To the Editor of the Newsletter:

In a letter to the Editor, (November, 1971) Leo S. Loomie, M.D., states that the American Psychoanalytic Association can be distinguished from the American Academy of Psychoanalysis “by the fact that we have standards we actually seek to maintain and we have not lapsed into that kind of eclecticism.” Dr. Loomie is quite misinformed.

It is quite true that the American Academy has different standards from the American Psychoanalytic, and has different methods of maintaining them. Applicants for membership are required to have had training in an accredited Institute or its equivalent. This training must include successful completion of adequate didactic courses, supervision, and personal psychoanalysis.

Unlike the American Psychoanalytic, the Academy itself does not accredit Institutes. It requires that Institutes be accredited by some reputable outside agency, such as the Board of Regents of the State of New York, universities or university medical schools or by the American Psychoanalytic Association.

Maintaining standards for the election of individual members is carried out by a membership committee, which goes over the psychoanalytic training record of every applicant.

Since Dr. Loomie's letter could be misunderstood as claiming that the American Academy of Psychoanalysis has no or inadequate standards, I ask you to print this correction.

Ralph M. Crowley, M.D.

(Dr. Crowley, a Life Member of the APsaA, is a Past President of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis)