The idea of ​​‘Mens Sana in Corpore Sano’ as an alternative meeting model in  psychoanalysis, emerged during the IPA Congress in Boston (2015), when a group of colleagues met to jog and talk, before the first conference activity of the day.

This innovative modality of psychoanalytic encounters is performed in small groups of 20 people, in natural settings. They are developed in intervals of time, rhythm, thought and physical movement. Outdoor activities, such as trekking, hiking, dancing and yoga sessions, elicit aesthetic and contemplative experiences, which optimize the emotional climate in the working sessions.  Papers are presented, but not only with the written version, but also with their contextualization, thanks to the personal open conversation with their authors.  This deep and close contact is provocative and inspiring of new ideas for further thought productions.

‘Mens Sana in Corpore Sano’ meetings, many of which are sponsored by IPA and IPSO, are open to candidates and analysts from different regions and societies. These meetings transmit, though their innovative modality, a creative spirit that occurs in a facilitating environment, strengthening ties and scientific collaborations among colleagues from the psychoanalytic world.

‘Mens Sana in Corpore Sano’ is organized in such a way that times for scientific exchange alternate with body movement, what frames the group work with different levels of proximity and affection. It is in the intervals of silence and fatigue, in the spaces between differences and experiences with the others, where new things are generated, between the re-signification and disconcert of the limits of what is already known.

‘Mens Sana’ seeks to integrate the experiential edge with the actual thought, opening up to an area of ​​imperfect aesthetics, where ideas show us their first skin.

The MSCS editions were:

2016 (Gressoney, Italy)

2017 (Piriápolis Uruguay)

2018 (Gressoney Italy)

2018 (Courmayeur, Italy) Winter edition

2019 (London)

2021 (Lerici, Italy)

2021 (Sierras de Rocha, Uruguay 7th Edición)

In each of these meetings papers written by the participants are presented.

This project and its theoretical bases have been presented in several regional and international congresses:

– APU «The body», Uruguay 2016

– FEPAL «Body», Cartagena 2016

– IPA “The feminine”, London 2019

‘Mens Sana’ at Sierras de Rocha, took place on November 6 and 7, 2021.

Ximena Malmierca and I organized this event with the theoretical axis: With-fraternities. This axis guided our call to the invited analysts and their papers.

The presenters developed their thoughts around the concept of friendship, of fraternity, at macro-institutional levels, in small discussion and exchange groups, or in the intimacy of the clinic, where the fraternal is played in the intrapsychic, and unfolds in transference with the analyst.  But, in turn, the fraternity took place «live», in the group, that is, in action, enriching libidinal ties, in a perfect conducive environment for working and thinking.

In this meeting, the second held in Uruguay, and the seventh edition of ‘Mens Sana in Corpore Sano’, three papers were presented: Fernando Orduz; “Frater”, Rosana Sapriza, clinical material on the fraternal; Harriet Wolfe, “The fraternal complex and attachment to siblings: Implications for conflict and its resolution in Psychoanalytic Institutions”.

Twelve people formed this group; we did hiking, yoga, trekking and dancing.  Also lunches, dinners, conversations and we shared lots of laughs. We shared activities we can compare to the effect made by a picture frame, giving a sense of depth to the work of art it wraps, making it more earthly, subjecting it to a historical and experiential time, humanizing it.

In the days shared we discovered that the theoretical contributions of each one of us were more contextualized, and that when defending an idea, we did not stop listening to the person who had thought it. The knowledge of our colleagues at a level of shared experiences highlighted the frame, and in the background the piece of art was there, so as to continue with the previous metaphor, and allowed a different perspective about the differences.

We understood more about each other in its diversity and its richness. Gathered around a long table, like Plato’s Banquet, we held to our differences sharing lunches and dinners. Far from the group fusional effect that Freud describes in «Mass Psychology and Ego Analysis» (Freud,

1. 1921), the necessary and interesting differences became more complex, giving push to a gear set, which moves recognition and the need to be recognized. Being recognized alsoby the other horizontals, in whom we can see ourselves in the mirror of diversity, rather than in theverticality of the gaze of ‘more or less’, which narrows the world of knowledge in every discipline of thought.

This modality shows a gear where there are no equal or exact parts, but synergy of the discontinuity, the wounds, which act as a motor for us to build bridges, illusions and thoughts. These failures that, as we know in psychoanalysis lead us to seek, to dream and to build, from the sweet side of a scientific encounter

The next Mens Sana in Corpore Sano’ meeting will be in the mountains of Val d’Aosta, Gressoney, Italy, on February 18, 19 and 20, 2022. (For information write to: paula.lopez378@gmail.com)

We are looking forward to it!

 

Bibliography

Costas Antola, Adela: “The unitive power of hate”, In: APdeBA Psychoanalysis Magazine

Freud, Sigmund (1921); “Mass Psychology and Analysis of the Ego”. Amorrortu, Buenos Aires; 1986

Orduz, Fernando (Nov. 2021); Frater (Unpublished text)

Wolfe L. Harriet (Nov. 2020); “The fraternal complex and attachment to siblings: Implications for conflict and its resolution in Psychoanalytic Institutions” (Unpublished text)