47th Annual IAPSP International Conference
October 22-25, 2026 Montréal, Canada
A Meeting of Solitudes: The Longing to Be Known
CALL FOR PAPER, PANEL AND PRE-CONFERENCE PROPOSALS
Deadline to submit proposals is February 15, 2026
Acceptance notices will be sent by March 31, 2026
Final papers will be due by June 30, 2026
The 2026 conference planning committee is delighted to announce the call for papers and preconference workshop proposals for IAPSP’s 2026 global conference, A Meeting of Solitudes: The Longing to Be Known, to be held in Montréal, Canada from Thursday, October 22nd through Sunday, October 25th, 2026. We encourage you to join us in Montréal, but live streaming and recording of the plenary sessions and selected program offerings will be available for those unable to attend in person.
Montréal, a city alive with the interplay of languages and layered identities, provides an evocative backdrop for this year’s theme. A Meeting of Solitudes echoes les Deux Solitudes, the enduring tension within Canada’s bilingual identity — a reaching across divides of language, culture, and power that often leaves both “sides” disconnected. This history offers a meaningful frame for our exploration of The Longing to Be Known, and invites us to consider the complexities of connection, recognition, and relational life.
We seek contributions that deepen our understanding of how solitudes are navigated within the therapeutic encounter. We welcome submissions that explore clinical work involving linguistic, cultural, or identity-based differences, new theoretical perspectives on the ways language both bridges and obscures experience, and fresh approaches to helping patients feel known across divides that may be personal, cultural, historical or political. Of particular interest are papers that illuminate how selfobject needs emerge at these intersections and how attending to them may open new possibilities of connecting with others.
We especially welcome submissions that stretch our thinking about how identities remain distinct yet open to transformation, how we listen across difference, and how analysts, therapists, and patients negotiate the vulnerabilities that arise when solitudes meet.
Papers may be submitted individually or as paired presentations, encouraging dialogue and collaborative reflection. Selected individual papers may be matched with a discussant or a complementary presentation to enrich the conversation. Accepted paper and pre-conference session presenters must attend the conference in person.
We invite you to join us in exploring how the longing to be known takes shape in encounters shaped by language, culture, and the multiplicity of identities that define contemporary life.
Please see the tabs on the right of this page for details regarding submissions.
Heather MacIntosh and Jamie Loveland, Conference Chairs