I am writing in response to some comments made about the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute and the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in the last issue of The American Psychoanalyst (25/2). I offer my own opinions in the light of my view of the history of the SCPI and with some perspective on and knowledge of psychoanalytic institutes outside The American (I am immediate past President of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis).
I am most proud to be a member of the SCPI. I joined the SCPI in 1961, an exciting time! Martin Grotjahn, Judd Marmor, Alex Rogowski, Norman Levy, Sam Eisenstein, Saul Brown, and many others offered a broad panoply of superlative teaching to those of us in Los Angeles who were interested in “nonclassical” analysis. The lodestar of the SCPI was Franz Alexander, an outstanding teacher, writer and researcher.
Until a few years ago, the SCPI was still referred to as the “new Institute” in contrast to the more traditionally oriented “old Institute,” the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Institute. The SCPI ws the first institute within The American to teach a course on the contributions of the great dissenters—Adler, Jung, Ferenczi, and Rank, along with the contributions of the various neo-Freudians. Our institute has always emphasized open-mindedness to new ideas. In the last issue of the American Psychoanalyst, Mel Mandel referred to the Klien-Freud dispute that occurred some years ago within the LAPSI. During “the great debate,” many of our own Kleinian members (some of whom, incidentally, later were attracted to self psychology) evinced considerable unhappiness over a number of administrative and teaching issues in our Institute but nevertheless remained as active and stimulation teachers, thinkers, and authors.
The SCPI excelled, from the 50s through the 70s. Its members occupied key teaching and administrative posts at local psychiatric residency training programs. Besides the superlative faculty mentioned earlier, Saul Brown, Frank Williams, Sherwyn Woods, Marcia Goin, Sidney Russak, Joseph Natterson, Marvin Osman, Howard Hansen, Charles Stone, and many others were outstanding contributors in this area.
The SCPI also has a long tradition of innovation and service in community mental health and social psychiatry: Bob Litman and Norm Tabachnick in suicidality; Saul Brown and Frank Williams in family therapy and child psychiatry; Judd Marmor, Harry Brickman, Rod Burgoyne, and the late Alex Rogowski as innovators in the Los Angeles area in community and social psychiatry.
In our tradition of openness to new approaches and ideas, the SCPI had Peter Loewenberg as the first local research candidate. Our institute has achieved a reputation for being a psychoanalytic model for the training of academicians.
In our tradition of flexibility and academic freedom, most of our group welcomed the important new insights of self psychology that appeared first in the early 70s, and a number of our students and members have become especially involved in its teachings. A majority of the initial membership of the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis are also members of the SCPI, including John Lindon, Bernard Brickman, Arthur Malin, Fichar Rosenstein, and Norman Tabachnick.
Personally, I feel ICP is a salutary development in the Los Angeles scene, and I wish it well! Over the years, through my activities in the Academy, I have had ocasion to observe the New York, Washington, and New Orleans psychoanalytic scenes, and I strongly believe that institutes outside The American have had largely positive effects on various aspects of local psychoanalytic institute functioning within the American! I believe that this will now be the case. I am confident that the SCPI will respond by continuing to funtion as a vigorous and creative organization.
Roman N. Anshin, M.D.
President-Elect,
Southern California Psychoanalytic Society