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Relationships are increasingly understood as evolving interpersonal engagements that are continually negotiated, sustained, transformed, and sometimes even relinquished. Modern forms of individuality, autonomy, separateness, and self-definition have introduced new challenges to the ways we understand family disruption, poor interpersonal satisfaction, and deep unprocessed grievances. The capacity to establish and maintain a sense of self while remaining emotionally connected to another has become an increasingly complex task.

In the quest to form an authentic identity and balance it with connection, issues of conflict and loss can morph into a more enduring state of disconnection, making alienation difficult to distinguish from emotional separation, differentiation, or autonomy. In this context, working through, forgiveness and acceptance create the possibility of moving forward towards reparation.

Furthermore, relationships are no longer necessarily confined to two people who share a physical, embodied presence. With the advancement of digital technology and artificial intelligence, relational life increasingly encompasses digitally mediated engagements, including a reliance on social media, interactions with virtual or artificial entities, and even relationships to imagined others. These modes of relating are increasingly being utilized as a substitute for intimacy, connection, and healing and individuals often find themselves alienated from both others and themselves.

The conference will explore current psychoanalytic thinking and clinical work in addressing these issues in individual, couple, family and group therapy. We invite papers and presentations that consider these themes through diverse cultural perspectives, recognizing that experiences of alienation, acceptance, forgiveness, family relationships, intimacy, and the use of AI are shaped by cultural, social, and individual contexts.

Submissions should be no longer than 600 words. We would like to invite submissions on topics such as (but not limited to):

• What makes a relationship worth sustaining?
• Alienation and estrangement in relationships
• Acceptance, rejection, and the need to be understood
• Forgiveness, resentment, and unresolved grievances
• Family disruption and intergenerational conflict
• Relational rupture, repair, and reconciliation
• Cultural diversity and humility in understanding relationships
• The role of culture in experiences of alienation and forgiveness
• AI, artificial intimacy, and the substitution for human connection
• AI and the therapeutic relationship
• What is lost and what can be found in contemporary relationships?
• Individual, couple, and family therapy in the context of estrangement
• Transference, countertransference, and relational repair