At the May 27 meeting of the Board on Professional Standards in Toronto, the major areas of discussion were reconsideration of the proposal to amend the by-laws on eligibility and membership, progress in external credentialing, and new developments in Minnesota.
Much discussion concerned the proposed eligibility/membership by-law amendment as it relates to the complexities of the new policies and procedures approved by BOPS. A year ago, BOPS approved recommendations proposed by the Committee on Preparedness and Progress. COPAP recommended that institutes have greater autonomy in selecting non-doctoral candidates, determining locally if the applicant may be granted a waiver of the by-law eligibility standard in a manner that does not require central review by The American. The proposal, which primarily affects applicants with masters degrees in social work and in marriage, family, and child counseling, received strong BOPS approval at the San Diego meeting in 1997.
This spring, BOPS chair Donald Rosenblitt summarized the difficulties in moving the bylaw amendment forward. In May 1997 when BOPS approved the COPAP proposal, it was not believed that a by-law amendment would be immediately needed. Subsequently, the Executive Committee decided that a by-law change was needed because changes in eligibility affected the Associations membership, and traditionally the Gaskill process of expanded eligibility has involved ratifications of the by-laws. In November, the by-law proposal was mailed to both the Fellows of the Board and the Executive Councilors. The returning votes, although few, favored the amendment. The next step was to send it for vote to the certified members.
Although the COPAP proposal had been thoroughly presented to BOPS by Phyllis Tyson, chair of COPAP, and frequently reviewed in TAP, it had not been discussed at length in Council. Last December, the Council decided to table until May the motion to send the by-law amendment to the certified members for a vote to allow the Council opportunity for full discussion.
In May of this year, the Board rediscussed the COPAP proposal and its implications. Tyson emphasized that one reason BOPS approved the proposal was that institutes have done an excellent job evaluating candidates who require waivers and those candidates have performed just as well as candidates who did not require waivers. Drew Clemens, on behalf of the Cleveland Institute, moved to refer the proposal back to committee to revise the document's content and tone. Cleveland felt it was haughty, unfriendly, and off-putting and that the details of education requirements could not be met. Other Fellows agreed; however, Rosenblitt commented that the proposal was a working document and COPAP would take Cleveland's suggestions under advice. With that understanding, Clemens, who favored the intent of the proposal, withdrew his motion.
Robert Michels questioned the way the proposal had been handled and complained that The American had acted to admit master's-level clinicians for training prior to approval of the membership. He said that the membership has the right to decide this change in policy and the decision could cause a crisis of confidence among members. Michels made a motion to overturn the 1997 acceptance of the COPAP proposal. This motion, if approved, would have meant that no further master's-level clinicians would be accepted for training under the new COPAP local autonomy waiver process until the by-law amendment had been passed. Michels's motion was defeated. The Board then voted not to rescind its approval of the COPAP report, meaning institutes may continue to admit candidates under the expended local autonomy provisions approved a year ago.
Calvern Narcisi and Leon Hoffman, co-chairs of the Joint Ad Hoc Committee on External Accreditation, reported on the progress of external credentialing with the Psychoanalytic Consortium. Hoffman observed that although The American is considered authoritarian, it has continually informed its members of the issues. Now it appears that the boards and membership of the other three organizations in the Consortium have not yet discussed external accreditation. It remains to be seen what response their rank-and-file will have to the draft proposals. Rosenblitt's comment, “The heat is on the other groups,” reminded the Fellows of the long and painful debate within The American on this issue.
Two sticking points have developed within the Consortium External Credentialing Committee. There is strong disagreement on a standard for the appointment of training analysts. The American uses a merit system; the other Consortium members believe that candidates should have free choice. Rosenblitt reported that the other Consortium representatives present their free-choice system as a higher standard.
A second area of disagreement involved minimum and recommended standards. (An example of a minimal standard would be a thrice-weekly training analysis; a recommended standard would be four to five times a week.) The American's representatives to the committee, Margolis and Rosenblitt, suggested a provision be included in the evolving proposal that institutes be required to demonstrate an effort to move from minimal to recommended standards. This was not acceptable to the other Consortium members. Margolis advised BOPS that the process will take years and not to worry about “ripples and bumps on the road.”
The American continues to press the Consortium for membership for the Independent Psychoanalytic Societies. The IPS has been offered membership without a vote, but The American is working for full membership.
Ellen Rowntree, chair of the Committee on New Training Facilities (CNTF), reported on promising new developments in Minnesota. The Minnesota Provisional Institute has attempted to become a full institute for the past 28 years. In consultation with Minnesota, the CNTF has developed a version of a model that the IPA uses in developing new institutes. This model involves a sponsoring team rather than a sponsoring institute. Until now, Minnesota has been sponsored by the Chicago Institute. The Board approved the CNTF plan to continue to support Minnesota's development through a sponsoring team approach. The sponsoring team (chair Ralph Engle, Marvin Margolis, and Kenneth Newman) will provide advice and
consultation to Minnesota and serve as liaison to CNTF. A CNTF subcommittee will oversee the development of the Minnesota institute. The Chicago Institute will continue to provide teaching, and other institutes may be used as well. This change will require developing a back-up plan for candidates, should the institute fail. The Board discussed alternative approaches.
In a related development, The American received a letter from Lewis Aron, president of Division 39, saying Division 39 had received a complaint from members of an independent institute in Minnesota. The Board of Division 39 has referred the matter to the Group for the Advancement of Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis in Psychology to consider whether, in GAPPP's opinion, The American might be engaged in unfair competitive practices.
Project 2000 is moving forward, reported Lawrence Chalfin, chair of the project. The goal of Project 2000 is to formulate and then put forward recommendations on the philosophy of psychoanalytic education. The committee is surveying institutes and identifying key issues. Although the project is still in its early stages, Chalfin has recognized various and creative ways local institutes are responding to the changes in psychoanalysis. The greater diversity in the candidate body has been a positive and stimulating change. However, the new candidates demand greater critical thinking about psychoanalysis.
BOPS overwhelmingly approved a proposal to allow provisional institutes to have two Fellows on the Board instead of the current one and to give them voting privileges. It also approved a proposal to offer New Training Facilities a non-voting seat on the Board. These proposals will have to be placed in the form of a by-law amendment to be voted upon by the certified members.
The Board approved several new training analysts. James C. Miller from Baltimore-Washington, Howard M. Katz from Boston, Barbara Fajardo from Chicago, and Rex H. McGehee from Denver were appointed. Appointed from PINE were Elissa B. Arons, Alfred S. Margulies, and Henry F. Smith. Also appointed were Katherine MacVicar and Henry Markman from San Francisco and Alan B. Zients from Columbia. Austin Silber was appointed geographic rule supervising analyst for Western New England.
Three geographic rule analysts were appointed for Florida. They were Irvin D. Milowe, training analyst, and Raymond G. Poggi and Paul E. Roberts, supervising analysts.
Rex H. McGehee from Denver, Wendy Olesker from New York, and E. Kirsten Dahl from Western New England were appointed child and adolescent supervising analysts. Alan B. Zients was appointed child and adolescent supervising analyst for both Columbia and New York.
Rosenblitt praised as “excellent and illuminating” the report on training analyst selection prepared by the Task Force on Training Analyst Selection, chaired by Kenneth Cohen. Four characteristics sought in training analyst selection are character, ethics, clinical ability, and teaching.
Completing his term as chair of the Committee on Psychoanalytic Education, Sander Abend summarized much of the important work of the committee, which “educates the educators.” He highlighted the work of the study groups in examining the impaired training analyst and boundary violations.
Carl Brotman gave the final report of the Joint Task Force on Psychotherapy Education. The report contains data from 15 psychotherapy training programs and four child therapy programs. Over all, the psychotherapy programs developed by The American's institutes were enormously successful — well-conceived and well-prepared. They taught a broad range of professionals including an increasing number of psychiatrists.
Ronald Benson, chair of the Committee on Institutes, reported that the COI is examining two areas of technique: telephone analysis and condensed analysis (i.e., more that one session a day).
The Board passed a proposal that the Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Racial Diversity and Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Student Associates become standing committees.
Robert Cummings, chair of the Committee on IPA Membership, announced approval of four new members: Stephen F. Bauer, Molly M. Jones-Quinn, and Frances Marton from the New York Freudian Institute and Zvi Lothane from IPTAR.
The NYU project of training graduates from American IPA institutes in child analysis is positive, reported Sam Rubin, chair of the Committee on Child and Adolescent Analysis. He also mentioned that the American Academy of Child Psychiatry has requested assistance from analyst members in working on treatment guidelines.
Richard Fox, completing his term as chair of the Membership Committee, reported that the membership now numbered 3,227. Since the de-linkage amendment, almost every graduate has fulfilled “minimal standards.” Only a few varied slightly. This demonstrates that the concerns that de-linkage would have a bad effect on The American were unfounded.
Also stepping down as chair was Myron Hurwitz of the Certification Committee. Of 22 applicants, 14 were certified (see box on this page). As candidates become increasingly heterogeneous, the certification process must be more clear. Hurwitz advised avoiding the politics and rhetoric of debating elitism versus democracy.
New committee chairs announced were Remigio Gonzales for Membership, Peter Loewenberg for CORST, Michael Singer for Certification, and Jack MacGregor as pro tern chair of COPAP.
To an ovation from the Fellows, Rosenblitt thanked Marvin Margolis, outgoing president of The American, for his outstanding work. Margolis has participated in the Board for the past eight years, during four of which he chaired BOPS.