Professor Leyla Zileli, who was among the pioneers of psychoanalytic practices and education in our country, and was one of the founders of Hacettepe and Başkent Universities’ departments of Psychiatry, was commemorated in the 3rd International Leyla Zileli Psychoanalytic Symposium. The symposium organized by Ankara Contemporary Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies Association (ACPPA), Başkent University and Hacettepe University took place from November 16-18, 2018 in the İhsan Doğramacı Conference Hall of the Başkent University. Inspired by Prof. Leyla Zileli’s masterful teaching of psychoanalytic theories using case studies, Exploring Psychoanalysis Through Case Studies was chosen as the main theme of the symposium.
Thanks to the fundamental psychoanalytical education provided by Prof. Leyla Zileli and Prof. Orhan Öztürk, many generations were trained to become skillful in taking medical history, emphatic and efficient listening, making neutral observations in the fields of neuropsychiatry and biological psychiatry. In this context, the aim of the symposium was to remind the importance of fundamental psychoanalytic education in our institutions. Scientific program was shaped according to this purpose.
In the opening ceremony which took place on November 16, after summarizing the purpose of the symposium and thanking participants, Elif Ülkü Gürışık, the Honorary Chair of ACPPA, invited his excellency Martin Erdmann, the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Turkey, on stage. Ambassador Martin Erdmann first discussed the recent international developments in terms of international diplomacy and political science, and then provided examples showing how psychoanalysis, despite its apparent estrangement from these fields, is an effective tool in understanding the aforementioned developments, due to its rich accumulation in understanding people and culture. Ambassador Erdmann also referred to the history of Turkish-German relations, and reminded how scientists unlawfully dismissed from universities during the National Socialist rule in Germany were invited by Atatürk and İnönü to work at the universities of the newly found Turkish Republic. After Ambassador Erdmann’s speech, Dean of the Başkent Medical School Prof. Haldun Müderrisoğlu, President of Hacettepe University Prof. Haluk Özen, President of Başkent University Prof. Ali Haberal and Founding President of Başkent University Prof. Mehmet Haberal took the stage consecutively, expressing their gratitude for Prof. Leyla Zileli’s important contributions to Hacettepe University, to Başkent University, and to psychiatry and medical education in our country. In the opening speeches, Nejla Koperler, a child psychoanalyst and the older sister of Prof. Leyla Zileli, a person who had always both financially and morally supported ACPPA and the Symposium, and whom we have lost on November 13, 2018 was also commemorated.
After the opening ceremony, conferences began, all of which were qualified and informative. First, Dr. Carine Minne, a member of British Psychoanalytical Society, the president of the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy, a forensic psychiatrist who has been working with criminals with mental disorders, gave an outstanding presentation titled as “Continuity in Discontinuous Worlds: A Case of Matricide”. In this presentation, Dr. Minne talked about the case of a young male in detail, whom she had successfully treated in high- and then middle- and low-security institutions, consecutively. She discussed the interpersonal dynamics and changes in mental structure throughout the long treatment process based on Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis (OPD). In the second session of the first day, which was titled as “Psychoanalysis As a Trauma Theory”, Prof. Cem Kaptanoğlu gave a rich presentation on how Sigmund Freud developed his trauma theory, starting with Studies on Hysteria in 1895 and ending with Moses and Monotheism in 1939. Afterwards, Dr. Matthias von der Tann, a member of the British Psychoanalytical Society and the editor of OPD’s translation to English, talked about different psychoanalytical approaches used in initial interviews by also providing examples from his personal psychoanalytic journey, in his presentation called “Initial Interviews with Doctor-Patients with the Support of OPD”. Emphasizing the importance of initial interviews on projective decisions regarding how the patients will be handled, Dr. von der Tann brilliantly discussed several methods for collecting the necessary information. The final session of the day was an open platform called “Leyla Zileli: Loving and Loved… From Earlier Generations To The Last of the Mohicans”. In the beginning of this panel chaired by two faculty members of Hacettepe University Department of Psychiatry, Prof. Berna Uluğ and Prof. Kâzım Yazıcı, Prof. Uluğ narrated the biography of Leyla Zileli. This valuable presentation representing Prof. Zileli’s qualities as a person, as a doctor and as a teacher ended with some quotations from the speech she gave when she retired from Hacettepe University. Next, Prof. Yazıcı shared his colorful memories with Prof. Zileli and invited participation of the audience, which consisted of both Prof. Zileli’s students and young colleagues who did not have the chance to meet her. This panel was an important contribution in terms of making the history of psychiatry in Turkey more widely known and strengthening its tradition. Presence of Prof. Zileli’s beloved friend, Emeritus Professor of Hacettepe University Child Neurology Department Kalbiye Yalaz took the meeting to a whole new level. Afterwards, Academic Başkent Orchestra conducted by Orhun Orhon performed the 5th Violin Concerto (Turkish Concerto) of Mozart, who was one of Prof. Zileli’s favorite composers.
The second day of the symposium began with the presentation of Dr. Rob Hale, a member of British Psychoanalytical Society and the former president of the Portman Clinic and Graduate Dean of Tavistock Clinic, which was titled “The Institution as a Case Study-The Impact of Violent and Sexually Perverse Behavior on Countertransference”. Dr. Hale strikingly discussed the effects of individuals in closed institutions inclined to sexual perversion and violence on countertransference, and explained how this reaction provides important information regarding the psychopathic mental structure of the patient. Using examples, he explained how these overwhelming and sometimes impulsive reactions triggered in the staff could paralyze thinking and cause mental disorders as well as pathological acting outs. He finished his presentation with these words: “When the institution stops thinking, it becomes sick.” Following Dr. Hale, Prof. Horst Kächele, a member of Deutsche Psychoanalytische Gesellschaft (DPG), the founder of the Scientific Research Work Unit of International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA), and receiver of the Sigourney Award, gave his attention-grabbing speech titled “From Case Study to Single Case Research”, which focused on single case studies as antecedents of empirical studies on psychoanalysis. He explained the information on transference, countertransference, interpretation, therapeutic alliance, resistance and working through they have obtained by examining 517-sessions-long voice recordings of their now famous case Amalia X. On the third session of November 17, Prof. Aleksandar Dimitrijevic, faculty of International Psychoanalytic University-Berlin (IPU-Berlin) and an IPA member psychoanalyst, gave his speech called “What Kind of Patient was Ferenczi”. With his breath-taking style, and by providing historical documents some of which saw the light of the day for the first time ever, Prof. Dimitrijevic not only discussed the turbulent relationship between Sandor Ferenczi, who is recognized as the father of Relational Psychoanalysis, and Sigmund Freud, but also listed many of Ferenczi’s theoretical and clinical contributions which, after being ignored for years, are now acknowledged. Ferenczi is also a name whom Prof. Zileli felt close to in her clinical practice, and whom she frequently referred to during her supervisions. After this session, Prof. Michael Buchholz, faculty of IPU-Berlin and a member of the DPG, gave his presentation called “Above All, the Ego is Embodied-Freud and the Metaphors of Emotional Movement”. In this presentation, Prof. Buchholz revealed the important contribution of German way of thinking on psychoanalytic understanding and scientific research design. After explaining the cognitive-linguistic theory of the metaphor to clarify what a metaphor is and how it can be brought together with human interaction during development, Prof. Buchholz used two case vignettes to surprisingly show that theory includes body as well, and how it can be used in clinical practice. At the last session of the second day, president of Psike İstanbul Association and IPA training analyst Yavuz Erten took a different path with his presentation “Gradiva, Revisited” and discussed the Norbert Hanold character in Freud’s review of Gradiva, which is one of the earliest examples of applied psychoanalysis, as a case in its own right. After a brief summary of the work and Freud’s analysis, he provided alternative interpretations by focusing on the propositions and determinations of post-Freudian psychoanalytic studies. As Yavuz Erten is also a name who played a significant role in Prof. Zileli’s acceptance to International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP) as a member and to Institute of Self Psychology and Relational Psychoanalysis in Italy (ISIPSÉ) as a training analyst and a supervisor, there is no doubt that Prof. Zileli would have enjoyed his presentation abundant with many rich associations.
The last day of the symposium began with the presentation of an IPA analyst and a member of Istanbul Psychoanalytic Association, Pınar Padar, titled “Dreams of a Gatekeeper: An Outline of Feminine Developmental Struggle”. Padar first noted that even though the myth of Oedipus (by Sophocles) contains important female figures, it has always been accepted as the developmental journey of an Oedipally young man. Afterwards, she blended the female representations in the myth with the dreams of “a young girl”, who was one of her cases, to show the unconscious background of the feminine developmental struggle. After this pleasant presentation which expressed the theoretical accumulation on developmental struggle unique to females in a genuine way supported with a detailed case presentation, president of the IPU-Berlin and a training analyst of DPV, Prof. Martin Teising took the stage to give his speech titled “Internal World and Its Outside Appearance: Psychoanalytic Reflections on a Case of Erythrophobia and Its Meaning”. Focusing on the intense and lengthy psychoanalytic process of a case who has a genetic disease (hemophillia), Prof. Teising discussed the complex interaction between unconscious fantasies and the real experiences stemming from the possibilities revealed by the prenatal diagnosis. This presentation which received significant attention underlined not only that investigating the unconscious fantasies, conflicts and traumas forming around the prenatal diagnosis process with the patient is therapeutically efficient, but also that the possibilities offered by contemporary prenatal diagnostics provides us many risks as well as individual opportunities. In the third session of the day, DPG training and supervisory analyst and the chair of the DPG Ethical Study Group, Dr. Karla Hoven-Buchholz, presented “The Object’s Dignity - Christopher Bollas ‘Vindication of the Real World in Free Association”. In this presentation, Dr. Hoven-Buchholz first made a general introduction about the life and work of Christopher Bollas, and then focused on his emphasis on the value and dignity of the object, suggesting how much the real object, the real person and the real act affects the mental life. Noting the way Bollas restructures the role of the reality principle, Dr. Hoven-Buchholz’s presentation awakened a desire in all participants to read the work of Bollas, some of which have been translated to our language. For the last session of November 18, a member of both Royal College Psychiatrists and the British Psychoanalytic Society, as well IPA training and supervisory analyst Dr. Elif Ülkü Gürışık took the stage for her presentation titled “Silent Mothers and Incest”, during which she discussed the psychopathology of the mothers whose children were sexually abused and their role and participation in the incestuous relationship, by providing dramatic examples from her case studies. Arguing that the mother’s passive or active role in the sexual abuse is a tendency towards reduction or denial, Dr. Gürışık evaluated the activities of the unconscious processes in mothers who themselves were sexually abused by their parents. Considering the number of incest cases which are becoming more and more visible in our country, this presentation can contribute to and guide clinical studies significantly.
After 3 full days, the 3rd International Leyla Zileli Psychoanalytic Symposium which, in her beloved friend Prof. Orhan Öztürk’s words, was organized to keep Leyla Zileli’s “utmost humanistic love, extraordinary capacity for empathy, and inexhaustible patience in the face of perplexing situations” ended with the closing ceremony. We are grateful to all distunguished speakers for reflecting Prof. Zileli’s interest in a wide range of topics from neuroscience to empirical research, her expertise as a medical doctor, and her masterful way of evaluating cases. We hope to meet again for the fourth time in this Symposium which we trust fulfills a significant need in Ankara.