The Membership Committee proposed a new membership category for those who have completed an institute's full didactic curriculum, but who have not completed clinical training. Members of this group, to be titled Academic Affiliates, would include not only those originally accepted for nonclinical training, but also those who had been originally accepted for full training, and who satisfactorily completed their coursework, but who, for one reason or another, did not complete the clinical requirement. Finally, the new category would include individuals in psychiatry or other medical specialties with a special relationship to an institute, and an interest in applying psychoanalytic principles to research or professional practice. Dr. Greenberg, Chairman of the Membership Committee, stated that if all three of the categories proposed were to affiliate, the numbers are sufficiently small so as not to alter the character of the American; yet the rich benefits of interdisciplinary exchange would be facilitated. Applicants would contact the Membership Committee directly, but no one would be accepted without full support of the associated institute.
In response to a questionnaire sent by the Membership Committee to the twenty-six member institutes, half reported that they had programs for nonclinical training or partial training for qualified colleagues from other disciplines. These “special candidates” attend all didactic courses with the regular candidates, and upon completion, many are active in their respective institutes and societies. Many have some form of society membership; some have limited voting rights; and a significant number serve as faculty. All institutes that provide such formal affiliation responded favorably to the idea of some form of membership for them in the American.
Discussion of this proposal at Board and Council indicated considerable interest and some questions. Several objected to including as Academic Affiliates those who had originally been accepted for full training but who failed to complete their work. A suggestion was made that this category of membership should be by invitation only from the Membership Committee at the suggestion of the local institute; this would avoid any sense of entitlement from those who might want to be included but who would not be considered acceptable by the associated institute.
The Membership Committee plans to present the Academic Affiliate proposal to the institutes for discussion and response, and to then submit it, with whatever modifications, to the Board in December.
Dr. Charles Brenner of New York will be the recipient of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute's 1987 Heinz Hartmann Award, to be presented in the fall of that year.
Henri Parens presented to the Council a resolution regarding the psychological implications of nuclear threat authored by himself and his wife, Rachel, to be sent to the President of the United States and Members of Congress. The Resolution, approved unanimously, reads as follows;
The American Psychoanalytic Association considers that the spiralling nuclear arms race and the human and technological disaster at Chernobyl unprecedentedly heighten psychological tensions in the world.
As specialists in the issues of human conflict and the anxiety produced by them, we suggest that the Chernobyl accident makes us all highly aware of the possibility of accident in the testing and deployment of nuclear weapons.
Therefore, we respectfully urge that all possible avenues toward mitigating the profound distrust between the governments of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. be explored, including the vigorous continuation of nuclear arms reduction talks and the reopening of negotiations on a mutual, monitored ban of nuclear testing.
Noting the more usual custom of the Association to not take a position on social and political issues, Parens recalled that in terms of the nuclear arms threat we have made exceptions to this policy on two occasions in the past. He stated, moreover, that our colleagues in related fields have made more extensive efforts, and that recent events, including three nuclear tests by our government, technological failures, disasters in our space program, and the serious accident at Chernobyl, call for renewed action on the part of the American at this time.
The Seventh Annual Washington's Birthday meeting of the Puerto Rico Psychoanalytic Study Group, headed by Dr. Victor Bernal y del Rio, was held in February in San Juan. They were joined in a discussion of “The Interpretive Sequence,” by a visiting psychoanalytic group, led by Drs. Joseph Lichtenberg and Warren Johnson.
Named by Hartvig Dahl, Chairman, to receive research grants by the Fund for Psychoanalytic Research at the May meeting were Sander L. Gilman, Ph.D., of Cornell University on “Psychoanalysis and Clinical Psychiatry: Defining the Therapist”; Lissa Weinstein, Ph.D., of Mt. Sinai Medical Center and Paul Glovinsky, Ph.D., of Montefiore Hospital on “Variations in Regression at Sleep Onset”; and Patricia S. Herzog, Ph.D., of New York on “Conscious and Unconscious: A Critical Examination of the Psychological Concepts in Freud's Theory of Mind.”
The Fund's maximum awards are currently set at $12,000 each year for a maximum of two years for any one award. The Fund now encourages applications from institute candidates who are doing research, and from Ph.D. doctoral candidates to support dissertation research that is of importance to psychoanalysis. The Guidelines for Applicants, which have evolved over the decade of the Fund's existence, have just been revised to indicate areas the Fund does not support, including fees paid for psychoanalytic treatment even if such treatment is undertaken as a research project; payment for released time of a full-time practicing clinician; and private practice salary levels. It does support academic and institutional salary levels, however.
A broad view of research is taken by the Board, supporting in the past experimental investigations of infant and child development, studies of the psychoanalytic process and its outcome, and scholarly applications in fields such as history and literature.
The Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Society and Institute sponsored a weekend of celebration on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of its founding. After a cocktail party on Friday night honoring the founding members and their families, Saturday, June 7, was devoted to a morning scientific program reviewing the history of the Society/Institute, which included discussions of the political and theoretical events that characterized its history. Participants included Maimon Leavitt, Emanuel Lippett, Melvin Mandel, Leonard Rosengarten, Morton Shane, and Lee Shershow.
The afternoon featured a panel response to the morning's presentations by the noted historians of psychoanalysis, Nathan Hale, Ph.D. and Peter Loewenberg, Ph.D.
Barbara Rosenfeld, Trustee of the Assembly of the APA, brought to the attention of the Council the preparation of a new monograph of psychiatric disorders in which specific treatment approaches are described for diagnostic categories. The monograph, prepared by the Task Force on Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders of the APA, purports to present the state of the art in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. It emphasizes, according to T Byram Karasu, Chairperson of the Task Force, creativity, flexibility, and experimentation, rather than presenting a simplified and categorical approach to mental illness on the model of DSM-III.
Rosenfeld expressed concern that the APA was putting its imprimatur on the book, as if it were an official statement. She questioned, in addition, whether there was sufficient input from psychoanalytic groups, emphasizing that now was the time for such input, and alerting the Council and the membership of the importance of their active participation wherever possible.
Ed Joseph asserted that psychoanalysis has had little or no input into the monograph. He stressed as well the danger that the courts would use the book against the profession as the automatic criteria for treatment, similar to the way in which DSM-III has been used.
Richard C. Simons, President, confirmed that T. Byram Karasu, Chairman of the APA Task Force on Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders has agreed that drafts of certain chapters of the book to emerge from the work of the Task Force could be reviewed by a representative of the Executive Committee of the American. Dr. Homer C. Curtis, President-Elect of the Association, has agreed to serve in this capacity, reviewing “chapters dealing with those mental disorders for which psychoanalytic or dynamically oriented psychotherapy might be considered as appropriate treatments”.
The Newsletter asked Lewis A. Kaplan, Esq., of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Counsel to the Association, for an update regarding the current status of the lawsuit filed against the Association.
The following is the reply from Mr. Kaplan.
I am writing to describe to you the nature and implications of Judge Keenan's recent decision in the Welch case.
As you know, the plaintiffs' central claim in this case is that the psychiatric residency requirement is neither necessary nor relevant to the practice or teaching of psychoanalysis and that it therefore constitutes an unreasonable restraint of trade because it precludes psychologists from training institutes accredited by the American.
In July, 1985, we made a motion to dismiss the complaint principally on the ground that the area of academic admissions criteria is exempt from the antitrust laws, as they are based upon matters of professional opinion and belief and, in any event, are protected by the First Amendment. In opposing the motion, the plaintiffs took the position that the defendants' admissions criteria are not exempt from the antitrust laws because they are based upon anticompetitive economic motives.
On April 4, 1986, Judge Keenan denied the defendants' motion to dismiss, without prejudice to renewing it later in the litigation. In so ruling, the Judge rejected the plaintiffs ‘argument that professional groups’ activities never are exempt from the antitrust laws. Rather, the Judge held that on the basis of the factual record thus far, he was unable to determine whether such an exemption applies in this case. The Judge stated, in essence, that absent sufficient commercial motive, the challenged criteria would be exempt from the antitrust laws but that he needed further development of the facts in order to rule on that question. The Judge also rejected the defendants' First Amendment argument.
Judge Keenan's decision therefore leaves open the question of whether the antitrust laws apply to the psychiatric residency requirement, pending further discovery. In consequence, the litigation is now in the discovery stage. The Judge may yet conclude that the psychiatric residency requirement is beyond the purview of the antitrust laws. But even if he concludes that the exemption does not apply here, it would remain the plaintiffs' burden to demonstrate that the challenged activities constitute an unreasonable restraint of trade which, of course, we vigorously dispute.
Sincerely,
Lewis A. Kaplan
As a further update on the legal situation, Richard C. Simons, President of the American, contributes the following:
Discussions with the plaintiffs took place at a meeting on Saturday, May 31st, 1986 attended by the chief Officers of the International Psychoanalytical Association and the American Psychoanalytic Association. Possibilities for settlement of the legal action were discussed with legal counsels present. I intend to advise you of developments to the extent appropriate in regard to this important issue before the Association.
Richard C. Simons, M.D.
Seattle Psychoanalytic Society announces the annual $500.00 Fritz Schmidl Prize Essay Award for the best paper on any applied psychoanalysis. The winner will be invited to present the paper in Seattle Fall, 1987. Entries must be post marked by December 31, 1986 and mailed to:
George H. Allison, M.D.
2271 N.E. 51st Street
Seattle, Washington 98105