The 3rd IAAP Asian Conference on Child, Adolescent & Young Adult in Analytical Psychology
Connectedness VS Alienation:
Challenges for Youngsters Today
Preconference Workshop: 22 October 2027 (Friday)
Conference: 23-24 October 2027 (Saturday-Sunday)
Venue: Hong Kong SAR
Format: Hybrid (In-person + online)
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Contact: hkiap.conference@gmail.com
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The 3rd IAAP Asian Conference on Child, Adolescent and Young Adult in Analytical Psychology
Connectedness vs Alienation – Challenges for Youngsters Today
Hong Kong | 23-24 Oct 2027
Children, adolescents and young adults today are growing up in a world of unprecedented connectedness. Digital technologies and social media allow relationships to extend across geographical and cultural boundaries, while young people participate in global communities and encounter multiple identities, perspectives and possibilities for self-expression.
Yet alongside this increasing connectedness, experiences of loneliness, isolation and alienation appear ever more prominent. Young people may be constantly connected online while feeling emotionally disconnected from others; they may belong to many networks yet struggle to experience genuine intimacy or a secure sense of belonging. The pressure to be visible, successful and socially recognised may coexist with uncertainty about identity, authenticity and one’s place in the world.
The tension between connectedness and alienation touches upon fundamental questions of psychological development. From the perspective of analytical psychology, the developing personality emerges through a continuing encounter between inner and outer worlds, between the individual and the collective, and between the need for relationship and the movement towards individuation. Relationships with family, peers, schools and communities may provide essential psychological containment, while differentiation from these same structures is necessary for an emerging sense of self. Belonging may provide security and meaning, but it may also constrain individuality; solitude may become painful alienation, yet it may also create the inner space in which imagination, reflection and a more authentic relationship to the Self can emerge.
These developmental processes are unfolding within rapidly changing cultural and technological environments. Social media, online gaming, artificial intelligence and virtual communities are transforming how young people communicate, imagine, play and relate. Globalisation and migration bring different cultural worlds into close encounter, while changing family structures, educational and achievement pressures, questions of gender and identity, political and social conflict, ecological uncertainty and anxieties about the future all enter into the psychic worlds of children and young people.
In Asia, these tensions may acquire particular forms. Longstanding traditions concerning family, education, community and intergenerational responsibility encounter rapid social and technological transformation. Young people may find themselves negotiating between collective expectations and personal aspirations, continuity and change, tradition and modernity. Yet there is no single Asian experience: the diversity of histories, cultures, religions and social realities across the region invites dialogue both within Asia and between Asian and other cultural perspectives.
The 3rd IAAP Asian Conference in Child, Adolescent and Young Adult Analytical Psychology invites us to explore what connectedness and alienation mean for the developing psyche.
How are experiences of belonging, loneliness, separation and exclusion expressed in symptoms, relationships, dreams, fantasies, the body and creative life? How are identity formation and individuation shaped by contemporary forms of family, social and digital connection? What happens when the need to belong comes into conflict with the need to become oneself? And how can analytical psychology respond to young people who feel disconnected from others, from their own inner worlds, or from a sense of meaning?
These questions also enter the analytic encounter. How might contemporary forms of relationship and communication shape transference and countertransference? How can analysts and psychotherapists create a space in which connection becomes possible without foreclosing the young person’s need for differentiation and the discovery of an individual inner life?
We welcome clinical, theoretical, cultural, interdisciplinary and creative contributions addressing the conference theme. Possible areas of exploration include:
- attachment, separation, belonging, loneliness and social exclusion;
- identity formation, individuation and the relationship between collective expectations and individual development;
- family relationships, intergenerational transmission and cultural complexes;
- peer relationships, intimacy, bullying and marginalisation;
- social media, online communities, gaming, artificial intelligence and virtual relationships;
- educational and achievement pressures;
- migration, displacement and cultural identity;
- gender and emerging identities;
- trauma, social conflict, collective anxiety and ecological uncertainty;
- depression, anxiety, self-harm, withdrawal and other clinical expressions of alienation;
- dreams, symbols, myths, imagination, play and creativity;
- embodiment in an increasingly virtual world;
- transference, countertransference and the analytic relationship;
- work with parents, families, schools and wider systems;
- sandplay, expressive approaches and other forms of symbolic work;
- cultural similarities and differences in analytical work with young people.
These themes are intended as invitations rather than limitations. We particularly welcome contributions arising from clinical experience, as well as papers that bring analytical psychology into dialogue with psychiatry, psychology, education, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, literature, the arts and other relevant disciplines.
The Conference aims to provide a collegial space for analysts, psychotherapists, candidates, researchers and colleagues from related fields to share experience, encounter different perspectives and deepen our collective understanding of the psychological worlds of children, adolescents and young adults.
Submission of Proposals
We invite proposals for clinical papers, theoretical papers and poster presentations [and other formats, if applicable].
Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words and should be submitted in English.
Please include the title of the presentation, name of author(s), professional or academic affiliation, contact details and a brief biographical note.
Submission deadline: January 15, 2027
Online submission link: https://forms.gle/TmkdqVU8R9AADX7a9
Conference dates: 23-24 Oct 2027
Venue: Hong Kong
Presenters whose proposals are accepted will be required to register for the Conference.
Further information concerning registration, accommodation and the Conference programme will be announced in due course.
We warmly invite colleagues from Asia and around the world to join us in Hong Kong as we reflect together upon a central paradox confronting young people today:
TO BE UPDATED SOON.
Welcome from Dr Emma Ting Wong, President, Hong Kong Institute of Analytical Psychology (HKIAP)
The Hong Kong Institute of Analytical Psychology (HKIAP) is deeply honoured to host the 3rd Asian Conference on Child, Adolescent and Young Adult in Analytical Psychology on 23rd and 24th October 2027 in collaboration with IAAP.
We are delighted to build on the foundations laid by the first conference in Japan and the second conference in Taiwan, and to continue this meaningful dialogue in child and adolescent analytical psychology in Asia. Now, it is Hong Kong’s turn to carry the conversation forward.
This conference comes at a particularly significant moment, as HKIAP begins a new chapter as a newly established training institute. In Hong Kong, there is a growing energy to nurture new generations of mental health professionals from the analytical psychological perspective. We hope to cultivate this energy and create fertile ground for generations to come. The conference also offers an opportunity to bring together thoughtful minds and caring spirits, and to encourage dialogue and exchange, particularly within the Asian region. With humility and hope, we hold a shared vision: to create a temenos for our peers in the field of analytical psychology at this conference in Hong Kong.
In alignment with the IAAP Child and Adolescent Working Party, we have expanded the scope of the conference to include not only children and adolescents but also young adults, who carry both hope and our shared future. At this moment of rapid global change, we need to address pressing issues affecting the generations to come, particularly the rise of digitalisation and artificial intelligence. Today, there are more channels and platforms than ever for people to “connect” online, especially in the wake of COVID-related isolation. Yet it is not uncommon for people to feel even more alienated; even when people gather, they may not feel truly connected. Many now turn to artificial intelligence for companionship, reassurance and daily support. What happen to humanity in future generations? How do we navigate the existential questions this shift brings? It is therefore timely and essential for us to come together in person and consider how we may better equip ourselves in service of the future.
Rooted in this vision, we have shaped the conference to embrace a broad range of areas and modes of engagement across the conference days, including mental health phenomenology, clinical cases, research studies and professional dialogues. Through experiential workshops and events, as well as discussions with our peer institutes and societies at an organisational level, we hope to deepen connectedness within ourselves, and with one another.
It is our sincere hope to offer a temenos for growth, reflection, and collective work.
Please be our guests. We warmly invite you to come to Hong Kong and join us. Welcome!
Words from Yasuhiro Tanaka, Association of Jungian Analysts, Japan (AJAJ)
The 1st Child & Adolescent Conference in Asia was held at the Kyoto Research Park and via Zoom from December 2 to 3, 2023. It was hosted by the Association of Jungian Analysts, Japan (AJAJ).
The conference was dedicated to case studies, which form the foundation of psychotherapy. All breakout sessions consisted of case study presentations with assigned discussants to deepen the understanding of each case among presenters and participants alike. The case presenters were selected from various societies and developing groups across Asia. The cooperation of these many societies and groups made it possible to build the conference program. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all the Asian societies and groups.
At this first conference, there were more presentations on cases of child psychotherapy than on adolescent psychotherapy. In Asian countries, play therapy for children is popular, and sandplay therapy is often utilized within it. However, considering its global trends, the term “Young Adult” has been included in the conference title, starting with the conference held in Hong Kong.
In Japan, there is no distinction between child and adult psychotherapists, and most psychotherapists experience child play therapy, at least at the beginning of their training. It is crucial to experience child play therapy early in training to learn the basic attitudes of a psychotherapist, such as refraining from interfering with the process and simply accompanying the client.
Furthermore, even if one does not experience play therapy firsthand, having the opportunity to listen to child cases in case conferences or group supervisions provides valuable training for following the movement of images in therapy, as children’s play itself is an expression of images. Thus, child psychotherapy is not only important for those who want to specialize as child psychotherapists; it is fundamental to all psychotherapy.
The 2nd Conference, which also focused on case studies, was successfully held in Taipei in March 2025. This growing interest in clinical practice in Jungian psychology is deeply significant for confirming the identity of a Jungian analyst as a professional psychotherapist. We are psychotherapists, not simply psychologists; clinical practice is our true home.
I am confident that the 3rd Conference in Hong Kong will carry this momentum forward and build upon these achievements.
VENUE
TO BE CONFIRMED.