ABSTRACT
The administrative difficulties and unavoidable politicization of the administrative management of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) derived from tensions between the Executive Council and the House of Delegates and necessitated an entirely new look at the organizational structure of the IPA. An underlying consideration was a strong concern on the part of the British Society, the IPA administration, and within the psychoanalytic community at large that it would not be prudent to have two competing English-language journals. The major focus of this administration in 1999, however, was on the IPA Congress in Chile. In spite of initial concerns about the aftereffects on the cultural atmosphere of the country of the recent termination of the dictatorial regime of Pinochet, the Congress resulted in a very successful exploration of various scientific issues, including the theoretical and clinical role of contemporary affect theory within psychoanalysis.
