Historically, clinical social workers practicing psychoanalysis have made a unique contribution to mental health services through the application of psychoanalysis, both as a theory and as a treatment, to society and the individual. Clinical social workers treat a broad population of patients psychoanalytically, in a multitude of public and private settings and in diverse social conditions.
Before formal training in psychoanalysis was available to clinical social workers, for whom a professional analytic identity did not yet exist, the educational giants of the field—among them Lucille Austin, Yonata Feldman, Mary Jarrett, Gordon Hamilton, and Florence Hollis—pursued analytic training on their own. These pioneers persevered and ultimately were responsible for the delivery of quality psychoanalytic services in family agencies and child guidance clinics throughout the country.
In 1980 Crayton E. Rowe, Jr., recognizing the pressing need of clinical social workers with a specialty in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy for an institutional home within the social work profession, founded the National Membership Committee on Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work. The organization was established as a standing committee of the Federation of Societies for Clinical Social Work, a group that represents over ten thousand clinical social workers across the United States. By 1992 the Committee had grown to approximately a thousand members, and its scope of activity had increased markedly. That year the Federation voted the Committee its right to independent incorporation while retaining an affiliative relationship to the parent body. This restructuring affords the Committee the best of both worlds: collaboration with the clinical social work profession as a whole and the simultaneous ability to promote psychoanalysis both within the membership and among the general public.
Today, as in the past, clinical social workers provide over half of all psychotherapy conducted in this country. Although the Committee draws its greatest support in large urban centers such as California and New York, there are twelve regional groups that meet regularly throughout the United States.
The Committee seeks equal recognition of its members as qualified psychoanalysts enjoying professional parity with clinicians from other mental health disciplines. The Committee believes its members should be judged on the basis of their knowledge and performance, which adheres to the highest ethical standards of practice.
The Committee, as part of the Federation, has in fact been instrumental in supporting the development of professional standards, including the certification procedures of the American Board of Examiners in Clinical Social Work, which awards the Board Certified Diplomate credential (B.C.D.). Currently, the Committee's National Study Group, under the leadership of Joyce Edward, is revising standards for the clinical social work psychoanalyst and psychoanalytic psychotherapist.
In the spirit of mutual enhancement, Federation and Committee continue to support and strengthen each other. For example, on May 13–15, they will cosponsor a joint clinical conference in Washington that will feature analytic presentations as well as a separate segment of general clinical social work topics. Participants are entitled to attend any of the presentations, and both organizations will present keynote addresses to the entire conference. Thus, the Committee will be able to advance psychoanalytic theory and practice to a wider audience even as it maintains a strong clinical social work identity. In the past, the Committee's own conferences have been attended by over five hundred analytic practitioners from across the country.
As a continuation of its historical commitment to promoting psychoanalysis, the Committee is particularly proud to be preparing a Reader for schools of social work. The book will contain articles demonstrating the value of contemporary psychoanalytic theory in work with the kind of clients social workers and other helping professionals typically serve. Among topics covered are the sexually and physically abused, foster care, unwed teenage pregnancy, and AIDS, as well as perpetrators and victims of violence.
The Committee has welcomed the opportunity to work with the American Psychoanalytic Association, the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, and Division 39 of the American Psychological Association. These groups have come together in the Psychoanalytic Consortium out of their shared belief in high professional standards and in the interest of preserving access to psychoanalytic treatment for the public at large. The first president of the Committee, Rosemarie Gaeta, has catalyzed these collaborative efforts.
The consortium's Political Action Committee on Health Care Reform, chaired by Committee representative Alice Medine King, has sought to identify common goals and strategies around which members of the consortium can unify in their efforts to influence the legislative process. Today, in the complicated political climate for mental health care, it is important that all interested parties, regardless of discipline, emphasize the scientific rigor of psychoanalysis and its applicability to the general public. The Committee supports the consortiums endeavor to find commonalities while respecting the unique perspective of each of its member groups.
Finally, the Committee looks forward to continued cooperation, both in the political arena and in educational programs that can enhance psychoanalysis, preserve its integrity, and improve social conditions for the generations to come.
Cecily G. Weintraub, Ph.D., is president of the National Committee on Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work.