Dr. Irwin Solomon, Chairman of the Committee on Certification, requested that the Board approve 17 applicants for certification. He specified that of these 17, six were approved in what is now termed part one of the certification procedure; that is, approved on the basis of written material alone. Another 11 were approved as an outcome of part two of that procedure; that is, after a review of additional requested written material and/or an interview with the applicant conducted by two members of the Certification Committee.
Solomon stated that at the current meeting 13 new applications were received, and that they ranged in quality, with some failing to provide information needed to accurately assess the applicant's analytic work. Material is required to show how the analyst works, how dreams are analyzed, how transference, resistance, and defense are dealt with. When jargon is relied on in the place of description, Solomon commented, more is concealed than revealed. He advised that institutes should help candidates to improve in their capacity to communicate in writing the analytic process as it occurs in the analyses they conduct.
Solomon ended his report to the Board with a description of a proposed change in the certification process unanimously supported by the Committee. Currently at each meeting two institutes are invited to send a representative to serve as a participant-observer of the certification process, facilitating understanding on the part of member institutes regarding the Committee's work. This procedure, which has met with considerable success, will be expanded and enhanced in several ways. First, three institutes rather than two will be invited to send representatives to each meeting, thus reducing the overall rotation period for the member institute from six to four years. Second, each representative will be integrated into an assessment team, carrying out the full responsibilities of that team including participating in the voting procedures, and, at the next meeting, in follow-up interviews. Third, these representatives will be invited to join a panel of consultants to serve in the future to interview and assess the routine applicant, and to function as a part of an ombudsman committee where difficulties have emerged in the application process. Solomon indicated that this proposal is an instance of the ongoing evolution of his Committee's functioning.