Since its inception in the late sixties, the Committee on Social Issues has been charged with the function of applying psychoanalytic theory to social problems and emerging social issues. Born in days of student unrest, with the name of “The Committee on Social Problems,” the Committee attempetd to apply analytic inquiry to such issues as marijuana and problems of police brutality. In the early seventies a position paper on abortion was accepted by the membership of the American Psychoanalytic Association. This paper formulated some of the ideas that spawned abortion reform.
Meetings of the Committee on Social Issues occur twice a year at the time of the Mid-winter and Annual Meetings. Most members of the Committee on Social Issues are members of the American, though non-members, such as social scientists, may be appointed as consultants or special assistants. Much of the work of the Committee is done by members of the entire committee working as a body, though subcommittees work on individual issues. Workshops are also used by the Committee to research selected issues.
Some of the most effective work of the Committee has been done by the Subcommittee on the Vulnerable Child using workshops as a tool to bring psychoanalytic researchers together to pool knowledge on such issues as battered children and aggression in ghetto children. The work of this Subcommittee has been so successful that it has been suggested as a model for other subcommittees.
For the future, there are several innovations that the Committee is considering. One such innovation is closer cooperation with the Committee on Social Psychiatry. Another trend is to work more closely with the Public Relations Committee in an effort to publicize the work of psychoanalytic researchers on current social problems. Another direction the committee might take is to stimulate the publication of popular books written by lay authors, using psychoanalysts to help them develop their ideas. Finally, the Committee on Social Issues plans to encourage the formation of similar committees in the affiliate societies.
Jerome Karasic
Chairman, Committee on Social Issues