A major threat to the development of psychoanalysis is posed by the rapidly changing demographics of medicine and psychiatry in the United States. The three articles that make up this issue's special section on American Education detail the efforts of our association and its members to assure a steady stream of bright and enthusiastic applicants, both medical and nonmedical, for training in psychoanalysis. Clearly the Resident Fellowship Program, described by Elise Snyder in this issues lead article, is one of the most successful and vital programs of The American. Snyder tells us that by the end of the first fellowship year every one of the fellows was planning to apply for analytic training. These young clinicians are our future. Deborah Cabaniss's “Call to Arms” reminds us that successful recruitment for analytic training must begin in medical school. Her plea is for greater involvement of psychoanalysts in medical school training. Glen Gabbard, in his article, describes some of the residency training programs across the country in which a commitment to psychodynamic teaching is being fostered by members of The American. These colleagues deserve our thanks and recognition, and we hope their ranks swell.
In sum, these three articles emphasize the necessity—and the positive outcome—of our involvement at all three way stations on the career path of a psychoanalyst-to-be: medical school, psychiatric residency, and postresidency fellowship.
An important focus of the articles in this section is efforts by The American and its leadership to meet the administrative and professional challenges of the present and to plan for the future. Paul Mosher describes how The American, both as an organization and as represented by individual members, is entering the computer age and enjoying its benefits. Norman Clemens details efforts by CGR1 to give psychoanalysis a voice in the debate on national health care reform, a voice that is heard in the White House and on Capitol Hill. Finally, Mel Mandel reports on last June's Sante Fe “think tank” conference, at which eighty members of the association grappled with the complex issues posed by our future—professional, educational, organizational, and scientific.
We are pleased to feature in this issue five individuals who have made important contributions to psychoanalysis and the communities we serve. Bruce Sklarew is a pioneer who has developed programs bringing together film critics, moviemakers, and psychoanalytic cinema buffs, of whom, I am sure, there are many. Last December, Sylvia Brody was awarded honorary membership in The American for her contributions to the study of child development. Her interview here recounts a fascinating professional journey, one that promises to yield a continuing stream of insights into parenting and character development. Bryce Boyer is a psychoanalytic singularity, an analyst and anthropologist who has done psychoanalytic psychotherapy with the Apache and conducted fieldwork in Peru, Alaska, and Finland. Stephen Sonnenberg, coeditor with Boyer of The Psychoanalytic Study of Society, is an interdisciplinary researcher in his own right—his subject, the U.S.-Soviet nuclear relationship. Finally, Norman Straker is a psychoanalyst and psycho-oncologist whose work, like that of the others, takes him outside of the usual confines of psychoanalytic practice. His recent documentary, On the Edge of Being: When Doctors Confront Cancer, has won an international film competition and is now eligible for an Oscar nomination.
Robert Bergman's sensitive review of Calvin Trillin's book about his friend Roger Hansen is bound to evoke parallels to another recent suicide of a prominent figure, that of Vincent Foster, assistant counsel to President Clinton. Both cases are sobering reminders for us as caregivers that what we know, what we do, and how well we do it can be a matter of life or death.
Arnold Richards