Psychoanalytic School – Kutaisi 2025 Containing Destructive Processes (in Psychoanalysis and in Society)

Psychoanalytic School 2025

Containing Destructive Processes (in Psychoanalysis and in Society)

October 2–5, 2025 — Kutaisi, Georgia

Theme & Significance

This year our Autumn Psychoanalytic school in a warm and cozy Kutaisi is dedicated to the paths and insights that psychoanalysis offers for working with both individual and collective destruction. We will explore the importance of containing destructiveness — both in the analytic session and in social dynamics. The theme of the Kutaisi Autumn School is highly relevant in today’s world: How do we cope with aggression, anxiety, and destructive impulses in the psychotherapeutic session? How is this process reflected in a society where past traumas remain unprocessed and polarization is part of daily life? Psychoanalysis is not only a method for understanding and healing the inner world of the individual; it also plays a crucial role in comprehending the social processes that often operate unconsciously within groups and societies. Unconscious mechanisms shape not only personal pain but also collective behavior. Psychoanalysis provides a language to understand the symbolic logic of the motives that push humans toward aggression, brutality and which lead them towards what seems rational, but what is senseless and violent.

School Program Includes:

Lectures
Clinical presentations
Discussions
A workshop on ethical issues
Clinical seminars and group supervisions
Cultural excursion and a dance therapy evening led by an Australian dance therapist

Participants will receive certificates indicating the number of training hours.

Languages: English and Georgian with simultaneous translation.

Lecturers & Presenters

Jakob Ubbels

Child and adolescent psychiatrist, Dutch Psychoanalytic Society

Full IPA member since 1983, training and supervising psychoanalyst since 1994, former president of Dutch Psychoanalytic Society, with extensive experience in child and adolescent psychoanalysis.

Leontine Brameijer

Training analyst and supervisor, Dutch Psychoanalytic Society

Experienced teacher informed by Kleinian theories, specializing in young families and infant observation, co-editor of Dutch Kleinian papers, currently working on Freud patient biography.

Wouter Gomperts

Dutch psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist

IPA training analyst and supervisor, researcher focusing on psychoanalysis and ethnic/cultural experience, teaches at University of Amsterdam.

Khatuna Ivanishvili

Psychoanalyst and psychotherapist, president of Georgian Psychoanalytic Society

IPA member, co-founder of Georgian psychoanalytic societies, teacher and supervisor, research focus on trauma, aggression, and socio-cultural phenomena.

Nino Sesiashvili

IPA member, coordinator of adult section, seminar leader on Winnicott

Co-founder and training group member of Georgian psychoanalytic societies, active seminar leader.

Nona Nakashidze

Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, IPA candidate

Member of Georgian psychoanalytic societies, trained at Han Groen-Prakken Institute.

Emanuela Quagliata

Training analyst, Italian Psychoanalytic Society

IPA analyst, Tavistock teacher, editor of psychoanalytic works. Expert in child psychotherapy and eating disorders.

Detailed Program

The detailed schedule will be announced later.

Lectures and Presentations:

Pervasive Processes in Psychoanalysis – Jakob Ubbels (Amsterdam)
The Glorification of Rancor: On the perverse political style and the splitting within and between people – Wouter Gomperts (Amsterdam)
The Compulsive Repetition of Circular Movements Towards Freedom – Khatuna Ivanishvili (Tbilisi)
Clinical Case Presentation – Leontine Brameijer (Dutch Psychoanalytic Society)
Clinical Case Presentation – Emanuela Quagliata (Italian Psychoanalytic Society)
Workshop: Ethical Issues in Therapeutic Work. Ethical codex – Presenters: Nino Sesiashvili, Nona Nakashidze (Georgian Psychoanalytic Society)

Organizers, Contacts & Participation Fees

Organizers

The Georgian Psychoanalytic Society and the Georgian Society for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
The Kutaisi Psychological Service Center “Open House”

The detailed schedule will be announced later.

Organizing Committee: Tamar Azmaiparashvili, Lali Tsertsvadze, Nino Sesiashvili, Levan Goguadze, Khatuna Ivanishvili, Ilike Zakashvili, Nino Kiladze