At its meeting on December 14, 1989, the Executive Council took further steps to separate membership in the American Psychoanalytic Association from the process of certification.
The Council voted not to accept the report of the joint ad hoc committee, chaired by Martin H. Stein. The ad hoc committee had been charged with the task of proposing how such a separation could best be effected. The Stein Committee, split over the wisdom of such a separation, voted 5/4 in favor of delinking.
Because of the division among committee members, Dr. Stein, in his final report to the Executive Council, emphasized the need for further study of the issue. After a lively debate, however, the Council felt no further study was warranted. The Stein Committee report was therefore rejected, and in its place the Council substituted a proposal made by Mike Leavitt (Southern California) aimed at clear separation. This proposal, whose wording had been worked on the evening before by delegates from the institutes of Boston, Chicago, Southern California, and Columbia, was modified slightly by the Council and accepted in the following form:
The Executive Council moves that the by-laws of the American are to be properly amended to provide for a class of voting membership for which any graduate of an institute accredited by the American Psychoanalytic Association is automatically eligible unless disqualified by reason of character. Such active members will have all the privileges and duties previously designated to active members, except as detailed below. Such membership will be processed by a membership committee of the Executive Council.
The provisions for certification will remain with the Certification Committee of the Board on Professional Standards, and such certified individuals will have those privileges and duties further specified below. Only certified members may vote on by-law changes relating to the Board.
As is presently the case, the Board on Professional Standards will continue to function autonomously in all areas of psychoanalytic education, institute accreditation, and individual certification independent of the Executive Council.
Only certified members may serve on the Board on Professional Standards or its committees. Training and Supervising Analysts in the accredited institutes must be certified members.
President Homer Curtis will appoint a new ad hoc committee to be assigned to present to the Council, at its May meeting, a plan by which the proposal adopted by the Executive Council in December can be implemented.
Dan Jacobs