Aboriginally the conference began in 1982 as an informal event hosted by Antal Bokay, Ferenc Jadi, and others at Janus Pannonius University in Pecs, Hungary, who invited Norman Holland, Murray Schwartz, and a few other Americans to share ideas about psychoanalysis and literature with colleagues at the Budapest Psychoanalytic Institute. The next year saw the first formal conference, again at Pecs, with over 30 participants. During the return train trip from Budapest to Vienna, Norm Holland, Robert Silhol, and David Willbern hatched a plan to inaugurate an annual event, to be held in various European sites (specifically France in 1984). Robert bears unique historical status as the only person who has attended all the conferences. Norm and Andy Gordon continue to organize from Florida, aided by David at Buffalo (who constructs the program), and Robert in France.

Selected Proceedings have been published:

The 1987 conference: Compromise Fomations: Current Directions in Psychoanalytic Criticism, ed. Vera J. Camden (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University, 1989)

The 1990 conference: Literature and Psychology, ed. Frederico Pereira (Lisbon, Portugal: Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, 1991).

The 1991 conference: Literature and Psychoanalysis, ed. Frederico Pereira (Lisbon, Portugal: Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, 1992).

The 1993 conference: Literature and Psychology, ed. Frederico Pereira (Lisbon, Portugal: Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, 1994).

The 1994 conference: Literature and Psychology, ed. Frederico Pereira (Lisbon, Portugal: Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, 1995).

The 1995 conference: Literature and Psychoanalysis, ed. Frederico Pereira (Lisbon, Portugal: Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, 1996).

The 1996 conference: Literature and Psychoanalysis, ed. Frederico Pereira (Lisbon, Portugal: Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, 1997).

The 1997 conference: Literature and Psychoanalysis, ed. Frederico Pereira (Lisbon, Portugal: Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, 1998).

The 1998 conference: Literature and Psychoanalysis, ed. Frederico Pereira (Lisbon, Portugal: Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, 1999).

The 1999 conference: Literature and Psychoanalysis, ed. Frederico Pereira (Lisbon, Portugal: Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, 2001).

Copies of the 1987 conference proceedings may be obtained by contacting Kent State University Press. Copies of the other proceedings may be obtained by contacting Frederico Pereira: fpereira@ispa.pt, or fpereira@meganet.pt

CONFERENCE CHRONOLOGY