychoanalytic training at the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. He was a cofounder of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) and is a past president of that organization. Among his books are 

Psychoanalysis, Behavior Therapy, and the Relational World (1977, 1997); The Poverty of Affluence (1983, 2017); Race in the Mind of America (1986); Family Dynamics in Individual Psychotherapy (1990, 2011); Therapeutic Communication: Knowing What to Say When (1993, 2011); Relational Theory and the Practice of Psychotherapy (2010); Inside the Session (2011); and Cyclical Psychodynamics and the Contextual Self: The Inner World, the Intimate World, and the World of Culture and Society (2014). His most recent book is Making Room for the Disavowed: Reclaiming the Self in Psychotherapy (2023). He was awarded the Hans H. Strupp Award for Psychoanalytic Writing, Teaching, and Research; the Distinguished Psychologist Award by Division 29 (Psychotherapy) of APA; the Scholarship and Research Award by Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of APA; and the Sidney J. Blatt Award for Outstanding Contributions to Psychotherapy, Scholarship, Education and Practice. He has lectured and given workshops throughout the world on psychotherapy, personality theory, and the applications of psychological theory and research to the major social issues of our time.  

Readings: 

Wachtel P.L. (2009). Knowing oneself from the inside out, knowing oneself from the outside in: The “inner” and “outer” worlds and their link through action. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 26, 158-170, https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015502

Wachtel P.L. (2010). One-person and two-person conceptions of attachment and their implications for psychoanalytic thought. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 91, 561-581, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-8315.2010.00265.x 

Wachtel P.L. (2010). Beyond “ESTs”: Problematic assumptions in the pursuit of evidence-based practice. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 27, 251-272, https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020532 

Wachtel P.L. (2014). An integrative relational point of view.  Psychotherapy, 51, 342-349, https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037219 

Wachtel P.L. (2017). Psychoanalysis and the Moebius strip: Reexamining the relation between the internal world and the world of daily experience. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 34, 1: 58-68, https://doi.org/10.1037/pap0000111 

Wachtel P.L. (2017). The relationality of everyday life: The unfinished journey of relational psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 27, 1: 1-19, https://doi.org/10.1080/10481885.2017.1256650 

 

1:00-2:30 pm:  

Lunch 

  

2:30-5:00 pm: 

Philip Wong, “Autobiographical Memory and the Development of the Early Memory Attachment Q-Sort (EMAQ)” (hybrid) Introduced by John Auerbach  

 

A person’s early memories, a type of autobiographical memory, can be used effectively in psychodynamic therapies to promote exploration of current and past experiences in effort to consolidate a coherent selfnarrative. What can be gleaned, however, from early memories using standard methods in psychological research (e.g., Porcerelli et al., 2016)? In this presentation, I will provide background about current conceptualizations of autobiographical memory that are consistent with psychodynamic perspectives (e.g., Fivush & Grysman, 2022). (Both papers by Porcerelli et al. and Fivush & Grysman are posted on our web site). Then I will describe the preliminary development of a Q-sort method used to derive attachment status from early memories. This approach parallels the use of the Adult Attachment Inventory (AAI), yet with narratives that are brief, are open-ended, and have clinical utility. Using this method – the Early Memory Attachment Q-Sort (EMAQ) – I will describe its potential use in psychological research, including preliminary findings revealing associations with neuroticism, belongingness, and other self-reported measures of attachment.  

 

Philip Wong, Ph.D., earned his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, which at the time was a clinical psychology training program focused on psychodynamic theory, research, and practice. His mentors at Michigan included Howard Shevrin and Martin Mayman. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship in the Psychiatry Department at Michigan, Dr. Wong joined the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research, where he taught in the clinical psychology doctoral program (and interacted regularly for many years with David Shapiro). After the New School, Dr. Wong joined the faculty at Long Island University (LIU) Brooklyn where he is Professor of Psychology. He directed the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program at LIU Brooklyn for ten years and is currently Director of Clinical Training. Dr. Wong’s original research with Howard Shevrin centered on the investigation of unconscious processes using clinical data in an experimental paradigm involving subliminal perception and evoked brain potentials. He has continued to explore the implicit (unconscious) emotional and motivational dimensions of personality and psychopathology across the lifespan, using direct and indirect methodologies. Dr. Wong also has longstanding interests in ethnic minority and East Asian American experiences, as well as in religion. In addition to his academic position, Dr. Wong has a private practice in New York City focused on psychological assessment, consultation, and psychotherapy. 

Readings: 

Porcerelli J.H., Cogan R., Melchior K.A., Jasinski M.J., Richardson L., Fowler S, Morris P. & Murdoch W. (2016). Convergent Validity of the Early Memory Index in Two Primary Care Samples. Journal of Personality Assessment, 98, 3: 289-297, https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2015.1107573 

Fivush R. & Grysman A. (2023). Accuracy and reconstruction in autobiographical memory: (Re)consolidating neuroscience and sociocultural developmental approaches. WIREs Cognitive Science, 14: e1620, https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1620. 

 

 

6:00-8:00 pm:  

Cocktails at the Berkshire Waldorf High School (formerly the historic Stockbridge Town Hall),  

Main Street, Stockbridge (less than ten minutes’ walk from Riggs) 

Sunday, June 14, 2026 

 

9:00-10:00 am:  

Members’ Business Meeting

 

10:00 am-12:30 pm:  

Leora Trub, “Rewiring Therapy: How Digital Culture is Reshaping the Clinical Encounter”(hybrid) Introduced by John Auerbach  

 

Digital culture increasingly conflicts with multiple longstanding assumptions about psychoanalytic practice. Societal norms around communication and presence are at odds with restricting therapy to a consistent time and place. The widespread cultivation of a public digital presence can undermine the analyst’s sense of privacy and control over self-disclosure. Meanwhile, Artificial Intelligence threatens the basic assumptions of our profession as it challenges conceptions of human relatedness. The magnitude of these shifts and their implications for our profession is enormous. Ironically, our incorporation of digital technology into clinical practice may make it more difficult to contemplate its many meanings. Drawing upon interviews with 28 psychoanalytic clinicians conducted just before the pandemic, this presentation invites the audience to consider the ways digital technology is shifting the nature of analytic work and the subjective experiences of patient and analyst. It aims to identify both the benefits of digital technology and its destructive potential, and to explore how we can navigate digital culture with greater intention and awareness. 

 

Leora Trub, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Pace University’s doctoral program in School/Clinical Child Psychology and a practicing clinical psychologist. Her research and writing focus on the ways that digital technology influences how people relate to themselves and others, including in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. She has published extensively on these and other topics in research, clinical, and psychoanalytic journals. She was recently awarded a research grant from the International Psychoanalytic Association to study analytic process through a screen from the perspective of analysts and patients. In 2023, she founded the Academics for the Advancement of Psychodynamic Psychology, which is committed to reversing the sharp decline of psychoanalytic thinking in academic psychology programs. 

Readings: 

Trub L.R. & Magaldi D. (2022). The phone in the room: How technology is reshaping analytic space. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 39, 3: 253-265, https://doi.org/10.1037/pap0000402 

Trub L.R. (2023). Imagination foreclosed: Searching for each other in the digital age. Psychoanalytic Perspectives, 20, 2: 146-169, https://doi.org/10.1080/1551806X.2023.2188026 

Trub L.R. (2024). The elephant in the zoom: Will psychoanalysis survive the screen? The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 84, 2: 203-228, https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-024-09457-7 

 

 

 

Website, Guests, and Dues

Our website remains <www.psychomedia.it/rapaport-klein> to review the history of every meeting since the beginning of our group, including many of the papers presented (this year program’s web page is <www.psychomedia.it/rapaport-klein/june2026.htm>). If there are any changes in your e-mail address, please notify Paolo at <paolo....@unipr.it>. We will post on our web site the documents that speakers would like to pre-circulate. Any suggestions for improving our website are welcome and should be directed to Paolo.

Soon, Craig will be emailing dues statements. Dues for this year are $150 for members, and $100 per guest. Kindly let Craig know if you plan to bring a guest. If you want to reserve a room at the Red Lion Inn, you should do it possible before May 12, at this link: https://be.synxis.com/?Hotel=47804&Chain=33096&group=RKG381.

We look forward to seeing you once again and enjoying the weekend together.

Warm regards,

John Auerbach and Chris Christian, Co-chairs