Institute Opening Plenary - Tuesday, March 7, 8:00-9:00 AM ET

Finding Your Self in Group

Ronnie Levine, PhD, ABPP, CGP, AGPA-F

For many years I have been studying love and hate and how to become comfortable with uncomfortable feelings with varying degrees of success in myself and with others. What I have learned is this: it is vital to develop an in tune, stable self, not only for our own sense of well-being, but for the sake of our relationships, for our clinical work, and for a healthy society. In the Institute Opening Plenary, I will underline the value of experiencing, expressing, and becoming comfortable with a range of feelings, including uncomfortable ones.

Ronnie Levine received her BS at Cornell University and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the Derner Institute, Adelphi University. She is a clinical psychologist and an individual and group psychoanalyst. She has been a long time member of AGPA and has presented many times at AGPA Connect. She was a Harvard Fellow at Mclean Hospital and a graduate of the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. Dr. Levine has been practicing for over 35 years in individual, couples and group psychotherapy and individual and group supervision. She has been influenced by Lou Ormont, Modern Psychoanalysis, Object Relations and Relational theories. She enjoys teaching and has been on a number of medical schools and group training program faculties and was the Director of the Psychology Internship at Rockland Psychiatric Center for 10 years. In 2004, Dr. Levine was awarded Fellow of AGPA. In 2011, Dr. Levine was honored by the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society for her outstanding contributions to the field of group psychotherapy. Her group articles include, “ Treating Idealized Hope and Hopelessness” (2007) ; Modern Psychoanalysis and Leslie Rosenthal ( 2008); Progressing While Regressing in Relationships (2011) ; A Modern Psychoanalytic Perspective on Group Therapy (2017) all published in the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy (IJGP).

Conference Opening Plenary - Thursday, March 9, 8:15-9:30 AM ET

Embracing the Other: The Fundamental Work of a Working Group

Rev. Ronald Hopson, PhD

This presentation is focused upon the resistance to diversity manifest in "othering." The denial of death is offered as a means for understanding the persistence of “othering” and the possibilities for overcoming “othering.” Perspectives are offered on the costs of "othering" and how embracing the other, though portending death of the familiar well bounded self, may both support vitality (Bion: passion), and protect against the self/other destructiveness, and despair at the root of much scapegoating, "othering" and bigotry.

Dr. Ronald E. Hopson is a licensed Clinical Psychologist. He is a graduate of Indiana University and Michigan State University. He completed the pre-doctoral internship at Northwestern University Medical School and attended Garrett-Evangelical Theological seminary at Northwestern University. He currently holds a joint faculty appointment in the School of Divinity and the Department of Psychology at Howard University. He has served as Interim Associate Dean in the School of Divinity, and as Director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychology. He teaches courses on Group and Individual Psychotherapy, the Psychology of Religion, Pastoral Care, and Sexuality and Race. He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and has served in pastoral positions in churches in the Washington, D.C. area. Dr. Hopson received training in Tavistock model group relations at Northwestern University. He also worked extensively with M. Scott Peck and the Foundation for Community Encouragement, conducting large and small groups on diversity, inclusion, conflict management and resolution, and intergroup relations. He is currently on the Group faculty of the Washington School of Psychiatry and a member of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Culture at the Washington School. Dr. Hopson has presented his professional work at national and international conferences. Dr. Hopson has published in the areas of Psychotherapy, Alcoholism, Christian Fundamentalism, Pastoral Care, Sexuality and the Black church, and Theology and Race. He is completing a book with two colleagues on theology and sexuality. His most current research is on the psychological implications of atonement theology.

Anne & Ramon Alonso Plenary - Friday, March 10, 8:15-9:30 AM ET

Large Group Identity Issues, Political Leader-Followers Interactions and Social Well-Being

Vamik Volkan, MD, DFLAPA, FACPsa

In this presentation, Dr. Vamik Volkan will answer the question “Why War?” with new psychological knowledge related to the personality organizations of political leaders, the inflammation of the shared images of ancestors’ traumatic pasts and the dehumanization of the Others. By Large Group, he means the tens, hundreds of thousands, or millions of individuals, most of whom will never meet, and identify with each other through their ethnicity, religion, nationality, or ideology. Their identity with each other is defined as Large Group Identity and is the subjective experience of multitudes of people who are linked by a persistent sameness while also sharing some characteristics with others who belong to foreign groups. The reparative leader tries to increase the followers’ narcissistic investment in large-group identity without malignantly devaluing or hurting Others. A destructive leader aims to enhance or modify the large-group’s identity by oppressing or even destroying an opposing or devalued large group. In this vein, he will refer to the invasion of Ukraine.

Vamık Volkan is an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia; an Emeritus Training and Supervising Analyst at the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis and an Emeritus Senior Erik Erikson Scholar at the Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center. He is the Emeritus President of the International Dialogue Initiative and a former President of the Turkish-American Neuropsychiatric Society, the International Society of Political Psychology, the Virginia Psychoanalytic Society and the American College of Psychoanalysts. Dr. Volkan was a member of the International Negotiation Network under the directorship of former President Jimmy Carter, an Inaugural Yitzhak Rabin Fellow, Rabin Center for Israeli Studies, Tel Aviv, Israel; a visiting Professor of psychiatry at four universities in Turkey, a visiting Professor of Psychoanalysis at East- European Institute of Psychoanalysis, Saint Petersburg, Russia; a visiting Professor of Law, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts; a Fulbright/Sigmund Freud-Foundation Visiting Scholar of Psychoanalysis in Vienna, Austria; a visiting Professor of Political Science at the University of Vienna and a visiting Professor at El Bosque University, Bogota, Colombia. He was also a board member of the Freud Foundation in Vienna and a member of the Working Group on Terror and Terrorism, International Psychoanalytic Association. Dr. Volkan is the author, coauthor, editor or coeditor of over sixty psychoanalytic and psychopolitical books. He has written hundreds of published papers and book chapters. He is a recipient of the Nevitt Sanford, Elise Hayman, Bryce Boyer, Hans Strupp, Sigmund Freud (given by the city of Vienna), Mary Sigourney and the Gradiva 2021 Best Book awards and the Margaret Mahler Literature Prize. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times; letters of support were sent from twenty-seven countries. 

Mitchell Hochberg Memorial Public Education Event - Saturday, March 11, 8:15-9:15 AM ET

Navigating the Trance of Group Delusion: Connecting the Climate and Community Dots

Renée Lertzman, PhD

Confronting climate change - as well as the intersection of justice, equity, biodiversity and ecological concerns - is daunting for us as humans. The dots between human health, climate change, and mental health are now connecting in vivid ways. What are the conditions that can enable us to truly face, and engage meaningfully with what is at stake? In this session, we look at the integral role of mental health clinicians and particularly group work, in fostering “islands of sanity” for processing and facing these difficult realities, so we can move into an uncertain future with capacity and courage.

Renée Lertzman is a researcher, educator and eco-engagement strategist who uses psychological insights to change our approach to the environmental crisis. Applying her training as a psychosocial researcher specializing in deep human insights, she uses frameworks and methods that empower people to take action and create impact on climate and sustainability issues. She works with companies and organizations looking to strengthen climate and sustainability initiatives, develop more effective campaigns, and harness the creativity and innovation needed to solve big problems.