An Interview with Jan Wiener. Conducted by Linda Carter on January 7, 2024.

Jan Wiener is a Society of Analytical Psychology (SAP) trained Jungian analyst and Journal of Analytical Psychology Board member, highly esteemed in Jungian and psychoanalytic circles for her work as a practitioner, teacher, supervisor and writer as well as for her well-honed leadership skills, notably as a member of the executive committee and as a vice-president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP), the international organizing body for Jungian analysts worldwide. Jan has made remarkable contributions to the personal and professional development of Jungians not only in the UK but also for those involved in the IAAP Developing Groups programme where she has been a pioneer, providing cross-cultural outreach to those seeking training in Russia, Taiwan, Serbia, Ukraine and Denmark. Success in Jan's many-faceted and full life has been facilitated by a natural authenticity, good sense of humour, hearty laugh and a welcoming attitude; these attributes have significantly aided in bridge-building and opening space for creative interactions within and between individuals and groups.

The flux and flow of free-play and paradox.

This paper addresses the centrality of play and paradox for the emergence of symbol formation in the liminal space "between" the opposites that offer constraint on the analytic dyad. Complex Adaptive Systems theory is interwoven with Jungian ideas to consider the importance and, sadly, the diminishment of 'free play' globally. The possible relationship between the state of mind needed for 'free play' as similar to the state while in REM dream sleep is described.

A Jungian contribution to a dynamic systems understanding of disorganized attachment.

This panel emerged from shared clinical concerns when working with adult patients whose presentation style was reminiscent of a disorganized (Type D) infant attachment pattern. Psychotherapeutic work with such patients poses complicated transference and countertransference dilemmas which are addressed by all four panellists via theory and clinical vignettes. In common is an interest in contemporary attachment, neuroscience and trauma theories and their relationship to analytical psychology.

The transcendent function, moments of meeting and dyadic consciousness: constructive and destructive co-creation in the analytic dyad.

In reading the work of Beebe (2002), Sander (Amadei & Bianchi 2008), Tronick (2007) and Stern and the Boston Change Process Study Group (1998), resonances to the transcendent function can be registered but these researchers seem to be more focused on the interpersonal domain. In particular Tronick's concept of 'dyadic expansion of consciousness' and 'moments of meeting' from the Boston Change Process Study Group describe external dyadic interactions between mothers and babies and therapists and patients while, in contrast, Jung's early focus was on the intrapsychic process of internal interaction between conscious and unconscious within an individual. From an overall perspective, the interpersonal process of change described by infant researchers, when held in conjunction with Jung's internal process of change, together form a transcendent whole that could also be called a complex adaptive system.

Elder abuse--an ethical dilemma for caregivers.

The mistreatment of elders by their adult children, spouses, or other caregivers is a problem of increasing magnitude. We have few laws and even fewer policies to help caregivers identify and prevent abuse, partly because it has no common pattern, and partly because it so often goes unreported. Abuse can be intentional or unintentional, and as often results from failing to act, as from acts of anger or cruelty.