We met in a small windowless room in the Waldorf-Astoria on a gray day in December 1994. We were the 1994–1995 Fellows of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Individually, we represented different geographic regions, various psychiatric “upbringings” (many of which were far from psychodynamic), and divergent career aspirations. What united us was curiosity about the unconscious and a yearning to know how to tune our ears to it and begin the decoding its language.
Elise Snyder gathered us together and asked for our ideas. “How do we reach out to the young psychiatrists, to the residency programs, to general psychiatry to help them to see that psychoanalysis is not only useful, but ”user friendly?“ We decided to organize a program to present at the American Psychiatric Association meetings. As the representative of this group, I met with Glen Gabbard and Frederic Busch. Busch volunteered to chair a consultation session in which he and his colleague, Barbara Milrod, would collaborate with the Fellows to present a psychodynamic perspective on panic disorder. Gabbard intervened with the ”higher powers“ of The American in support of the Fellows and their proposal.
In December 1995, we again gathered at the Waldorf, and I asked who among the Fellows would like to participate in the May 1996 meetings of the American Psychiatric Association: Our proposal had been accepted!
On May 7, in a room at the Marriott Marquis, twenty-five chairs were set up. Soon they were all filled, and more people arrived carrying their own chairs. Daniel Schechter (1995–1996 Fellow) and Sandra Walker (1994–1995 Fellow) each presented a case of a patient with panic disorder. Both patients had received psychopharmacologic as well as psychodynamic interventions. Busch and Milrod led the lively discussion, which included much audience participation. The audience included both members-in-training and full members. There were psychiatrists with the clinical vantage point of private practice and others who did medication management in managed-care settings. They asked Schechter and Walker to expand on their experience with their patients. Busch and Milrod used the Fellows' case material to address how to employ psychodynamic understanding to inform treatment decisions including the use of medications. The session provided a valuable opportunity for the Fellows, their mentors, and the audience to engage in a dialogue that, one psychiatrist commented, was an unusual and welcome addition to the typical experience offered at APA meetings. Later that day, I met Leah Dickstein, who, as chair of the scientific program, was responsible for our proposal's approval. I expressed my appreciation to her on behalf of the Fellows of The American. She took my hand firmly and said, “Thank you. You know, we need you. You really are the future of our field.” She described meeting Anna Freud many years ago and her surprise at discovering that this great and influential teacher was rather small in size. This story had a special meaning to the Fellows of The American: Size is not a determinant of the potential to affect the future.
Jodi H. Brown is a 1994–1995 Fellow of the American Psychoanalytic Association.