British Psychoanalytic Association

18/06/2026

In this interview, psychoanalyst and writer Stephen Grosz talks about his latest book, Love’s Labour. In it, Grosz explores what our relationships can teach us when we learn to listen. From a woman unable to send her wedding invitations, to a grieving partner trapped in unbearable loss, to friendships torn apart by betrayal -these are stories of real people and real pain, illuminated with insight, compassion, and quiet wisdom.

Watch here:

Through stories from the therapy room, Stephen Grosz invites us to ...

16/06/2026

This Wednesday's Introductory Lecture (17 June 2026) will be on working psychoanalytically with children who have been diagnosed as being on the Autistic Spectrum [A.S.D.], delivered by psychoanalyst Stephen Bradley.

Stephen will look at the importance of play and the internal connections the child makes through their play; the importance of being a ‘container’ so the emotions and fragmentary emotional states can be contained and metabolised, thus changed and fed back to the child as ‘food for thought’, and how this exact process emanates from the early mother and infant dyad.

Book your ticket here (under ‘Apply’): https://www.psychoanalysis-bpa.org/training/pre-training/introductory-courses/

09/06/2026

What can dreams tell us about our unconscious lives?

Join us online or in person on Saturday, 13 June, for The Royal Road to the Unconscious: Dreams and Psychoanalysis, our 2026 Summer Study Day.

Bringing together psychoanalysts from across the BPA, the day will explore how dreams are understood and worked with in contemporary psychoanalysis. From Freud's pioneering work to Winnicottian and Bionian approaches, the programme will consider why dreams remain central to psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice.

Book your ticket here: https://www.psychoanalysis-bpa.org/events/bpa-summer-study-day-the-royal-road-to-the-unconscious/

08/06/2026

This Wednesday's (10 June) Introductory Lecture will be on Attachment Theory, delivered by psychoanalyst Anouschka Buettner. She will provide an overview of Attachment Theory, from its origins with Bowlby and Ainsworth to more recent developments. She will explore different attachment styles, the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), and consider Attachment Theory from a psychoanalytic perspective.

Book your ticket here (under ‘Apply’): https://www.psychoanalysis-bpa.org/training/pre-training/introductory-courses/

06/06/2026

In this podcast episode, Ariel Liberman examines psychic change from a relational perspective, placing enactment as a central moment in the analytic process. Far from understanding it as a mere technical error, he presents it as a shared repetition (by patient and analyst) that, through insight and the analyst's disidentification with the embodied object, can become a transformative experience.

Listen here:

"Psychic Change and Enactment: Some Reflections" is the work that Ariel Liberman offers us, to examine psychic change from a relational perspective, placing enactment as a central moment in the analytic process. Far from understanding it as a mere technical error, he presents it as a shared repetiti...

04/06/2026

Last call to get your tickets for tomorrow's BPA Scientific Event, Learning from the Experience of Reading Bion's Autobiographies.

This year's Debbie Bellman Memorial Lecture will explore how Wilfred Bion presents his ‘self’ in his autobiographical writings and how engaging with these texts can become a deeply personal and transformative learning experience for the reader.

The programme includes a lecture by Meg Harris Williams, a film screening, and a panel discussion with Vera Montagna, Vivienne Pasieka, Annelise Scappaticci and Alison Vaspe.

Book your ticket here: https://www.psychoanalysis-bpa.org/events/bpa-summer-study-day-the-royal-road-to-the-unconscious/

01/06/2026

Join us for the second half of term 2 of our Introductory Lectures series, where leading psychoanalysts and psychotherapists will explore a range of contemporary topics through a psychoanalytic lens.

Upcoming lectures:

• Attachment Theory – Anouschka Buettner (10 June 2026)

• Working Psychoanalytically with Young People Who Have Experienced a Depressive Breakdown – Stephen Bradley (17 June 2026)

• Trauma: A Psychoanalytic Perspective – Lisa Vaughan (24 June 2026)

• How Do We Think About Racism? – Philip Roys & Baffour Ababio (1 July 2026)

• Psychoanalysis and Creativity – Rye Dag Holmboe (8 July 2026)

All lectures take place online from 8.00 - 9.30pm (UK time).

Book your ticket here (under ‘Apply’): https://www.psychoanalysis-bpa.org/training/pre-training/introductory-courses/

29/05/2026

Join us for The Royal Road to the Unconscious: Dreams and Psychoanalysis, the BPA Summer Study Day, taking place online and in person (London, UK) on 13 June 2026.

Through presentations, dream material, small group work and panel discussion, the day will explore contemporary psychoanalytic approaches to dreams from Winnicottian and Bionian perspectives.

Book your ticket here: https://www.psychoanalysis-bpa.org/events/bpa-summer-study-day-the-royal-road-to-the-unconscious/

25/05/2026

“When I train candidates I always say start with Freud, learn the interpersonalist, learn the object relations folks, know from what you come, even if you want to be a radical interpersonalist, a radical relationalist, because having that stuff in your back pocket is organizing and creates an ideal to which you can aspire or choose not to follow, but at least you’ll know what you’re not following. My perspective on this stuff really comes from the idea that before we are free to break the rules, we need to know what the rules are and we need to be well grounded in them.”

Listen here: https://ipaoffthecouch.org/2026/05/17/episode-204-analytic-endings-when-enough-is-enough-and-when-it-isnt-with-joyce-slochower-phd-new-york

“When I train candidates I always say start with Freud, learn the interpersonalist, learn the object relations folks, know from what you come, even if you want to be a radical interpersonalist, a radical relationalist, because having that stuff in your back pocket is organizing and creates an idea...

20/05/2026

Our next scientific event, Learning from the Experience of Reading Bion’s Autobiographies, the Debbie Bellman Memorial Lecture, will take place online and in person (London, UK) on 5-6 June 2026.

The event will explore how Wilfred Bion presents his ‘self’ in his autobiographical writings, and how engaging with these texts can become a deeply personal learning experience.

The programme includes a lecture by Meg Harris Williams, a film screening, and a panel discussion.

Book your ticket here: https://www.psychoanalysis-bpa.org/events/bpa-scientific-event-learning-from-the-experience-of-reading-bions-autobiographies/