Loss and Hope

We live in a time in which our lives and the future are affected by continual and intense changes. New technological developments offer unprecedented possibilities for growth in every sphere of life. At the same time, armed conflicts and unremitting ecological crises pose a significant threat to our existence. A secure perspective for the future that has guided our actions for decades has been lost. How can we find hope in this threatening global situation? Loss and hope are of central interest and concern from societal, interpersonal and intra-psychic perspectives in the psychoanalytic sphere. The experience of multiple losses is of central importance in this regard. Every change invariably involves loss.  The experience of loss begins with birth. The first need that arises, the experience of hunger confronts us with the need and thus the search for something that has been lost. Moreover, every individual must come to terms with being limited in self-determination as well as with needing and being dependent on others. Old age brings about new perspectives but on the other hand unavoidable losses, through increased bodily frailty, illness and inevitability of death.  Freud described a way of dealing with loss and the fears associated with loss, as well as the hope of regaining what has been lost with the well-known Fort/Da game of his grandson. He threw a spool of thread away again and again in order to pull it back towards him by the thread attached to it. This enabled him to transform what he passively experienced, namely the loss of his mother, into active action and make what he had lost available to him again through his own agency.  This game is about loss and hope, topics to which we would like to devote ourselves intensively at this year's EPCUS conference.

On behalf of the European Psychoanalytical Federation
Charlotta Björklind, Anna Christopoulos, Annsi Peräkylä, Mercedes Puchol, Martin Teising

***

European Psychoanalytic Conference for University Students – EPCUS provides the unique opportunity to approach the psychoanalytic way of thinking by listening to prominent psychoanalysts, by meeting colleagues and forming networks, thus gaining perspectives into various aspects of personal development in a distinct atmosphere of learning, exchange and enthusiasm.

 

Presenters: Jan Abram, David Bell, Charlotta Björklind, Heribert Blass, Alberto Carrión, Anna Christopoulos, Johannes Lehtonen, Alexander Janssen, Anssi Peräkylä, Johannes Picht, Mercedes Puchol, Jasminka Šuljagić, Martin Teising, Hans-Jürgen Wirth

The full programme, list of presenters and complete information are available here

This conference is of interest to university students and recent graduates, especially in medicine, psychology and other cultural or language sciences.

All presentations will be in English.

The fee of 55 € is the same for in-person participants at EPF House in Brussels and online participants.

Venue: The House of the European Psychoanalytical Federation in Brussels, Belgium

Date: from Thursday 2nd to Saturday 4th of October 2025

 

For further information, please contact Frank Goderniaux: frank.goderniaux@epf-fep.eu, Charlotta Björklind: charlottabjorklind@hotmail.com, Anna Christopoulos: annachr@otenet.gr, Annsi Peräkylä: anssi.perakyla@helsinki.fi, Mercedes Puchol: mercedespucholm@gmail.com, or Martin Teising: teising@t-online.de

 

The full programme, list of presenters and complete information are available here

 

Please note that the registration deadline is September 15th for in-person attendance, and September 30th for online attendance.

 

Follow EPCUS on www.instagram.com/epcus_epf & http://www.facebook.com/epcus