Invited Paper Presentation
We are pleased and honored that John S. Kafka, M.S., M.D., has accepted our invitation to present a paper during the Thursday afternoon “Break-out” Session.
Dr. Kafka is a Training and Supervising Analyst in the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the George Washington University School Of Medicine, Former President of the Washington Psychoanalytic Society, Former Director of the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, Former Staff Member at Chestnut Lodge, and Former Consultant at the National Institute of Mental Health. He served two terms as Vice President of the International Psychoanalytical Association, and has been very active for over 20 years in the development of psychoanalysis in East Europe. He has served as Chair of the Sponsoring Committee for two psychoanalytic groups in Moscow, and as advisor to the New Groups Committee for Europe. Currently, he is advisor for the Han Groen Prakken East European Institute (PIEE).
Dr. Kafka’s book, Multiple Realities in Clinical Practice (Yale University Press, 1989), has been also published in German, Italian, French, Romanian, and Russian. He is the author of over 130 theoretical and clinical papers or chapters in books. Topics include time experience, severe psychopathology, and trauma.
For our conference, Dr. Kafka will present a paper entitled, “The Trauma Victim in the 'Average, Expectable Environment' and in the Gravely Traumatized Society,” which will reflect his experience as one of those who provided psychological assessments of Holocaust survivors as part of the German Embassy’s “restitution” program. He will discuss, among other things, psychosis and the fear of psychosis as sequelae of extreme trauma.