The Research in Progress Forum held at each meeting of The American offers an exciting chance to encourage, promote, and disseminate psychoanalytic research — an extremely important but often neglected area. The last three forums illustrate the breadth and depth of ongoing research projects.
At the May 1996 forum Ronald Levin, Rob Janes, Michael Pearson, and Robert Nunn presented a pilot study looking at the relationship between Prinzmetal's Angina and emotions. The authors tried to investigate patients' developmental history and current conflicts to discover the psychological circumstances linked to each chest pain event. They sought to determine if a common conflict underlay each patient's angina attacks.
At the December forum, the topic was a pilot study by Gilbert Kliman on the interface of psychoanalysis and public policy. Kliman assumed that traumas preceding foster care placement lead foster children to re-enact those traumas in their foster homes, evoking rejection and abandonment in their new placements. Kliman's study demonstrates that the successful effects of a therapeutic intervention with such children can be measured by a significant decrease in numbers of transfers to new placements as compared to a control group that does not receive the intervention.
At San Diego this past spring, Suneela Kumar presented a proposal to explore the relationship between Erikson's developmental model and cultural differences, especially with respect to the resolution of Erikson's fifth stage — ego identity vs. identity confusion. The author plans to investigate the nature of the identity crisis and its resolution in cultures that do not stress autonomy as compared to cultures that do. She also plans to look at people who emigrate from one kind of culture to the other.
The Research in Progress Forums are intended to give those involved in psychoanalytic research a chance to present ongoing work, and thus to stimulate further research. Problems of conceptualization, research design, data collection, and data evaluation are welcomed. Presenters, discussants, and audience take part in an active, informative interchange.
To submit your research for consideration, send six copies of a 10- to 20-page summary of the investigation to Owen Renik, Chair, Program Committee, American Psychoanalytic Association, 309 East 49th Street, New York, NY 10017. The summary should describe:
The major hypotheses being investigated.
A brief overview of the relevant literature.
The research, methodology, and means of data evaluation.
The status of the project and findings to date.
Specific problems on which feedback is needed.