Are you feeling jaded about psychoanalysis or the psychoanalytic life? I was, and I did something about it. I moved to Portland. If you are looking for an energizing dose of psychoanalytic excitement, maybe you should check us out. Let me tell you what's been happening here lately.
Less than three years ago, in 1995, The American gave approval to the Oregon Psychoanalytic New Training Facility to start a training program in psychoanalysis in Portland under the sponsorship of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute. In September 1998, the first class of candidates will begin full formal classes.
What made it possible for a small group of analysts to convert a long-standing dream of a new institute into a reality and accomplish so much in only three years? Dedicated and motivated local analysts, solid community support, and effective and active sponsoring organizations are important reasons. In addition, there are quality-of-life and psychoanalytic attractions in Portland that have enticed analysts from established institutes (like me) to relocate here.
In the planning stages, Siegfried Berthelsdorf, Harold Boverman, Duane Dale, Georgia Lee, Howard Rosenbaum, and David Turner were in place and active. All trained elsewhere; many had commuted weekly to Seattle from Portland for many years. In 1982, affiliation with The American began, and a psychoanalytic study group was established. Later a psychoanalytic society was formed.
The primary source of community and financial support is the Oregon Psychoanalytic Foundation. Established in 1974, OPF has actively promoted educational and outreach activities for mental health professionals and the general public. Crucially important has been the foundation's commitment to the development of psychoanalytic training in Portland — by increasing community awareness of its value, through fundraising and financial support, and by bringing in experienced analysts from elsewhere. Selma Duckler, the foundation's current president, enthusiastically generates new membership and sponsors for community programs. She is active in The American's National Committee on Foundations and its Public Information Committee, impressing analysts at the national level and keeping Portland in the forefront of the national scene.
The American (primarily through its Committee on New Training Facilities) and the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute are the new institute's sponsoring organizations. Both represent the best of the new wave in American psychoanalysis: clinical-theoretical pluralism and integration, organizational outreach, and inclusion. Where elitist barriers and exclusionary “standards” once existed, or were perceived to exist, now there is egalitarianism and developmental facilitation.
Ellen Rowntree, present chair of the CNTF, first headed the Portland subcommittee. Fred Busch followed, and now Mel Bornstein (with his subcommittee members, David Black and Aimee Nover) has the job. The Portland Committee in San Francisco is and has been energetically led from the start by Morris Peltz. Other original members included Owen Renik, Alan Skolnikoff, and Robert Wallerstein. Kay Blacker, David Lake, and Suzanne Gassner are more recent members.
Like a young analyst, a young psychoanalytic organization needs the freedom to develop on its own but also needs collegial mentoring and support. The committees from both sponsoring organizations have facilitated rapid progress, granting a good deal of autonomy to the new institute. Consultation and resources are also easily and regularly available. Being based in Portland is a big selling point for the new institute. Students will not have to travel elsewhere for classes or supervision. Portland faculty must participate in the parent institute's committee structure, however. Telecommunication allows Portland faculty
full participation in necessary meetings without too frequent travel to San Francisco. But both the San Francisco Institute and the CNTF regularly come to Portland as well, and this has been enormously helpful.
I moved to Portland in July 1996, and Ralph Beaumont came in January 1997. I was a training and supervising analyst and teacher at the Columbia Psychoanalytic Center in New York, a regular contributor to the literature, and an active participant in many activities at The American. Beaumont was an important teacher at the Psychoanalytic Institute of New England (PINE) in Boston and on staff at the McLean Hospital, where he taught and supervised. Relocation is not easy, but both of us have built busy practices rather quickly, and the charms of Portland are considerable. In addition to the challenge and adventure of building a new institute, there is the city itself. It is one of the fastest-growing, most beautiful, and most livable cities in the country. It is a half hour by car from the Cascade Mountains and an hour from one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world.
Six analysts are the current core of the new program. The three training analysts — Boverman, Turner, and myself — participate in the San Francisco Education Committee meetings. Boverman chairs the Portland Education Committee, Turner heads Curriculum, and I head Admissions. Each of us sits on the corresponding San Francisco committee. Boverman has shouldered most of the major administrative chores for the new institute in the past, but as Portland grows, new administrative structure is required. A part-time administrator, Susan Dimitman, has been hired. Turner, as president; myself, as president-elect; and Katherine Volz, San Francisco's administrator, are working closely with Dimitman and Boverman to develop new procedures.
In keeping with the egalitarian ideal of the new institute, virtually everyone is involved in every significant decision. Non-TAs have significant official responsibilities on all committees. Dale also runs the pre-matriculation seminars and functions as ad hoc dean of students. Beaumont runs the foundation clinic, a low-fee clinic without walls that functions as a psychoanalytic psychotherapy teaching program. He will soon head the Curriculum Committee when Turner takes over Progression. Rosenbaum is president of the society. Everyone has teaching responsibilities as well as responsibility for a major track in the curriculum.
Gerald I. Fogel, M.D., is a training and supervising analyst with the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute (GRTA) and a faculty member and training analyst at the Oregon Psychoanalytic New Training Facility. He recently moved from New York to Portland.
Four candidates have been accepted and participate in twice-monthly prematriculation seminars this year. A fifth application is now in process, so a full class of five or six is likely in the fall. San Francisco has expressed confidence in the high quality of the applicants and range of disciplines and experience represented, both medical and non-medical. Next year, classes will be on Thursday evenings and Friday afternoons. Approximately once each month, these classes will be replaced by a day-long Saturday seminar. This will allow maximum use of visiting teachers from San Francisco and Seattle, who are responding to invitations to teach with gratifying shows of enthusiastic support. A significant percentage of the teaching can be covered by San Francisco-based faculty through a combination of telecommunications teaching and personal visits. Seattle teachers have an easier commute and may be able to travel to Portland for significant teaching segments.
These arrangements will be modified as newer teachers gain experience and local numbers expand. The Portland curriculum initially will follow the formal structure and course progression of San Francisco, but Portland is free to experiment with new approaches and develop new courses. Portland also has been granted freedom and flexibility in the use of local resources, such as co-teachers from outside the organization, including analysts from non-American institutes and nonanalysts from the local community.
Despite the deep inroads of managed care and manifest negative attitudes toward psychoanalysis in segments of the professional community, one senses in Portland an enormous hunger for what psychoanalysis has to offer. This is perhaps most obvious in the therapist community — large, but often relatively unaware of the many progressive developments in contemporary psychoanalysis. Once dialogue is established, preconceptions give way, and indifference or hostility is usually replaced by excitement and enthusiasm. The new institute seems to be functioning as a place where formerly disparate and lonely voices can rally together in the struggle against the current discouraging trends toward dehumanization and reductionism in psychotherapy and other forms of patient care.
All who are involved agree that the task of starting a new institute seems daunting and a little overwhelming at times, but the rewards are also great. I can attest that it is greatly different from the secure but also sometimes insular setting of an established institute. But if you are one of those who believe that the current cultural and economic climate in this country is not conducive to the growth and development of psychoanalysis, check out Portland, where psychoanalysis is rapidly becoming a growth industry. And, what's more, there's that mountain air!