The Association will conduct a survey of the analytic and non-analytic professional activities of all its members this fall, the Executive Committee decided at the annual meeting in Detroit.
Before reaching this decision, the Executive Committee had studied the Report of a Pilot Study, distributed to the Executive Council in December, 1966, by the Public Information and Social Problems Committees, which had jointly sponsored the project. Although the sample of the Pilot Survey — 148, or 11% of the membership — was geographically representative and
adequate for its purpose, consultants stated that it was not sufficiently large for the findings to be considered representative of the entire membership.
The smallness of the sample also precluded worthwhile cross correlations of data, such as comparison of activities and trends in various areas and analysis of causes for shifts in practice, etc. A sample of at least a third of the membership would be necessary for statistical validity, according to the experts, and a survey of the entire membership has distinct advantages, eliminating certain problems of sampling, distribution, and analysis.
The Pilot Survey, authorized by the Council in December, 1964, was intended to be a preliminary study. An overall response to the questionnaires of 74%, without intensive follow-up, demonstrated the willingness of members to cooperate. The sponsoring committees interpreted this unusually large response as indicative of a high degree of motivation stemming from the loyalty of members and their interest in the matters being studied. The Report contains some impressive data indicating the extraordinary activity of analysts in a variety of fields and giving some indications about the trend of shifts in analytic and psychotherapeutic practice.
Of the 148 analysts who responded, 142 had an average of 8 patients in analysis. Half the sample had less than 10 patients in psychotherapy, but a little over a third were practicing psychotherapy predominantly. Comparatively few analysts — 13.5% — regarded their treatment as analysis when the patient was seen less frequently than 4 or 5 times per week. Although 15.5% of the sample never use drugs even with psychotherapy patients, nearly a fourth of the group had prescribed drugs during the course of analysis.
“The influence of psychoanalysis extends beyond the limited number of patients directly treated,” the Report stated, “and its impact on the treatment of mental disease is suggested by the high percentage of analysts engaged in teaching, supervision, and research and by the importance of their academic positions. The contribution of psychoanalysis is to be measured in terms of its depth rather than its breadth, in the deeper understanding it affords with respect to psychopathology and the training it provides for other therapists, rather than in the number of patients directly affected.”
Although the Pilot study indicated that analysts are already individually active to a remarkable degree, 70% of the respondents favored more effort on the part of their psychoanalytic organizations to explore the possibilities for psychoanalytically meaningful participation in various community mental health programs.
The Central Office will mail questionnaires in the early fall to each member of the Association not included in the earlier study. A code number designation will permit follow-up but assure the confidentiality of individual replies. Copies of the Report of the Pilot Survey are available from the Central Office on request.
(See box on next page for samples of data in the Report.)
WHAT PSYCHOANALYSTS DO
LESS PRIVATE PRACTICE THAN PEOPLE THINK:
Almost 10% do no private practice at all
Another 10% practice less than 20 hours per week
19% practice 20-29 hours per week
33% practice 30-39 hours per week
Only 28 % practice 40 or more hours per week
MORE TEACHING AND TRAINING THAN IS REALIZED:
87% are on the faculties of Universities
72% are on the faculties of Medical Schools
65% have positions at or above the rank of Assistant Professor
20% are full Professors
17% have full time appointments
EXTENSIVE SUPERVISION OF OTHER MENTAL HEALTH WORKERS:
81% are engaged in supervision in a variety of settings
10 patients per analyst is the mean number of cases in supervision
PROVIDE SERVICES TO THE COMMUNITY:
26% are associated with Social Service Agencies
70% are on the staffs of various types of Hospitals
38% have participated in the planning of mental health programs at the local level and 10% at the Federal level
PARTICIPATE IN RESEARCH AND POST-GRADUATE STUDY:
32% participate in sponsored research projects
An additional third averaged 16 hours per month in non-sponsored personal research
Over half continue post-graduate education in study groups
TAKE PART IN ACTIVITIES OF PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS:
80% had participated in one or more programs of the Association or its Affiliate Societies in 1965
CORRECTION
In the April, 1967, issue of the Newsletter it was stated, in reporting the appointment of Dr. Frederick C. Redlich as Dean at Yale, that there has been only one other psychoanalyst in the position of Dean of a Medical School, namely, Dr. Douglas Bond at Western Reserve. It has been called to our attention that our statistics were off by some 50%. Dr. LeRoy P. Levitt was appointed Dean of the Chicago Medical School in August, 1966, so that Dr. Redlich was actually the third psychoanalyst to become a Dean.
The Newsletter offers it apologies to Dean Levitt for not having researched this matter more thoroughly, and we are happy to set the record straight.
68% had presented papers before psychiatric groups in the last 4 years
44% serve in some training capacity within their Psychoanalytic Institutes
9% were officers or committee members of the American Psychiatric Association
IN THEIR PRACTICES:
Conduct analyses of 8 patients
Treat 10 patients in short-term and 10 in prolonged psychotherapy
See 28 consultations during the year
15.5% treat children
(Based on the Pilot Study of the Professional Activities of a Geographically Representative Sample of 11% of the Membership of the American Psychoanalytic Association in 1965)