On June 1, 1997, the first CORST Candidate Research Training Grant was awarded. This $5,000 grant, which is bestowed by the American Psychoanalytic Foundation, has been developed to further the psychoanalytical training of an academic researcher in the arts, humanities, social, or bio-behavioral sciences who wishes to learn clinical and theoretical psychoanalysis for application to his or her field of research. Applicants must be accepted for full clinical training or already engaged in such training at an institute of the American Psychoanalytic Association.
The committee received excellent applications, all of which were worthy of support. We regret that we do not have the funds to support each of these outstanding research projects.
The selection subcommittee awarded the grant to James W. Anderson of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. Anderson specializes in psychoanalysis and biography. His current research project is “Encounters with Psychoanalysis: From William James to Heinz Kohut,” in which he takes a psychobiographical approach to the history of psychoanalysis in America. He is studying five representative and important figures in psychoanalysis (William James, Helene Deutsch, Henry Murray, Erik Erikson, and Heinz Kohut) to shed light on how innovation and creativity takes place in our field.
Anderson's papers and presentations on the methodology of psychobiography — how to use psychoanalysis and psychology in the study of individual lives — have been widely influential in the field of biography. One of his central interests is the study of creativity throughout the course of a life. One of his colleagues said, “His papers combine a wide-ranging knowledge of psychological development with a humanist's care and respect for … subject matter.” Anderson teaches at the Postgraduate Education Program, is an active participant in weekly research meetings, and has received several prestigious fellowships and awards.
Deanna Holtzman is chair of the Committee on Research and Special Training.