The American Psychoanalyst is now three years old. In my letter to the membership in the first issue, I set out the tasks of the publication: to inform readers about important organizational events and issues; to publish articles affording insight into who we are today and how we have come to be; and to present The American to the broader psychoanalytic community, both here and abroad.
This issue of TAP is the twelfth to have appeared; the thirteenth, if the supplement on delinkage is counted. Our aim has been to produce a readable, interesting, and pleasing newsletter with a broad scope and as much depth as can be achieved given the limitations of the newsletter format. I believe we have achieved these goals to a significant degree. We have previewed and covered all the fall and annual meetings and related events. We have reported the proceedings of Board and Council biannually and have presented related pieces covering organizational and professional issues such as nonmedical clinical training. In the last issue we published a research proposal and an exchange of letters relating to the workings of the Committee on Certification.
To date, TAP has reported on three elections for Councilor-at-Large, two for President, one for Treasurer, and one for Secretary. I believe we have provided a valuable service to the organization by publishing candidates' statements. In twelve issues we have printed as many president's columns, two from Homer Curtis and ten from Mike Allison. TAP has also published contributions from officers of other organizations, including two presidents and the medical director of the American Psychiatric Association and the president of Division 39. These contributions concerning matters of mutual professional interest have appeared along with articles covering such matters as the recredentialing of physicians, confidentiality of patient records, low-cost analysis, the operation of institute treatment centers, child analysis, and psychoanalytic practice.
I am particularly pleased to have been able to include in the pages of TAP articles on the history of psychoanalysis in New York, in the southeastern United States, in Russia and the U.S.S.R., and in Prague. We have also run articles on the history and current functioning of eight of our societies and institutes: New York, Columbia, Miami, Topeka, New Orleans, San Francisco, Washington, and Washington-Baltimore. The coverage of San Francisco, which marked its fiftieth anniversary this year, was contained in a special sixteen-page section. Scheduled for similar coverage in future issues are Boston in 1993, Philadelphia in winter 1994, and Pittsburgh in spring 1994. The Chicago Institute, which celebrates its sixtieth anniversary this fall, will also have a special section devoted to it. Our hope eventually is to run articles on each of The American's 35 component societies.
Over the past three years, we have published interviewes with 27 prominent analysts, all but five of them members of The American. These interviews reflect the membership's wide range of interests and opinions. Important psychoanalytic contributors have included Harold Blum, John Gedo, Merton Gill, Paul Gray, Otto Kernberg, Mortui Reiser, Leonard Shengold, Ed Weinshel, and Robert Wallerstein. From abroad we have published conversations with Leon Grinberg, Ricardo Steiner, and Jacqueline Amati-Mahler. Our outgoing president, Mike Allison, was interviewed before beginning his term. This issue features an interview with Marvin Margolis.
I have indicated in this brief summary of TAP's first three years a few of the articles you can anticipate in future issues. In addition, I hope to continue and expand our coverage of The American at Work. To this end I have written the chairs of all committees of Board and Council soliciting articles on their activities. I had originally hoped that TAP would be used more by the local societies to report activities in their communities. Thus far, the response has not been as good as we had wished, but we continue to encourage such contributions. I believe strongly that a prime function of TAP is to keep all of us informed about what is happening in The American's societies and institutes across the country. I am of course open to suggestions from the membership about what it would like to see in TAP. Members may pass along suggestions through their local correspondent or contact me directly by letter, phone, or fax. To better enable us to serve the membership, I would also ask our readers to complete and return the brief accompanying survey; to refresh memories, an Index of TAP's first three years is provided.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the hardworking and dedicated editorial staff of The American Psychoanalyst and to Helen Fischer and her dedicated, hard-working, and efficient assistants. Without their efforts, TAP would not roll off the presses four times a year.