The problems of psychoanalytic training in Cleveland (Newsletter, September, 1968) have provided the Board on Professional Standards with the most difficult issue of recent times. Although the Cleveland problem had occupied a great deal of time at the meeting of the Board held in Boston in May, the problem again came up for further discussion at the Fall Meeting in December. The Board devoted the entire day and evening on Wednesday to this problem and had to have additional meetings on Thursday and Friday to conclude the discussion and to take up other matters on its agenda.
It is impossible to summarize the lengthy discussion in a brief Newsletter article. The Board's conclusions were formally stated in a letter sent by President Samuel Ritvo to every member of the Association in Cleveland. The text of the letter, which was dated February 25, 1969, follows:
“The Board on Professional Standards at its meetings in Boston (May 8, 1968) and in New York (December 18, 1968) discussed at great length the situation which had developed in relation to psychoanalytic education in Cleveland. As a result of these deliberations it is now clear that at this time the only psychoanalytic training institute in Cleveland approved by the Board on Professional Standards is the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Institutee, Inc. (11328 Euclid Ave.).
“At the December meeting the Board on Professional Standards adopted the following resolution:
‘Resolved that the Board on Professional Standards recommend that the proposals previously presented by Dr. Rangol be accepted in principle by all parties in Cleveland as a method of working towards a solution of the present difficulty.’
Page 4“It is the sincere hope and wish of the officers of the Association that each member of the American Psychoanalytic Association in Cleveland will work earnestly toward a resolution of the current difficulties in the spirit of the resolution so that psychoanalytic education may develop further.
“May I request your active support in this endeavor.”
The Rangell proposals referred to are contained in a lengthy statement which was summarized, along with the rest of the debate, in a report to the Meeting of Members by Dr. Seymour Lustman, Secretary of the Board. This report will appear in the Minutes of that Meeting.