Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues,
We are happy to announce that for the first time we can offer our plenary lectures in English and stream them live!
This gives us the opportunity to invite you to our 2023 Congress, which will reflect on the phenomenon of fear in human life and in our society.
And we think there are diverse and urgent facets that make this matter significant and highly topical in our time, therefore we would like to discuss it with you.
There are, for example, the increasing socio-political manifestations of fear that we can observe everywhere, as they can be seen in the subject of migration and dealing with the foreign (unknown), destruction of the environment and the climate, nutrition and pandemics or social participation and globalization. Reactions to these challenges, which many experience as threatening, are often radicalization, fanaticism, ideologies, but also absolute control, maximum self-optimization or even denial. And then there are the multiple forms of individual fears that can manifest as pathological anxiety disorders. The treatment of these challenges is a central focus of psychotherapeutic support. In addition, very essential and necessary is fear, which warns and protects us from a realistic danger, because otherwise we would be careless and lost. And finally there is an existential deep layer – fear as a companion through our existence. Because of the possibility that everything which is dear to our heart can also go wrong. We can fail in our endeavors or choose the wrong thing for our lives. Existential philosophers locate this fear as man’s encounter with the threatening void.
We can’t avoid it. You have to face this fact and deal with it. But how can that succeed? What do we need in order to achieve this?
Ultimately, we are faced with the question: when is it important to endure fear and to see it as a friendly indicator, even though we experience it as unpleasant and oppressive? And when is it necessary to overcome fear in order to participate in life and not to avoid it and remain petrified!
We look forward to you participating online the day of the congress or in the review, which will be available for 3 weeks for all congress participants. We hope that you can find something exciting and enriching for yourself in the wide range of offers!
We cordially invite you and look forward to seeing you again!