To the Editor:
It has long been my belief:
I. That the APsaA should play a more direct role in the advancement of psychoanalysis as a science, at least in an advisory role. My specific suggestions are:
a. That a Psychoanalytic Research Center be established with the principal aims of:
Serving as a central collection agency for primary data, such as a tape library, e.g., for analysis of phobias, depressions, etc. I suggested such a library at the special meeting on Research in Psychoanalysis in Boston in May of 1964. Such a library would facilitate concise formulating of systematic propositions.
Verifying, modifying, or rejecting various propositions in controlled ways—by content analysis, controlled studies. Some of my own team's recent statistical data on interrelationships of ego functions support clinical hunches on depersonalization, etc. Even such complex concepts as the oral triad, “halo, headache and vision,” or the development of musical talent as defense against noise sensitivity could be systematically investigated.
b. Assigning specific studies to individuals or groups to fill in particular gaps.
II. That the APsaA should appoint a committee to enable the Association to play a more direct role in psychoanalysis as a profession. Several problems and possibilities present themselves as likely areas for study and planning.
A course should be taught at the constituent institutes on psychoanalysis as a career. Such a course should discuss, for instance, the peculiar income basis of an analyst's lifetime, both in terms of financial and emotional implications, the effect of being an analyst on object relations and life style, etc.
With third party payment, peer review, etc., we need some standards of evaluation. At a recent lecture at the Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Society (March, 1974) I suggested that ego function assessment as we recently outlined (In EGO FUNCTIONS IN SCHIZOPHRENICS, NEUROTICS, AND NORMALS, N.Y.: Wiley, 1973) might be useful for objective assessment of therapeutic programs understandable to laymen.
The committee would need to address itself to the possible future roles of psychoanalysis in America. I have suggested at one time that psychoanalysts might function near the peak of the pyramid of a Health Mobilization Organization (HMO); and if so, we need anticipatory study of this and other possibilities.
Sincerely yours,
Leopold Bellak, M.D.
Larchmont, New York
Received September 23, 1974