4th Elvis conference focuses on dysfunction

The International Conference on Elvis Presley returns for the fourth year this month, and like its predecessors, this one offers a different take on the life of the King of rock 'n' roll.

"Are You Lonesome Tonight? Elvis and the Dysfunctional Family" is the theme of this year's conference, which opens Sunday, Aug. 9, with a reception and continues for the next three days. Admission to all three days of sessions is $30; single-day sessions are $10 each. The sessions are in the Gayoso Room of the Radisson Hotel Downtown, and you can register the day of the conference. For information, call (601) 236-4693.

"Elvis is one of the greatest, untapped resources for education we have in the South," says Dr. Vernon Chadwick, director of the conference. "Elvis' rise from poverty to the pinnacle of his profession, his vast democratic spirit of inclusion that brought down barriers to race and class in American popular life, his story and inspiration which continue to fascinate the world, even his personal struggles with addiction and depression, these are the credentials not only of a great entertainer but also of a great educator."

According Chadwick, the conference will focus on "a sensitive topic often too painful for Elvis' loyal following to discuss." Chadwick has assembled psychologists, health-care professionals and educators to examine Presley's cycles of depression, addiction, violence, boredom and obesity. The conference will examine whether these dysfunctions are the symptoms of Presley's own problems or a sign of a change in society at large.

"The period between 1957, when he bought Graceland, and 1977, when he died, was one of rapid modernization in the South that violently bent the social fabric of a belated, closed society," Chadwick says. "Industrialization, urbanization, civil rights, the sexual revolution and the grown multicultural character of American life all contributed to these sweeping social changes that turned Elvis' southern mansion into a lonely outpost on a hill."

To examine all this, Chadwick has assembled a variety of speakers, including:

• Dr. Richard Koenigsberg of New York City, who is a writer on psychoanalysis of culture and director of the Library of Social Science. He also is the author of the forthcoming Freud and Elvis: Psychoanalysis, Rock 'n' Roll and the liberation of the American Body.

• Dr. John Q. Baucom, a Chattanooga psychotherapist and author of The Elvis Syndrome: How to Avoid Death by Success and other self-help books.

• Bill Kirchen, former guitarist and vocalist for Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen. Kirchen will be performing during the conference at the Blues City Cafe on Beale Street.

• Dr. Michael Rodger of Germany, who was the author of the first full-length study of Elvis in German.

• Ann Milano-Cole of New Jersey, who specializes in the treatment of mentally ill chemical abuse patients, particularly with reference to the relationship between schizophrenia and bipolar disease.

  Other speakers round out the program, which runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

  The International Conference on Elvis Presley was founded in 1995 while Chadwick was at the University of Mississippi. The first conference received international attention, and was selected by US Magazine as one of the top media events of the year. The event moved to Memphis two years ago. The conference is part of the Institute for the Living South, an independent research, teaching and arts institute founded by Chadwick.