Analysts are accustomed to turning inward, but the times call for The American to turn outward, in collaboration with our institutes and societies, related organizations such as the American Psychoanalytic Foundation and PACT, our friends in the lay community, and the many organizations we have long regarded as allies.
To write a description of Association activities two months before the Council meeting is surely an exercise in chutzpah. The fate of initiatives that seemed golden in March during meetings of the Coordinating, Steering, and Executive Committees is of course uncertain. Those that glowed in the initial creative phase may lose their luster during review by the societies and seem too flawed for action by the time Council comes to consider them. By then, new initiatives from members or committees may be clamoring for priority. A clear trend, however, is to be found in all the work currently engaging our members—a renewed emphasis on relating to one another and a determination to reach out into the external world in order to influence our fate.
Two suggestions for joint committees aroused such enthusiasm in the Executive Committee that they have been launched on an ad hoc basis: the Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity, suggested and organized by Marvin Margolis and now chaired by Pam Jennings, and Student Affiliation, proposed by the Task Force on Membership under Richard Fox and shepherded by him through an initial organizing phase. Both committees seek to involve constituencies previously bypassed in our efforts to create a supportive base for psychoanalysis as both science and therapy.
The Committee on Diversity will reach out to welcome minority people moving into the mainstream of medicine, psychology, social work, and academic life. It will outline and encourage changes and enlarge our perspective that we may meet the needs of minority professionals. We know that the number of minority students entering psychiatric residencies is growing. Asian students now account for 18 percent of all psychiatric residents, while Hispanic residents have increased their numbers from 7 to 9 percent, and African-Americans from 5 to 6 percent. In addition, medical school enrollment of minority applicants has increased even more dramatically, a trend that will continue as schools recruit these students more aggressively. We must work to connect with them through a student affiliation arrangement and appropriate mentorship programs. To that end, the new committee will have liaisons not only with the Committee on Student Affiliation but with the Committee on Psychoanalysis, Community, and Society (newly energized under Bruce Sklarew), as well as with CORST and CUME.
The Committee on Student Affiliation will prepare the ground for later efforts by CUME. The committee will offer special opportunities to medical, psychology, and social work students. They will be offered the mentorship of analytic candidates through the newly organized Affiliates Council (presided over by David Orbison); offered TAP and JAPA at special rates; and extended reduced fees for meetings and for the seminars for clinicians. Elise Snyder has pointed out that mentoring is our most effective tool for drawing fellowship applicants, successful or not, into the analytic orbit. Why should this surprise us? Of all the disciplines, we above all focus on the extraordinary significance of the identifications and transferences mobilized in the one-to-one bond. Nothing can replace this.
Other efforts will not be neglected as we restructure our contacts with postgraduate schools and reassert our influence with those who will be our future colleagues. Our booth at The American Psychiatric Association meeting in Miami, staffed by Carolyn Gatto and Debra Eder of the Central Office, drew a great deal of interest. They were aided by enthusiastic volunteers from the Former Fellows organization, by the Miami analytic community under Juan Rodriguez, and by the many analysts presenting scientific papers at the meeting. The names of these last were listed in a special brochure prepared by The American for the occasion. Residents and child fellows were offered free copies of About Psychoanalysis (recently revised by Irene Chiarandini's Public Information Committee), the Fellowship flyer, a brochure about The American, as well as special introductory subscriptions to JAPA and TAP, and a chance to leaf through institute bulletins, newsletters, foundation statements, and extension division publications from around the country. They were also given old Rosters to help them locate contacts, either in their own cities or in ones they might consider for further training or work. So expect some phone calls! This ready means of displaying our geographic distribution and numbers, which provide a network of potential colleagues, is an important referral and recruitment tool.
We also sold the remaining copies of the Title Key Word and Author Index to Psychoanalytic Journals: 1920–1990, based on Stanley Goodman's JOURLIT database and created, produced, and donated to The American by Paul Mosher. Paul's involvement in this effort led to his proposal for a CD-ROM containing the full text of all the articles in JOURLIT, from the inception of each indexed journal through to the present. A project, incorporated as PACT, was set up under the leadership of Vann Spruiell, who has negotiated with the many journals and organizations involved. When available, the CD-ROM will be a major resource to analysts and other interested readers, who will enjoy the immediate pleasures of an electronic browsing library. Even beginning computer hands will be furnished tools necessary to “surf” the printed analytic past. PACT has been funded by The American and by the British Psychoanalytical Association, to the tune of $25,000 each, and has also received additional foundation support. Attorney JoAnn Macbeth has been our guide in drawing up our contract with PACT.
This collaboration with other journals and with the organizationally independent PACT signals the route we must go in many other areas. The separately incorporated American Psychoanalytic Foundation, chaired by Harvey Rich, has begun to plan such collaborative projects as the support of scientific research, the Fellowship program, and separately funded psychoanalytic input into residency programs and professional school teaching. Other joint efforts, particularly in relation to public information and education, are on the drawing board. Access to the broader community through the Foundation's experienced lay board will provide the base for a more professional approach in these public information efforts.
I can round off this survey of joint efforts and outreach by describing the success of initiatives, proposed originally in my candidate statement in 1991, to engage our societies and members more
effectively. Allan Rosenblatt, Mel Bornstein, and Mel Mandel of the Committee on Societies have been busy visiting societies, offering the committee's help with organizational and programming efforts and working to channel society needs more directly to the Executive Committee. They have also sent out an informal news sheet to foster the exchange of information and ideas among societies. In addition, our fax-on-demand system will soon be spewing out society calendars and other information in an effort to stimulate attendance at local meetings, and our site on Internet's World Wide Web will increase our visibility. Just as mentoring has proven so successful in recruiting residents to our institutes, so The American's mentoring of the societies is meant to enhance local knowledge of the national organization and to effect a more collegial and mutually helpful relation between the two levels.
Yet one more collaboration needs mention here. The upcoming IPA Congress in San Francisco, planned jointly by the IPA, The American, and the newly organized Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies in the U.S., runs July 30 through August 4 and takes as its theme Psychic Reality: Its Impact on the Patient and the Analyst Today. North American chair of the Program Committee is Owen Renik, and Helen Meyers serves as its secretary. The use of smaller panels, with more time left for discussion, should lead to livelier, more participatory, and productive dialogue. Special panels will address the origins of psychic reality in the child, the adolescent, and so on throughout the life cycle. Such seminal thinkers as Ferenczi and Bion will receive special attention, and there will be a celebration and reevaluation of Anna Freud on the hundredth anniversary of her birth.
We have arranged special rates for residents and candidates, and hope that all our members will take advantage of this opportunity to enjoy Northern California and the riches of the meeting.