The Committee on Public Information of the American Psychoanalytic Association has instituted a number of new projects during the past year. The first, just completed, is a survey of the available low-fee treatment facilities of the twenty-five established and accredited psychoanalytic institutes.
During the past year more than 2,600 persons consulted these institutes' psychoanalytic clinics. The total number of low-fee, analytic sessions for the year was in excess of 130,000 hours. The average fee was $8.69. Five of the institutes have an organized low-fee clinic staffed by graduates, while many graduates at all the other institutes and/or societies independently accept cases for analysis at reduced fees. One institute offers free supervision to local practicing psychiatrists. Some of the newly established institutes are planning to initiate in the near future a low-fee clinic for candidates and graduates. This survey suggests that psychoanalytic educators and practitioners are performing an important public service in addition to their other professional duties and tasks.
The Committee on Public Information has also been active this past year in developing principles and practical approaches to public information work at the local institute and/or society level. The object is to disseminate and share expertise and experience among those persons interested in public information. Representatives from sixteen institutes and/or societies met last December for a workshop sponsored by this Committee. The Committee feels that psychoanalysts are in a favorable position to contribute knowledge and understanding to a receptive and responsive public.
Another project of the Committee is to develop a card file, listing those members who are willing to speak to persons from the media on subjects about which they have some special knowledge. This project, which is to be completed in the near future, will provide a rapid means of facilitating inquiries from media personnel. Beginning with the Fall Meeting of the Association in New York, the Committee on Public Information will be assisted in its efforts by a professional public information firm, Rashman-King Associates, of Chicago, Illinois.
—David Dean Brockman