Library News

New books, upcoming events and ongoing projects are described in the latest Summer 2018 Library Newsletter.

Visit our beautiful library at 141 Herrick Rd in Newton, MA. Our academic year hours are 9:30am-9:30pm on Mon-Thu, 9:30am-5:00pm on Fri.

Consult the library resource page for a full list of our current electronic journals available in the library. Everyone in the building can download fulltext from these resources.

Check out our new “Children in War” exhibit displayed on two easels in the library this fall. Drawings and photographs come from the collection of materials donated by Drs. Roberta Apfel and Bennett Simon. They started working with two groups of Israeli and Palestinian 8-year old children following them up for 10 years. They worked with an Israeli teacher, Malka Haas, who kept her art studio opened during several wars even when regular schools remained closed, allowing young children to play and express themselves through art and local materials. She collected their art and saved their notes and comments on the drawings now held at the BPSI Archives.

Drs. Apfel’s and Simon’s recent interview about their community and humanitarian work can be watched here. For more information, check out this print-friendly exhibit flyer.

Recent Publications by Our Members

Read about new publications by BPSI members in the BPSI Authors, Recent Work, and Film Series sections of the website.

Recent Video Interviews

The Library Committee continues interviewing noted book authors and senior analysts. Follow the links to watch recently filmed conversations with Ana-Maria Rizzuto, MD, Arnold Modell, MD, Malkah T. Notman, MD, Paul Ornstein, MD, Ilonka Venier Alexander, and Stephanie Brody, PhD.

Meet the Author Series 2018-2019

On Tuesday, October 2, 2018, Cordelia Schmidt-Hellerau will present her new book Driven to Survive: Selected Papers on Psychoanalysis (IP Books, 2018). “This is a sharp, courageous, innovative and highly documented exploration of one of the most problematic, unsolved and disputed areas inside freud’s theory: preservative drives, in between life and death drives. Cordelia Schmidt-Hellerau develops here a revolutionary approach to the topic, involving an unexpected, substantive metapsychological revision, a subsequent remarkable change of clinical perspective, and a further reconsideration of many cultural assumptions which are connected with this new vision. A convincing proposal about a theoretical “shibboleth” that played for decades and still plays a divisive role in the psychoanalytic community” ~ Stefano Bolognini, IPA Past President.

About the Author: Cordelia Schmidt-Hellerau, PhD, studied literature, philosophy and psychology in Heidelberg and Zürich, where she worked as a university professor for clinical psychology. She is a training and supervising analyst at the Swiss Psychoanalytic Society and at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. Her areas of expertise are metapsychology, in particular drive theory, its clinical application, and applied psychoanalysis of creative processes. She is the author of two books and over 40 articles, published in many languages, and the editor of a Freud Reader and two collections of short stories. Currently she is the Chair of the IPA in Culture Committee.

Time: 7:00pm – special reception, 8:00pm – discussion, 9:00 – book signing. Click here to register.

PLEASE NOTE: the special reception will also celebrate Lora Tessman’s 90th birthday. Dr. Tessman is a renowned psychoanalyst with a long standing interest in comparing nuances of intrapsychic dynamics in the treatment process with different populations. Her books The Analyst’s Analyst Within (2003) and Children of Parting Parents (1978) remain most popular among our readers.

Location: Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Library Room, 141 Herrick Rd, Newton Center, MA 02459.

In the Archives

We recently acquired M. Robert Gardner’s unfinished manuscript and research papers, new children’s drawings, Freud’s portrait from the office of Henry A. Murray, and helped many researchers. Latest acquisitions, research and inquiries are described in the Library Newsletter Summer 2018

BPSI Collaboration with WGBH Archives

Grete Bibring’s video interview with Oliver Cope has been posted online! Click on the link to view: Psychoanalysis: A Personal View, WGBH, 1975. In the fall of 2013, BPSI Archives worked with the WGBH Archives, becoming curators of WGBH’s Psychology One programs from the 1957-58 and a video recording of Grete Bibring’s Interview with Oliver Cope, 1975. Our archivist, Olga Umansky, MLS, teamed up with Murray Cohen, PhD, a long time BPSI member, to create a historic commentary to the televised psychology lectures of Dr. Edwin Boring (click here to watch Psychology One episodes online). Sanford Gifford, MD, Director of BPSI Archives, shared his biographical notes about Hanns Sachs, who was Dr. Boring’s analyst and journal co-editor. BPSI Archives also contributed a transcript, metadata, and various biographical materials to contextualize Grete Bibring’s interview with Dr. Cope (DVD is available on loan from the library). WGBH’s Media Library and Archives are attempting to digitize their historic video collections with the support of the Melon Foundation and American Archive. You can read about WGBH’s digital preservation efforts in the Boston Globe article from November 15, 2013.

Please contact Olga Umansky, MLS, Librarian/Archivist, for any questions about BPSI library and archives.

(617) 266-0953 ext. 104
library@bpsi.org