You are cordially invited to join us for an in-person celebration and conversation in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy of the Austen Riggs Center.

Friday, August 9th 

2:00-4:00 p.m. Painting Belonging: Community Art in the Berkshires open for tours and conversation
48 Main St, Stockbridge, MA 01262

5:00-7:00 p.m. Welcome Reception at Berkshire Botanical Gardens
5 W Stockbridge Rd, Stockbridge, MA 01262

Heavy hors d’oeuvres and drinks

8:30-9:00 a.m. Welcome and light breakfast

9:00-9:30 a.m. Opening remarks

9:00-9:10 Eric Plakun, MD
Medical Director and CEO of the Austen Riggs Center

9:10-9:25 Edward R. Shapiro, MD
Former Medical Director and CEO of the Austen Riggs Center; Founder and first Director of the Erikson Institute

9:25-9:40 Jane G. Tillman, PhD
Evelyn Stefansson Nef Director of the Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy

9:40-10:25 a.m. Keynote Speaker: Robert Paul, PhD

Honoring the Erikson Institute’s commitment to the further exploration and development of Erikson’s psychosocial perspective, I address a question that is at the forefront of the concerns of many psychoanalytic thinkers and practitioners today, that is, what is “the social” and how can it be theorized in a way useful to and congruent with psychoanalysis in its myriad current varieties. Revisiting some of the key ideas on groups and the social from Freud to contemporary intersubjective and field theories, I then reframe the question as “what is a sociocultural system, and what relationship does, and should, an individual person have to it?”, turning to aspects of the thought of Durkheim, Randall Collins, Jonathan Lear, among others, and a totally different theory of mind that has been a focus of my anthropological attention, Tibetan Buddhism.

10:25-10:35 a.m. Q&A

10:35-11:00 a.m. Break

11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Discussion/Associations

12:00-1:00 p.m. Lunch

1:00-1:45 p.m. Roundtable 1: Identity and (Community)

Panelists: John Azer, MD

Hannah Wallerstein, PhD

Malin Fors, PhD

Moderator: Nancy McWilliams, PhD

1:45-2:15 p.m. Discussion/Associations among panelists and participants

2:15-2:30 p.m. Break

2:30-3:15 p.m. Roundtable 2: Community and (Identity)

Donna Elmendorf, PhD

Thomas Kohut, PhD

M. Gerard Fromm, PhD

Moderator: Samar Habl, MD

3:15-3:45 p.m. Discussion/Associations among panelists and participants

3:45-4:30 p.m. Generativity: Thinking together about where we are going from here: Open Discussion with Staff and Participants (Dan Knauss, PsyD, Katie Lewis, PhD, Alison Lotto, MA, MLIS, Jane Tillman, PhD)

4:30-5:30 p.m. Farewell Reception and Closing Remarks

Light hors d’oeuvres and wine

5:30 p.m. & later Cultural Activities through the Berkshires

For questions contact Summer Heller via email at summer.heller@austenriggs.net or via phone at (413) 931-5284.

Hotel Information: