To the Editor:

I am writing to correct the inaccuracies in the May 1982 issue of the Newsletter. I refer specifically to the page one account of the meeting of the Board on Professional Standards of December 1981 and even more particularly to the headline “Board Approves Nonmedical Training…”

In all recent meetings of the Board when it has considered reports from the Committee on Prerequisities for Psychoanalytic Training or the Committee on Feasibility, the Board determined that it should not and would not initiate any such program without full consultation with the Council and the membership. The Newsletter's assertion that “The decision represents the culmination of several years of study and debate” is belied by the following paragraph from the Proceedings of the December 16, 1981, meeting of the Board, which points to the error of the headline.

“The motion was extensively debated. Some felt that it was premature for the Board to decide to approve the goal of nonmedical training. Others objected to specific plans for a mechanism for such an action. The concern was raised that the Board might be capable of taking an autonomous action and thus capable of embarking on a program of its own. The general sense of the Board, however, was expressed by the Chairman: The Board might express its inclinations, but has no intention of going forward on a program which might have wide and long-lasting implications for the Association as a whole, without collaboration with the Council and without action ultimately coming from the membership-at-large.”

Lawrence B. Hall, M.D., Chairman Board on Professional Standards