Thanks to all our readers who returned the TAP questionnaire and to Joe Schachter, who designed it. Knowing the views and preferences of our readers is very important to the TAP staff. Overall, our readers seem pleased with TAP. They are positive about both content and format. They are most interested in coverage of APsaA meetings and events, and of professional issues. They request more coverage of controversial issues, more debate, and more dialogue about the problems and prospects of psychoanalysis in the United States and abroad. We will use the information from the Survey to help us chart our course for future issues.
We are pleased to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Topeka Psychoanalytic Institute and Society, whose members an graduates have played such an important role in the scientific and professional life of the Association. Six former presidents of APsaA had roots in Topeka. David Rapaport's work and that of his colleagues and students continue to frame the issues of many of our theoretical debates.
The article on splits in New York and the interterview with Roger McKinnon, former director of the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Medicine, provides both an historical and a contemporary view of the Columbia Institute. Both convey themes of continuity and change.
We hope that the special section on American practice, with contributions by William O'Brien, Jerome Biegler, Glen Gabbard, Malkah Notman, and Joseph Lifschutz will serve as a basis for further discussion of some very complex and important issues: confidentiality and ethical violations, particularly sexual contact between analyst and patient.
The December meeting in Manhattan is front and center in this issue. Glen Gabbard lines out the scientific presentations to which we can look forward. The centerfold section presents a sample of cultural events in the Big Apple during the week and weekends of the meeting.
Articles by David Carlson and Homer Curtis tell us about the expansion of psychoanalytic training opportunities at home and abroad. Morrie Peltz's piece on strategic planning may serve as a basis for discussion of the problems of organizational expansion and the directions it can take.
Finally, President Bernard Pacella brings us up to date on several important organizational developments and initiatives.
In the next issue of TAP we participate in the 60th anniversary celebration of the Chicago Institute of Psychoanalysis, with articles about its past, its present, and its course for the future.
A special section is devoted to certification, with contributions from Arthur Rosenbaum, chair of the Certification Committee, Don Buie and Morrie Peltz, co-chairs of the Task Force on Certification, Joseph Schachter, Marvin Osman, and others.
We will also be reporting on meetings of Board and Council and the elections for Secretary, Treasurer and Councilors at Large.
With this issue we welcome four new members to the editorial staff, Helen Bacceches, Jack McGregor, Robert S. McConaughy, and Richard Zimmer, and announce the appointment of two associate editors, Irene Chiarandini and Mel Mandel. We would like to express our thanks and appreciation to four staff members who have completed their tours—Joanna Chapin, Dan Jacobs, Lynne Moritz, and Janet Hadda. TAP depends on the efforts of its staff and the contributions of many members of our Association.
A rough count of the articles appearing over the past three years indicates that TAP represents the work of approximately 150 of our members, serving as staff, contributors, interviewers, and interviewees. From where the editor sits, this stands as a continual affirmation of the breadth and interest and the creativity of our members, and of the vitality of our organization.