The Resident Fellowship Program has enjoyed an extraordinarily successful second year. All of the Fellows attended both national meetings, one of them arriving a day late in New York with her five-day-old baby. All presented clinical material at one or the other of the Special Programs for Students organized by Glen Gabbard. The Fellows attended presentations and workshops, breakfasted with officers of The American, lunched with members of the Resident Fellowship Subcommittee, and dined with each other and former Fellows. Meanwhile, they continued their residency training, did research, published articles in the Psychiatric Times, had articles written about them in the New York Times, and are writing articles, chapters, and entire books. They have deepened their understanding of psychoanalysis and their commitment to it. Alexander Obolsky and Carrie Vigilante won Meade Johnson Fellowships, and Susan Vaughan a Lily Research Fellowship. Although being a candidate or planning to enter psychoanalytic training is not a requirement of the program, by the end of the Fellowship year all of the Fellows had either begun training or were planning to apply in the near future. They founded a Former Fellows Association, began a newsletter, will be chairing the Seminars for Students, and have begun making arrangements for group housing at future meetings. Somewhere along the way they found time to get married and produce several offspring.
Much of the credit for the success of the Fellowship in the past year goes to the mentors: Paul Dewald, Erik Gann, Judy Kantrowitz, Howard Levine, Lester Luborsky, Morris Peltz, Gunther Perdigao, Ethel Person, Stephen Post, Joseph Schachter, and Jerome Winer. They met with their charges, fed them, provided lodging when one Fellow traveled more than 300 miles for their meetings, discussed papers and patients with them, gave advice about research, steered them through the meetings, provided introductions, and in general made psychoanalysis more user-friendly.
The choice of Fellows from the applicant pool was as difficult this year as last. The applicants came from twenty states; at least four were foreign-born and four were graduates of foreign medical schools. One applicant identified himself as Hispanic, none as African-American, one as a survivor child, one as gay, and one as a lesbian. Two were in the Army, several were the children of psychiatrists, one was the child of an analyst, and three were candidates. A large number of them had received other graduate degrees before becoming physicians, and many had had other professions. Last year, female applicants outnumbered male three to two. There were nine female Fellows and one male. This year there were slightly more male than female applicants.
Of the new Fellows, six are men and four are women. Two were born and raised in Mexico
and one was born in Cuba. One is a graduate of a foreign medical school. They are in residency training in eight states. One is a candidate. Many have other graduate degrees. They include a former concert pianist, a playwright, and an actor. They are a gifted and dedicated group of young psychiatrists. During the Fellowship year, each will be assigned a mentor. Their fare to both annual meetings will be paid, as well as their room and board there, and they will attend both the regular program and events arranged especially for them. They will receive subscriptions to TAP and JAPA, and each will have a former Fellow as a sponsor.
This year a new program is being organized for those who were nominated but did not receive a Fellowship. The presidents of their nearest psychoanalytic society have been contacted and asked to provide mentors for each of them. These applicants are deeply interested in psychoanalysis and are accomplished young psychiatrists. The hope is that the mentor and the local society will acquaint them with psychoanalysis in a welcoming way. Because so many departments of psychiatry have lost their interest in psychoanalysis, the society presidents have also been asked to urge their members to encourage residents to apply for the Fellowship.
The Resident Fellowship Subcommittee, chaired by Elise Snyder, is a subcommittee of the Committee on University and Medical Education, chaired by Arnold M. Cooper. The members of the subcommittee this past year were Charles P. Fisher, Steven T. Levy, James L. Nash, Warren Procci, Harvey Schwartz, Richard Simons, Melvin Singer, Miriam F. Tasini, and Jerome Winer.