36th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference 

Subversion

October 1 - 3, 2026

HOTEL CHICAGO downtown, AUTOGRAPH COLLECTION®
333 N. Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL 60654

Awardees:

Nancy McWilliams, Ph.D., ABPP
Hans W. Loewald Memorial Award

Isaac D. Balbus, Ph.D.
Distinguished Psychoanalytic Educator

Peter Shabad, Ph.D.
Distinguished Psychoanalytic Educator

Please click Below to view:

awardee’s biographies

Conference Brochure

This year’s conference theme is captured in the Philip Guston painting in our brochure, entitled The Painter, a self-portrait that captures the obsessive, isolating nature of artistic creation and the artist’s role as a risk-taking witness to a flawed world. It’s a portrait of the artist as subversive truth teller, one who is seeing something that he isn’t supposed to see.

The theme of subversion feels especially timely now, in the midst of growing anger and apprehension about the state of the world. In the United States, the protests against what many see as a dangerous shift away from democratic norms and toward a more authoritarian form of government have reached levels not seen since the protests against social injustice in the 1960s.

Subversion is often viewed as sinister - a destructive force that undermines stability, security, and social order. But subversion can also be a catalyst for positive change. The subversive activism of the 1960s helped bring about landmark reforms, including the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act. And today, LGBTQ+ Pride marches in support of queer Americans and against homophobia are challenging long-standing oppressive norms deeply ingrained in our culture.

Of course, subversion can also occur in the psychological realm. Freud, perhaps the most influential subversive regarding the nature of the psyche since Descartes, dismantled the longstanding conviction that human behavior is largely motivated by conscious, rational processes. He transformed the world by introducing the concept of the unconscious mind, proposing that our desires, defense mechanisms and neuroses are driven by hidden, often primitive instincts that we are unaware of. More recently, Dr. Nancy McWilliams, this year’s Hans W. Loewald Memorial Award recipient, wrote that as the profession of psychotherapy developed over the past century it was characterized by beliefs, attitudes and values at odds with contemporary western culture. Echoing Michael Guy Thompson, she wrote that psychoanalysis is itself an inherently subversive activity.

Also honored at this year’s conference, each receiving our Distinguished Psychoanalytic Educator Award, will be Drs. Peter Shabad and Isaac Balbus.

And so, on behalf of the Conference Committee, we hope you will join us in Chicago and wish you a meaningful and enjoyable experience at this year’s IFPE Conference, Subversion.

M. Chet Mirman
Conference Chair