People live by getting what they want in reality and fulfilling themselves. The reality in which we live doesn’t always work the way we want it to, and in fact most of the time it makes it difficult to get what we want. “Will” is what makes it possible to overcome difficulties and obtain what we want. Will in dynamic psychology is the ego function that decides a goal of need gratification, puts one’s own energy together, gives it a vector and maintains it toward its achievement, and guides themselves for action using various resources within the self. The “Will” is the theme of 27^th annual congress of International Association of Dynamic Psychotherapy (IADP).

How often do you move your will? How conscious are you of your will? When you do something as a routine, when you have to do it, or when you are forced to do it, there are many moments when you are not acting on your will. Since will is an ego function, it moves and stops moment by moment and we can move it, and there is a dynamics involved. We cannot capture the movement of the will by looking at the surface. Even when someone appears to be acting positively, it often happens that he doesn’t do it by his will since his action is not based on his needs. On the other hand, even when someone does something saying “I am forced to do it,” he often does it by his will, gearing his need gratification. The will is easily hidden. It is said that Oishi Kuranosuke, who was a leader of 47 ronin in Chushingura and had the will to avenge his lord Asano Takumi no Kami, repeatedly debauched in order to hide his will for revenge. While he deceived both his friends and foes, he regarded his remaining comrades as true and credible comrades, and with them he enacted his revenge. When we focus on dynamics, we can understand the movement of the will.

Patients with hikikomori, self-destruction, acting-out, chronic adjustment problems, and repeated escape, professionals who can’t get over the wall and burned-out executives, often hide their will or do not act on their will. Although they don’t change easily, when they have the will and begin to move their ego, they move towards improvement. In congress chair’s lecture, I would like to present what we know so far about what a will is, what conditions are necessary for its development, and what kind of interventions are effective. In addition, we invite guest faculties to give lectures on how dynamic psychotherapy and dynamic group psychotherapy are effective in nurturing and mobilizing the will.

In the setting of dynamic psychotherapy, psychotherapeutic contract between a client and a therapist requires that people who seek psychotherapy have caseness with which they admit their own problems and they have the will to tackle the problems on their own. In recent years, there are many patients who come to an intake session of psychotherapy but don’t admit their own problems. They are people who cannot ask for help, who are unclear about what they want help with, who complain that they have no problems but the people around them have problems or who seek help but refuse it. For them to have psychotherapy, it is necessary to help them admit their own problems and have the will to tackle their own problems for the establishment of their caseness. In this congress, we would like to have a workshop about the caseness and the will.

Will is the starting point for a shift from the statics that explains why one suffers from problems to the dynamics of how to change oneself to be what one wants to be. I would like to make this congress a chance that each one of us can shift from “why we can’t do well” to “how we do well” as a therapist, through lectures, workshops, research presentations and supervisions. Please join us.