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| Reflections of 2002 Annual Meeting Mark A. Lumley, PhD Program Committee Chair The 2002 Annual Meeting was held March 13-16 in Barcelona, Spain. For the first time in the 60-year history of our Society's annual meetings, the program was held outside of North America. Our Society has an increasing number of European members, and nearly a third of attendees at recent meetings have been from Europe. So, the Council thought that it was about time to take the meeting to the other side of the Great Pond (with the added benefit of increasing the North Americans' empathy for jet lagged Europeans!). By all reports, the meeting appears to have been a great success. Abstract submissions were well up: we received approximately 450 abstracts for posters / papers, 24 symposium submissions, and 15 workshop submissions. The Program Committee selected the best 70-75% of the abstracts, 60% of the symposia and four workshops, and created a program that was packed with excellence in psychosomatic science. The committee's decisions to assign the highest rated abstracts to paper sessions, to have four poster sessions, and to create briefer paper and symposium sessions allowed for the best of our research to be presented, in a wider variety and pace than in the past. Attendance this year was about the same as last year's record of 450, but, as expected with the shift to a European site, the demographics changed. Attendees came from 33 countries, and less than half of the attendees were from the United States. Germany took the "Silver Medal" with 44 attendees, followed by Canada with the Bronze (n = 33). Other countries with substantial showings were the United Kingdom (n = 23) and The Netherlands (n = 21). This meeting also included a large number of guests such as spouses and other family members, who took advantage of the wonderful venue of Barcelona. The city certainly was impressive, amenable to tourists, and the weather was gorgeous. Not even the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators protesting the European Union summit meeting that was held simultaneously in Barcelona dampened the beckoning enticements of the city. (Of course, as Program Chair, I view this with ambivalence: the more attractive the meeting location, the lower the attendance at the sessions. But I guess I will have to learn to live with it.) The program had a number of highlights. On Wednesday, approximately 85 people attended the full-day preconference workshop on the Neurobiology of Emotion in Cardiovascular Regulation. Thanks to Richard Lane and Bill Lovallo for organizing another very educational and unique workshop. The opening ceremony witnessed a talk by David Shapiro, who spoke on the history and future of psychophysiological assessment, particularly ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. The inaugural Alvin P. Shapiro lecture was presented by Stevo Julius, who challenged us with the latest in thinking about hypertension and the role played by the sympathetic nervous system. The Patricia R. Barchas lecture was given by Sir Michael Marmot, who discussed the gradient (not dichotomy!) of socioeconomic status and health, and proposed the importance of psychosocial resources, rather than medical access or health behaviors, as underlying this gradient. The program also offered a stimulating and challenging Invited Symposium on Personality Theory and Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Health. Howard Friedman noted that many of us are in search of some holy grail—the mystical personality variable that affects health and that will end all of our searching. He presented alternative, more complex ways of thinking about personality's role in health. Graeme Taylor returned to our vocabulary a term that that is rarely heard at the APS meetings anymore—psychoanalysis—even though analysts founded the Society. His stimulating presentation of psychoanalytic thinking on attachment, mental representations, and affect regulation was a refreshing breeze to those of us whose stagnant notions of psychoanalysis are limited to couches or anal fixations. Tim Smith discussed both of these presentations and showed his breadth of knowledge by deftly pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of each. The program also included a well-attended Mentor-Mentee reception in which 26 trainees met over hors d'ouvres with senior mentors to discuss research and careers, a Case Conference / Grand Rounds which focused on clinical practice for people with ulcerative colitis as well as immigrants with somatizing problems, and four workshops on Saturday afternoon dealing with a wide range of topics. As usual, we had various recipients of awards and recognition. Susan Lutgendorf received the Early Career Award and gave a fine presentation on her research that melds cancer, aging, and resilience. Two posters (by Janet Sterner and Piroska Balog) were selected as Citation Poster Award winners. Twelve trainees received APS Scholar Awards and were given $500 each, and Xiongzhao Zhu received the first Travel Assistance Award of $1000 for a scientist from an undeveloped country. The Program ended with a very memorable banquet and entertainment. In particular, the Program Committee's risky decision to forego the usual band and dancing in favor of culturally targeted entertainment appears to have been vindicated. The banquet had over 300 of us in attendance (a record) and almost all stayed for a flamenco dance show presented by a marvelous troupe of 13 dancers, singers, and guitarists. The show was truly impressive—passionate, flamboyant, and powerful. Many in attendance told me how much they appreciated this sort of entertainment, so the Program Committee will be hard at work thinking of ways to provide a mixture of entertainment at next year's meeting to suit your various tastes. My thanks to all who contributed to making this a very successful meeting. Foremost, this includes the attendees for their stellar research and passion for the field. I thank the various members of the program committee, who worked diligently throughout the year to bring it together. Finally, my great thanks to Laura Degnon and Naomi Lithgow-Foidl, who kept us organized, pointed us in the right direction when tangents were appealing, and handled with smiles the numerous nuts and bolts of the entire operation. Plans are underway for the 2003 meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, March 5-8. We are striving to make the meeting even better. See you there! |