Presidential Address*

Since I last served you in the capacity of presiding officer over your deliberations some years have passed, and I feel very differently now in resuming the office of President. While the psychoanalytic movement is still under fire, and I am by no means convinced that this is altogether a liability, still in the intervening years great progress has been made and I feel that we are now entering upon a stage in our development that is of very great significance and importance. It is to some of the problems which confront the movement at the present time that I will, with your permission, invite your attention.

May I preface my remarks upon what I conceive to be some of these important problems by referring briefly to the action recently taken by the New York group on the subject of lay analysis? In the first place I may say that it seems to me that the action so taken was probably the only action that was wise under all the circumstances surrounding this rather complicated problem, particularly as we view it in this country from the point of view of our social organization and our medical practice laws in the several states; and yet, as I have stated before, I doubt very much whether this action as it stands by itself will have much if any effect upon coming events. Lay analysis is being carried on, relatively speaking, rather widely and I assume this practice will continue; and I feel that we ought to understand that any pronouncement of ours, coming as it does from a small body without very much influence outside of our immediate contacts, will probably not modify the situation appreciably, especially as we know that there are lay analysts who are better