The Chicago-based Institute for Psychoanalysis is giving APA members another good reason to come to Chicago in May: its Conference on Youth and Violence is scheduled for May 12 to 14, just prior to the official opening of APA’s annual meeting.

The conference will be held at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 East Washington Street, conveniently located at the corner of Washington Street and Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. It is cosponsored by the American Psychoanalytic Association, DePaul University School of Law, the Jewish Council of Urban Affairs, and the department of psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Medicine.

Early prevention and intervention efforts directed toward children at risk for violent behavior is a central focus of the conference. Experts will present state-of-the-art research on innovative violence intervention and prevention programs and research findings on biological factors, including genetic or congenital problems as well as delineation of environmental factors ranging from juvenile involvement in illegal drug trade to the lack of meaningful or responsible societal roles for teenagers.

Presentations will address psychological dimensions, such as what a violence-prone child is experiencing, what his or her actions are likely to be, and the relationship of violent acts to early personal exposure to violence.

Conference participants will have the opportunity to learn about youth violence from multidisciplinary perspectives, understand more about the causes of youth violence, hear about innovative programs to treat and prevent violence, and learn about available community resources.

"The fragmentation of efforts to address issues of youth and violence is a major threat to effective work in this area," commented psychoanalyst Robert M. Galatzer-Levy, M.D., conference chair. "By including experts from education, law, social science, and mental health in every aspect of the conference from its planning through its programming, we will help develop a unified community effort."

"The Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis feels that those who deal with the problems connected to youth and violence frequently pay insufficient attention to the inner worlds of offenders, victims, and those in the immediate school or family environment," said Jerome Winer, M.D., director of the Institute for Psychoanalysis.

The public is invited to a special forum on addressing the problem of violent youth on Friday from 11 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. The forum will be moderated by John Calloway, award-winning former host of PBS’s "Chicago Tonight" and chaired by Mark D. Smaller, Ph.D., a Chicago psychoanalyst.

The conference hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, May 12 and 13, with registration beginning at 8 a.m. Friday’s session includes a dinner and keynote address from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Breakout discussion groups led by representatives of community programs and institute faculty will be held on Friday from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. The sessions on Sunday, May 14, will be facilitated by institute staff and community leaders to help participants process what was presented and how the speakers’ work can impact violence prevention and intervention efforts.