President's Report

The year 2000 has proven to be an eventful one for NCSPP. There have been numerous changes in the organization which I will address in this, my final report as President. There has also been continuity in many important areas. The interplay between changes and stability produced another year of exceptionally high-quality psychoanalytic education for the Bay Area. But before I get into the specifics, I'd like to address a broader issue that is affecting NCSPP.

It appears to me that there are two kinds of psychological professionals who need NCSPP's attention and concern. The first group is made up of those interested in psychoanalytic theory and its seemingly infinite value for any psychotherapist. This group has been well served by NCSPP during its 14 years of psychoanalytic educational offerings, and seems to have an insatiable appetite for psychoanalytic education. The second group involves people who are in training to be psychological professionals, or are potentially interested in going into the field. Lately, this group seems less interested in the fine cuisine of psychoanalytic study, and more interested in the fast food of our current psychotherapy marketplace. This seems to be driven by our modern culture and by the economics of managed care. It is this group of potential consumers of psychoanalytic study that concerns me for our future generations of analytic practitioners. If any of you are interested in pursuing this problem, have ideas about how to go about generating interest in psychoanalytic ideas at the more introductory levels of training, or are interested in teaching psychoanalytic concepts and its applications, please let me (or other NCSPP Board members) know.

In addition to changes in our audience, NCSPP's relationships with the different schools of psychoanalytic thought in the Bay Area are also shifting. Along these lines, there is a definite trend towards actualizing NCSPP's mission, which is the “encouragement of study and interest in psycho