The Fellowship Program continues to thrive. As usual, the applications of the winners turned the 35 readers green with envy. The 20 new Fellows include three M.D.s who also hold Ph.D.s (theatre, neuroanatomy, computer science), one M.D. board certified in internal medicine and one in pediatrics, five neuroscientists, four who are or will be Child Fellows, two Mead Johnson Fellows, and one Bristol-Meyers-Squibb Fellow. A majority of the Fellows are interested in research, and many have already published widely.
This year there were 121 applicants, of whom 97 were psychiatrists and 24 psychologists. (The number of psychologist applicants increased from 15 percent last year to 20 percent this year.) The applicants came from 31 states — some states with little or no psychoanalytic presence — and were born in 33 countries. Last year, 29 percent of the applicants were International Medical Graduates; this year 37 percent are. This is a statistically significant increase, probably reflecting changes in the demography of medical students and psychiatric residents. An increasing number of Asians and Asian-Americans (15) applied for the Fellowship. Three of the new Fellows belong to that group.
Mentorship Program
The Mentorship continues to be the heart of the Fellowship Program, both for the winners and for the non-winning applicants, many of whom now apply just to get a mentor. Applicants meet with their mentors for 16 months, read papers, discuss cases, are invited to society meetings, etc. This year, for the first time, we have been able to assign a child analyst to almost all who are Child Fellows or interested in working with children. Applicants who are interested in neuroscience are assigned a second mentor, an analyst with expertise in neuroscience.
Winners of the 1996-97 Psychoanalytic Fellowship. Elise Snyder, chair of the Subcommittee first row, far right.
There are now 400 active members of The American on our mentors list. Of that number,
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64 members have mentored twice, 27 three times, and four (Art Farley, Tony Kris, Malkah Notman, and Tom Pappadis) have each mentored four times. This is the fourth year of the Mentorship Program for all applicants.
Discussion Groups
The Fellows, with the help of Michael Gundle and Lisa Mellman, Fellowship Program Committee members, have been organizing discussion groups and submitting them to the Program Committee. In San Diego, four were accepted and were very successful; four were turned down. All the groups will submit to the American Psychiatric Association or Division 39 for next year.
At the APA meeting in San Diego, four groups of former Fellows made presentations. They were identified as Fellows of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Several fellows and former fellows held a meeting with Arnold Cooper to organize a discussion group on teaching psychoanalysis to undergraduates. More than 8 percent of those listed in the program of The American's San Diego Meeting as presenters, discussants, or discussion group chairs were Fellows or former Fellows. We are beginning negotiations with the Association of Child Psychoanalysis to have some of our Fellows make presentations at their meetings.
Road Race
The first APsaA road race, organized by Charles Fisher (a Fellowship Program Committee member) and Don Houts, was an enormous success. There were 97 runners and walkers, plus thousands cheering on the sidelines. The race and its T-shirt sale garnered almost $2,500 for the Fellowship. This money will be used to defray the costs of sending Fellows and former Fellows to speak at the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and other meetings where it is important that the Fellowship and The American have a voice. The second annual road race will be held in Toronto in May 1998.
Society Initiative Committee
Under the leadership of Margaret Hamilton and Helen Desmond, this committee is working with all societies (and in some cases, with institutes) to help each increase the number of applicants to the Fellowship in its geographic area. In places where there are numerous applicants, the committee helps societies to set up special programs for them. The committee workshops at both spring and midwinter meetings have been well attended and productive.
Take a Training Director to Lunch
The Fellowship Program is organizing a new initiative. Every residency training director in the country (there are about 300) will be taken to lunch by a committee member, a mentor, or some other volunteer. The bill of fare will include a discussion of the reasons trainees should apply for the Fellowship and the importance of psychotherapy training. For those RTDs who work more than 400 miles from the nearest analyst, technical wizards in The American are developing protocols for sending peanut butter sandwiches via e-mail.
Miscellaneous
The former Fellows have begun to hold regional meetings between The American's regular meetings. One former Fellows' meeting was held in the Northeast in the spring. The West Coast Fellows will be holding one in the coming year. Carol Lindemann, a Fellowship Program Committee member, is preparing a survey of all 81 former Fellows, which will be completed some time next year. The Fellowship Program has received a grant of $30,000 over a four-year period from the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation to hire an Administrative Director. Several of our current and former Fellows were among the organizers of the residents' summit at the APA meetings in San Diego.
In summary, there is great — and perhaps increasing — interest in psychoanalysis among residents and psychology trainees. Managed care and the dearth of psychotherapy training in many programs may be producing a most welcome backlash. We continue to attract extraordinary young people, influential now and in the future, with a wide range of interests. The generosity of our mentors is an invaluable asset to psychoanalysis and to young mental health professionals.
The thoughtful work of our outside readers (James Barron, Becquer Benalcazar, Daniel Brener, David Carlson, John F Crow, Gerald I. Fogel, Rhoda Frenkel, Glen O. Gabbard, David Goldberg, Peery Grant, Daniel Greenson, Frederic Levine, Malcolm MacLeod, Calvern Narcisi, Malkah Notman, Joy D. Osofsky, Ralph E. Roughton, Mary Scharold, Beth Seelig, Alan Sugarman, Kerry Sulkowicz, Robert J. Ursano, Arnold Wilson, and Lucy M. Zaberenko) is essential. The Fellowship Program Committee members whose hard work and dedication make the Fellowship possible are Bert Cohler, Helen Desmond, Paul Dewald, Charles P. Fisher, Michael J. Gundle, Margaret Hamilton, David I. Joseph, Carol Lindemann, Lisa Mellman, Howard Osofsky, Warren R. Procci, Harvey Schwartz, Melvin Singer, and George M. Wohlreich.