Don Rosenblitt of Durham, North Carolina, was elected chair of the Board of Professional Standards (BOPS) at the annual spring meeting in Los Angeles. He is the first child analyst to be elected to this office and the first Board secretary to become chair. Rosenblitt, forty-eight, is also the youngest person, as well as the first southerner, to assume this post, which has generally been held by those from the Northeast or the West Coast.
Rosenblitt trained in psychoanalysis at the Duke–University of North Carolina (UNC) Psychoanalytic Training Program. A 1980 graduate, he was appointed a training analyst in 1986 at age thirty-eight. He became a child analyst by commuting to the Washington Institute, in the years before Duke–UNC offered its own child analytic training.
At present Rosenblitt is director-elect of the Duke-UNC program. In the mid-1980s he took part in the Executive Council as the councilor from the North Carolina Society. He served as a fellow on the Board of Professional Standards from 1988 to 1994. He also served on the Certification Committee for four years, and he was appointed secretary of the Board in 1994. As secretary he was a member of the Executive Committee of The American, a role he will continue as Board chair. His term will begin after the spring meeting in 1997 and will run until May 2000.
In addition to an active child and adult analytic practice, Rosenblitt is the clinical director of the Lucy Daniels Center for Early Childhood, in Cary, North Carolina, which he has led since its founding in 1989. The center, where according to its brochure, “psychoanalysts, teachers and parents collaborate to support children's development,” now has twenty employees and a budget of close to a million dollars. It consists of the Lucy Daniels Preschool, offering child enrichment and early intervention programs, as well as a community education program, a diagnostic and referral service, and a research program.
On being elected, Rosenblitt said, “I feel honored to be chosen to lead the Board as it continues to find increasingly creative ways to support psychoanalytic education.” Specifically, he said he plans to promote child analysis, encourage the rethinking of curricula (as is under way in a number of institutes), and support the training of more academicians. He said he also hopes to see the Board devote its attention to public education and the relation of institutes to their communities. He pointed out that the Board has moved away from regulating the institutes and toward being of service to the institutes. He said he would like to see this trend continue, with an increasing awareness of the importance of maintaining a harmonious and supportive relationship between the Board and the Executive Council. He said he will be pleased if he can contribute to an atmosphere of consensus and cooperation.
In his campaign statement Rosenblitt gave credit to Art Rosenbaum and his committee for making the certification process “more decent and humane without sacrificing effectiveness or intellectual integrity.” In my opinion, and the opinion of many others who have known him, that phrase also suits him perfectly—I can't think of a more decent and humane person. In his gentle way, Rosenblitt has been effective by being fair and by bringing people together to work harmoniously. In other words, the next Board chair is a real mensch.