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This third volume of the proceedings of the Academy of Psychoanalysis opens with the
1959 Presidential Address by Dr. William V. Silverberg and the response of the 1959 President-Elect, Dr. John A. Millet. It is divided onto six parts: Surveys, Theoretic and Philosophical Considerations, Anthropological and Sociological Context, Developmental Observations, Clinical Studies, and Values in Therapy.
In the first paper, “Psychoanalysis: Some Present-Day Assessments,” Dr. George J. Mohr points out that with the emergence of ego-psychology there has been a tendency to de-emphasize the relevance of biological considerations. More recently, however, there has been a return to preoccupation with problems pertaining to the function of the physical organism in relation to psychological functioning. Investigators are repeatedly questioning the scientific legitimacy of analytic concepts and therapy. They are working toward the development of language which will permit real communication between psychoanalysts and other students of human behavior. His paper examines psychoanalysis as a unified theory of human behavior—as theory, as therapy, as research—in relation to the social sciences and in relation to the problem of values.
Dr. Jules H. Masserman, in “Comparative Research in Ethology, Biodynamics and Psychoanalysis,” points out that every encounter between analyst and patient could be a bit of research. He raises the question of any presumptive evidence of connections between the behavior of animals and reaction patterns of human beings. In electing to review ethological evidence with emphasis on instinct, social releasing, and imprinting, Masserman gives many examples of ducks, dogs, birds, chimpanzees, bees, fleas, starlings, elephants, and spiders, attempting by implication to illustrate parallels of dynamisms seen in man, such as regression and acting-out. His examples are many, cogent and often humorous. As an example of regression, he mentions the police dog which, havin