President's Report

On the Reported Death of Psychoanalysis

As the status and future of psychoanalysis as a viable profession continues to be debated in virtually every other psychoanalytic community in the world, the Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology continues to enjoy unprecedented growth and prosperity in the San Francisco Bay Area. For reasons that are not entirely obvious, while the demand for psychoanalytic training and treatment in communities such as New York, Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles continues to shrink, the membership in NCSPP has increased over the past two years from about 400 to 600 members, with a vast array of educational programs that are often over-subscribed. Much of the credit for this anomaly is due to the extraordinary leadership that NCSPP has enjoyed over the past two years with the dynamic presidencies of Barbara Blasdel and Bart Magee, my two most immediate predecessors.

During the past year, NCSPP has broken new ground on a number of important activities. The Boards of NCSPP and PINC ratified a new agreement cementing the “special relationship” between these two vital organizations as they embark together on a new collaboration for NCSPP's Intensive Study Group series in San Francisco, the East Bay, and South Bay communities. Wendy von Wiederhold, last year's Chair of the San Francisco/East Bay ISG, will now co-chair that committee with Sue Saperstein from PINC. The ISG is now a true collaboration between PINC and NCSPP with the addition of new committee members from both organizations.

Another brand new facet of the NCSPP Board's activities is the Speakers Bureau. Over the past year it has evolved from an ad hoc committee to its new home as an integral part of NCSPP's Membership Committee, with Tom Cicciarelli as the new Chair, succeeding Billie Lee Violette, who stepped down at the end of 2002. Billie played a vital role in getting the Speakers Bureau off the ground and must be credited for having served as the inspiration for it