The past year has been a time of turbulence in the American Psychoanalytic Association. Yet, as it came to a close with the meeting of the Board on Professional Standards and the Executive Council in Miami Beach in May, there was a positive and constructive atmosphere. The immediate turbulence was behind and the Association was taking stock of the tasks which lie ahead. I would like to highlight some of these.
One of the objectives which we have to keep in mind constantly is the optimal functioning of our Institutes in achieving the goals of psychoanalytic education. At the Board meeting in May Dr. Sylvan Keiser, the retiring Chairman of the Committee on Institutes, reviewed the experience of his Committee with the Periodic Review Program. In a frank report he outlined the problems commonly found in the organization and functioning of Institutes
which need our continuing attention. Dr. Reiser's report should be read by all psychoanalysts interested in education. If its insights can be put to work it offers possibilities for strengthening the Institutes and preventing future turbulence in the Institutes and the Association.
The Executive Council received and discussed the Report of the Committee on Scientific Activities chaired by Dr. Heinz Kohut, which was concerned with the nature of scientific research in psychoanalysis, what psychoanalytic research requires for its nurture and support in our Societies and Institutes and in the American Psychoanalytic Association. This report, too, will be widely distributed and should be widely studied.
Expansion of the educational and scientific activities of the Association in a time of inflation and rising costs has produced increasing financial pressure on the Association. A national organization with large responsibilities, a small membership, and no financial resources other than the dues of its members, lives under very stringent conditions in these times. While the membership of the Association must realize that periodic increases in dues will be inevitable just to keep up with rising costs, the leadership recognizes that we must keep our goals carefully defined and that we must assign priorities to expenditures of effort and money according to how well these efforts will further the goals of the Association. For this the Executive Committee is developing methods of availing itself of the continuing guidance and advice of experienced members.
The meaning and significance of membership in the Association must also occupy our attention in the immediate future. In recent years an increasing number of graudates of the Institutes have not been applying for membership in the Association. Various reasons have been advanced: the application process is too onerous; the application process is redundant after graduation from an approved Institute; the accreditation function of membership is less necessary for professional purposes than formerly because of the accreditation value of graduation from an Institute and membership in a local society, etc. The latter reason tends to overlook the fact that the present standards of training in the Institutes have been developed over the years by the Board on Professional Standards and that one of the implicit functions of the Committee on Membership is maintaining a continuing assessment of how well these standards are met and maintained. A more systematic and definitive study of these issues is needed on a nationwide scale. The newly appointed Ad Hoc Committee on Problems and Policies of Membership chaired by Dr. Jay Katz, will soon begin this study, which will untimately provide us with recommendations as to how various forms of membership in the Association can best serve the scientific and professional interests of psychoanalysts from the time they are candidates in training.
In Miami Beach I had the opportunity to meet for the first time with the representatives of the National Candidates Council. Although the Candidates Council was organized in the beginning because of the candidates' common interest in the tax issue it is now seeking to establish a national forum for their interests in psychoanalytic education and in their common problems as candidates. The meeting was an excellent opportunity for an exchange of views on how the Association might best welcome the candidates and meet their needs. I feel this was a most important new development for the Association which bodes well for the future and was a fine note on which to end the year.