Dr. Rebecca Zinsher Solomon of Hartford, voted President-elect of the American Psychoanalytic Association at the meeting of members on December 17, 1977, will take office in May 1978 and become the 49th President of the Association in May 1979. The third woman to hold this post, she brings to it broad experience as practitioner, educator and executive.
A member of the American Psychoanalytic Association since 1962, she has been active in the affairs of the Association for more than a decade. She has been an Executive Councilor (1966-1970), a member of the Committee on Affiliate Societies (1970-1974) and Chairman of this Committee's subcommittee on Program. Since 1975 she has served as Secretary of the Association; and since 1976 she has been a member of the Task Force on Confidentiality and Privileged Communication, and a member of the Committee on Associate and Affiliate Members.
In Dr. Solomon's view, upholding standards of excellence in psychoanalytic training, the continuing education of the membership, and supporting meaningful input to the education of other mental health professionals are vital, ongoing concerns of the Association. The Association's maintaining good communication with agencies funding psychoanalytic training and psychoanalytic services is essential to sustain the necessary flow of monies, interest and understanding. Securing third-party payment for psychoanalytic treatment and adequate protection of patient confidentiality are other crucial tasks of the times.
Dr. Solomon feels that mutually enriching and fertilizing relationships with allied professions and related fields need to be preserved and enhanced, and that an important matter before the Association is how it may include appropriately trained scientists and scholars from other disciplines. A medical orientation has been personally important to Dr. Solomon as an analyst (she was an internist engaged in psychosomatic medicine, became increasingly interested in psychiatric problems, and went on to study psychiatry and psychoanalysis), but she feels there are other ways to prepare for psychoanalytic work that provide for sufficient clinical training and experience to make possible empathizing and feeling comfortable with a variety of psychopathologies.
Dr. Solomon is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis; Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Connecticut; Lecturer in Psychiatry at Yale University; Supervisor of Psychotherapy at the Institute for Living, Hartford; and in private practice of psychiatry and psychoanalysis. She has been Vice-President and President of the Western New England Psychoanalytic Society (1969-1971 and 1971-1973) and President of the Connecticut Psychiatric Society (1970-1971). She has served as psychiatrist and consultant to several medical and social service agencies in Connecticut; and she was, for many years, Lecturer, University of Connecticut School of Social Work. From 1961 to 1971 she was a member of the Connecticut State Board of Mental Health. She is on the Editorial Board of The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, an Associate Editor of The American Journal of Psychiatry, and she has published original articles on a range of topics.
A woman of great energy, Dr. Solomon's enthusiasm and enjoyments extend to interests outside psychoanalysis (gardening, cooking, theater … “everything”). Those who have worked closely with her comment on her friendliness and warmth, her lovely personality and smile, and her attentive, thoughtful, non-intrusive effectiveness.