Where languages meet. Where identities converge. Where solitudes reach toward one another.

Montréal, a city alive with the interplay of languages and layered identities, offers a rich metaphor for our theme. A Meeting of Solitudes echoes les Deux Solitudes that have continued to haunt the history of Canada’s bilingual identity, reaching across divides of language, culture, and power, yet leaving both “sides” disconnected and deflated. This history has much to offer in our exploration of The Longing to Be Known.

Montréal is also emblematic of a rich Canadian and Québec colonial history and spirit where not only two, but multiple solitudes coexist, converge, and sometimes fail to meet. As self psychologists, we recognize this same dynamic in the consulting room, where language becomes both bridge and barrier. It is the medium through which we long to be known, and yet a reminder of the separateness that can define human experience.

This conference invites exploration of how language, culture, and the multiplicity of identities shape the therapeutic encounter. How do we listen across difference? How do words both reveal and obscure what is most deeply felt? How do identities remain unique and separate yet open to transformative joining with others? We welcome papers that examine the ways analysts, therapists, and patients navigate these solitudes — and how, in responding to the selfobject needs embedded in every exchange, we may find new forms of connection, recognition, and understanding.

The deadline for paper and pre-conference proposals has passed. 

Conference Co-Chairs: Jamie L. Loveland & Heather MacIntosh

Paper Session Chairs: Denise Davis & Annette Richard
Pre-Conference Workshop Chairs: Laura D'Angelo, Daniel Perlitz, Petra Purkarthofer
Meet the Author Chair: Karen BloombergP
Additional Members:  Makiko Kasai, Ashley Leeds, Johann Steinberg