The Executive Council of the Association has approved the admission of candidates to membership status in the Association. This action, taken by unanimous vote at the Dallas meeting on April 27, 1972, came after a Committee on the Study of Candidate Membership, chaired by Dr. Paul Gray, had recommended that this step be taken.
The proposal will be submitted to legal counsel so that a By-Law amendment may be prepared. This amendment will then be submitted to the membership for mail ballot vote.
The designation of candidate members was the occasion of considerable discussion in the Executive Council. In the end it was agreed that candidates should be called “Affiliate Member” and that candidates who have graduated but are not yet eligible for full membership under present membership procedures would be designated “Associate Member.”
Candidates in good standing who have been approved by their Institutes to begin supervised analytic work would be eligible to apply for Affiliate Membership. Affiliate Members would be eligible for preregistration
privileges at Association meetings, and could attend the Business Meeting of members with the right to speak but without a vote. They would not have the privilege of holding office, but would be eligible for appointment to selected committees after appropriate consultation with the parent Institutes.
Following graduation from his Institute, the Affiliate Member would then be eligible for the category of Associate Member. He would be able to hold this status during the two years which must precede his eligibility for membership as a regular member of the Association. Should he not apply for regular membership after 3 years, his associate membership would be terminated; but it is provided that one-year extensions could be recommended at the discretion of the Board on Professional Standards if fulfillment of full membership requirements seemed imminent. It is proposed that an appropriate annual dues be set for each of these new categories of membership.
It is generally anticipated that the Association membership will approve this By-Law when it is submitted. In any case, the action taken by the Executive Council is felt to represent a large step in the direction of greater participation by candidates in the activities of organized psychoanalysis.