The Denver Psychoanalytic Society, established in 1962, has a rich history. Over the years, membership has grown as analysts relocated here and as the Denver Institute began to produce graduates in 1974. The reputation of psychoanalysis as a treatment modality grew within the University of Colorado Department of Psychiatry under the leadership of the recently deceased Herbert S. Gaskill, and was reflected in a high level of interest within the general mental health community. Scientific programs and Extension Division courses offered by the Society were routinely well attended.
However, during the 1970s and early 1980s an unrecognized tendency toward elitism and perfectionistic training expectations, coupled with an inattentiveness to the conflicts they engendered in many analyses and training analyses, served to dampen this enthusiasm. Disaffection among former patients, rejected applicants for training, and even some graduates peaked at a most inopportune time, just as an economic downturn hit Denver in the late eighties and managed care began to reduce the mental health benefits available through insurance programs. This combination of factors significantly decreased the local interest in psychoanalytic treatment, meetings, and training.
Not surprisingly, Herb Gaskill and other senior analysts, listening to the complaints of trainees and former patients, diagnosed the problem and actively set about to correct it. The situation was not peculiar to Denver, or even to psychoanalysis. Mid-course corrections are perhaps inevitable for every growing institution. Recovering from the experience, however, has required the thoughtful
and patient expenditure of considerable energy by our membership. In addition to expanding the repertoire of psychoanalytic technique, we have repaired old bridges and built new ones by working collaboratively with other disciplines and cosponsoring programs with other professional societies. The Denver Society now cosponsors two training programs with the Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis—the Advanced Psychotherapy Seminars and the Psychodynamic Psychotherapies Program. Members of the Society, under the direction of the Extension Division, teach courses on topics of interest to mental health practitioners and others, and new courses are being developed on Counseling Skills for the Family Practitioner, Management of Aggression in the Practice of Law, and the Application of Psychoanalytic Principles to Play Therapy.
We have learned the hard way that good offerings go nowhere without proper communication. We have therefore upgraded our newsletter and made it available to as many interested parties as possible. Along with the usual reports of scientific meetings, we present feature interviews with well-known psychoanalysts, reports on other meetings of interest, and book reviews. (TAP readers interested in being on the mailing list are encouraged to contact the Society office for a subscription.) Efforts such as these require considerable work by talented and committed individuals with good interpersonal skills.
In an effort to infuse the Society with new ideas and enthusiasm, we have reorganized our membership structure to increase and enrich our ranks. Although active membership is restricted to graduates of institutes approved by The American, associate membership will soon be available to graduates of other formal analytic training programs. Practitioners with some analytic training, or who consider themselves analytically informed, will be eligible to become special members, while candidates in any formally organized analytic training program can join as affiliate members.
We feel we are beginning to emerge, humbler and wiser, from a painful but growth-promoting experience. Increased public interest in the importance of childhood developmental experiences, particularly as they relate to trauma, is helping in this rebuilding process. The recent formation of another psychoanalytic training center and society here in Denver, under the auspices of Section 39 of the American Psychological Association, has helped revive the local enthusiasm for psychoanalysis. We feel the competition between the two facilities is a healthy incentive for both.