December's elections saw the defeat of a popular incumbent and a pronounced geographic tilt to the West, with a Coloradan and two Californians being voted into office. David Hurst of Denver was elected Secretary, defeating the incumbent Don Meyers, while Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer of San Francisco and Richard Fox of Los Angeles were elected Councilors-at-Large. Stephen Firestein of New York was returned as Treasurer. Unsuccessful candidates were Jack L. Ross for Treasurer and Fred Busch and Carl L. Davis for Councilor-at-Large.
A total of 1,022 ballots were mailed in, with only 11 members exercising their voting rights at the meeting itself. Three voters cast valid blank votes, for an overall total of 1,036 valid ballots. The number of invalid ballots was surprisingly high, with ninety coming in past the deadline, bearing no signature, or giving no return address.
Hurst expressed surprise at his upset victory over an incumbent, especially, he added, “a strong candidate like Don who has worked hard for many years, and has worked for change.” Himself a strong advocate of change, Hurst believes The American has been slow in making the adaptations required of an organization that must accommodate such a great variety of local needs. An active Secretary can assist this process of change, he holds, by ensuring unfettered communication with the local societies. Laughing at what he calls his propensity, as a onetime New Yorker who has moved back West, to indulge in mountain metaphors, he compares handling special local situations to riding a horse down a steep hill. “The rider,” he says, “has to give the horse enough rein, and must respect the horse's native sense and capacity to negotiate the terrain.” His philosophy, then, is to trust the local societies and institutes, while making available to them whatever expertise and knowledge has accrued at the national level—a lesson learned during his years of service on the Committee on Institutes. His excitement over the possibility of constructive change reflects also his experience in his own institute, which he has served as Director. In Denver this year, after three consecutive years in which no class could be started, twelve excellent candidates, half of them medical and half not, have been accepted for training.
Elected to a second term as Treasurer, Firestein believes he made an impression on the membership by having viewed his job as more than a mere “housekeeping” function. He has particularly enjoyed participating in the formulation of policy and considers the nineties a decade in which many crucial changes will have to be made. Lee Brauer's report on the survey on practice, he comments, makes impossible any avoidance of the painful truth that the profession faces extremely serious problems, which are only exacerbated by a new policy orientation regarding health insurance and a trend toward the elimination of long-term outpatient care, whether psychoanalysis or psychotherapy. In the context of such concerns, it is Firestein's “diagnosis” that issues such as certification serve mainly as a focus of displacement for a much more serious and intractable problem—an overall threat to the very practice of psychoanalysis.
One step in the right direction, he suggests, would be the appointment of a Coordinator of Practice Related Issues. Charged with responding promptly and effectively to media misrepresentations of psychoanalysis, this person would also disseminate information promoting an accurate view of the field. Another step would be a redesign, for The American, of the Ontario survey on co-morbidity. Prompted by the threat of legislation that would have eliminated psychoanalysis as a reimbursable treatment, that study demonstrated that analysts treat patients with very serious disorders and led to the defeat of that legislation.
New Councilor-at-Large Richard Fox attributes his election to name recognition earned through his work on delinkage. Like Hurst and Firestein, he applauds the recent changes in The American. Though concerned about what he considers a geographic bias reflected in the greater frequency of meetings held in the Northeast, particularly New York, he believes this may be changing. He wishes to make The American more responsive to affiliate and younger members. Alert to the division between members involved with education and those more concerned with practice issues, he welcomes current efforts to balance these interests. Drawing on his experience in the Task Force on Membership, he quotes a remark by David Sachs of Philadelphia, who once lamented that The American too often seemed to empower “experience over ideals.” Fox notes that in the early days training analysts were often in their thirties; today it is not at all unusual for analysts to graduate at forty. The result, he suggests, is a diminution of youthful creativity in the institutes, a lack compounded by the high proportion of Life Members in The American (prior to delinkage 35% of the total membership).
Perhaps most indicative of the winds of change sweeping The American is the election of Elizabeth Mayer, one of two Ph.D. analysts among the candidates. Running for Councilor-at-Large on a platform stressing scientific openness and interdisciplinary outreach at a time when increasing numbers of women and nonphysicians are entering the organization, she shares many of the concerns of her fellow electees.
In a post-election interview, President Bernard Pacella congratulated the new officers and praised the Exploratory Committee on Nominations and the Nominating Committee for having selected extremely capable candidates. He is certain that the new secretary “will perform superbly, as has Donald Meyers during his time in office.” Concerning Firestein's reelection, he noted “how hard Steve has worked,” and said he looks forward to his second term. Pacella regards both of the new councilors as “very dedicated people, of excellent judgment,” and anticipates an excellent working relationship with them.
President-Elect Judith Schachter, who takes office in May 1994, will serve part of her term with those newly elected. Speaking warmly of them all, she noted that her personal acquaintance with David Hurst dates from the time she was invited to Denver in 1990. There she experienced firsthand how a society and institute working together can drastically alter their position vis-à-vis the community. Told of Denver's recent success in attracting first-rate candidates, she remarked that that was one of her principal areas of concern, “what we have to spend our energies on: candidates, practice, the facilitation of government relations and insurance, for which we are going to need outcome studies and the combined efforts of many.” Commenting on the somewhat ill-defined role of the President-Elect, Schachter voiced her appreciation that President Pacella had involved her in tasks that hold particular attraction for her. One of these is her work with Paul Mosher as co-chair of the Committee on Computerization. Recalling the situation some twelve years ago, when she served as treasurer, she contrasted the massive job involved then in preparing a budget to the comparative ease offered by computerization. Praising Mosher and his considerable talents, Schachter said she looks forward to the project's completion. “Then,” she said, “we'll be in business.”
Hurst, Mayer, and Fox will take office in May.