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Dear colleagues:

As in every Christmas, we want to wish you the best. For the New Year as well, we want to wish you, and ourselves, the best, the sweetest, the least bitter, since the old year is leaving us with too much loss and soot.
As in each year that has passed, we have had a little of everything, but it’s tinted with oil. The skies are painted black from the smoke of the oil pipelines at war. We have experienced losses in and out: many of our colleagues have lost loved ones. But we will always have the solace of poetry.

CHRISTMAS CAROL

Hem bastit el pessebre en un angle [We assembled the nativity in a corner]
del menjador, sobre una taula vella; [of the dining room, on an old table]
el pessebre mateix de cada any [the same nativity of each year]
amb la mula i el bou i l’Infant [with the mule, the bullock and the Infant]
i els tres Reis i l’estrella. [and the three Wise Men and the star.]
Hem obert innombrables camins, [We have opened innumerable paths]
tots d’adreça a la Cova, [all of them heading to the Cave,]
amb correus de vells pelegrins [with news from old pilgrims]
-tots nosaltres- atents a l’auster caminar de la prova. [-all of us- attentive to the stern journey of the test]

I en la nit del misteri hem cantat [And in the night of the mystery we sang,]
les antigues cançons [the old songs]
de la mula i el bou i l’infant i els tres Reis i l’estrella [about the mule, the bullock, the Infant and the three Wise Men and the star]
 oferíem la nit amb els ulls i les mans. [and we offered the night with eyes and hands.]

I cantàvem molt baix, amb vergonya potser [and we sang very softly, with embarrassment perhaps]
de saber-nos germans [knowing we are all brothers]
de l’infant i de tots en la nit de la gran meravella. [of the infant and of each other in the night of the great wonder.]

December 11,
2nd Thursday, at 10 PM

Training Committee: the following seminars are now offered:

Seminar 2. Donald Meltzer’s work (Module B).
Meltzer’s contribution to Bion’s Row C: The importance of the historical and personal myth in the constitution of psychism and in the psychoanalytical practice (the Oedipus myth and the Sphinx, The garden of Eden, the Babel Tower, Ur…); Oneiric Life (Dreams, Games, Art)… ; disturbances in symbolic formation and in the use of the Myth.

Teacher: Montserrat Martínez. January 21, February 4 and 18, March 3 and 17, 2004, from 9:45 PM to 11:45 PM.

Seminar 6. Understanding Speech and Writing Disorders and their therapeutic approach.

Teacher: Josefina López Moreno. Every 4th Saturday, from January 24 to June 26, 2004. From 10 AM to 11.30 AM.

Seminar 7. Evolution of “Sensosensoriality” in the Primary Mental Process.
Teachers: Júlia Coromines, Jaume Aguilar, Josefina López, Llúcia Viloca. Every 1st Wednesday (except in January and April, when it will be on the 2nd) from January 14 to June 2, 2004. From 9:45 PM to 11:15 PM.

Scientific Committee:

The period for the submission of abstracts for the February congress is now closed.

Thinking about emotions

We received the abstracts of 17 papers for the workshops of the congress. You will shortly receive confirmation about these workshops in the program.
To date we have 20 registered participants. Please register as soon as possible.

Law regulating health professions.

The law that regulates them was published in the BOE on November 22.
According to the way the law is written, we think that it is unfavorable to the psychologist’s situation for his/her private practice as a psychotherapist. We have heard from the Official Association of Psychologists of Madrid, and we are now waiting to hear from the Psychologists Association of Barcelona, in order to take action on the matter. We will keep you informed.