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This paper argues that there is a gap between intention and delivery when it comes to strategic decisions and that this is in part a consequence of the ambiguity associated with membership. Psychoanalytic organizations are rightly expected to support the standards and integrity of clinical practice but far less attention is given to the ‘needs’ of the organization. In times of scarcity such a split can endanger the future robustness of the psychoanalytic community.
The lack of sustained discussion or real anxiety about the fertility of our community is a constant surprise. Perhaps this has something to do with the status and influence that psychoanalytic ideas have enjoyed. Perhaps it is also a product of our age, status, and our real concerns about our own mortality. One characteristic of ageing is a concern to leave something of value to one's children. I do wonder sometimes whether there is not some disavowed guilt about the robustness of the organizational, intellectual and clinical property that we are passing on, and specifically its capacity to sustain itself, in difficult times, another generation.