Early in the spring of 1998, the Affiliate Council elected to sponsor an annual scientific paper prize. At the Fall Meeting of the American, the winner and two semi-finalists of this first annual American Psychoanalytic Association Affiliate Council Scientific Paper Prize were announced. This award was designed to stimulate creativity and independent thinking among candidate analysts, to offer candidates a forum to express their ideas, and to encourage psychoanalytic scholarly research and writing among candidates. The awards were presented at a special scientific meeting sponsored by the Affiliate Council during the regular Fall Meeting.
Burton Hutto of the University of North Carolina–Duke University Psychoanalytic Education Program introduced his winning paper, “Disparate Goals in Clinical Psychoanalysis,” and received the first prize of $1,000.00. His presentation reviewed the concept of goals in psychoanalytic treatment. In his paper, Hutto demonstrates that psychoanalytic goals have numerous meanings and purposes outside and within the individual treatment.
In proposing a sophisticated classification schema for various goals of treatment, Hutto describes the analyst's ideal goals (having to do with the analyst's theoretical beliefs), clinical goals, and technical goals. He also describes the patient's goals. Hutto's paper emphasizes potential conflicts between the analyst's goals and the analysand's. He proposes that the resolution of these conflicting goals is an important aspect of the treatment process. This novel conceptualization of the psychoanalytic treatment process stemmed from Hutto's work with a control case, which he reviews in depth.
A lively discussion of this paper followed Hutto's dynamic presentation.
Certificates for the semi-finalist award were presented to William Glover of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute and (in absentia) Elisabeth Young-Bruehl of the Institute of the Philadelphia Association for Psychoanalysis.
In his paper “Where Do Analysands Come From? A Candidate's Experience in Recommending Analysis,” Glover acknowledges that finding analytic cases is an essential component of analytic training and of building an analytic practice. He writes that learning how to recommend analysis is often a neglected aspect of analytic training. The patient's resistance to this recommendation is well documented in the literature, but the analyst's equally important resistance to making the recommendation is less recognized. Glover acknowledges that candidates are often conflicted about their motivations to analyze particular patients and are expected to work this out in their personal analysis. Creatively, Glover proposes an adult developmental perspective in outlining ways to help candidates recognize and manage the powerful emotional meanings of recommending analysis. His clinical example highlights issues involved in converting a case to analysis.
Photo by Mervin S. Stewart
Young-Bruehl did not submit an abstract of her paper, “Beyond The Female Homosexual,'” in applying for the prize, because she felt its arguments and ideas could not be condensed. Briefly, the paper presents an innovative psychoanalytic theoretical formulation of female homosexuality, highlighting Young-Bruehl's conceptualization with a clinical case. She hopes that all interested in reading her paper will consult the inaugural issue of the journal Studies in Gender and Sexuality, to be published in January 2000 by the Analytic Press.
There were many other fine submissions in this competition. Steven Nickoloff of the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute submitted “A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Multiple Personality Disorder: Dynamics, Techniques, Analyzability.” R. Dennis Shelby of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis submitted “About Cruising and Being Cruised.” Nathan Szajnberg of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute submitted “Leonard Bernstein's Creativity and Implications for Psychoanalysis.” Jane Walvoord of the Dallas Psychoanalytic Institute submitted “A Psychoanalyst Has to Be There to Be Left.”
During this last year (May 1998–99), as chair of the Affiliate Council Scientific Paper Prize Committee, I was impressed with the excitement and enthusiasm of all involved in this competition as well as with the level of originality and professionalism of the papers submitted. The Affiliate Council Scientific Paper Prize was the idea of Lee Jaffe, former president of the Affiliate Council. He first proposed the paper prize to the Affiliate Council in early spring 1998 and it was immediately, unanimously endorsed. An Affiliate Council Scientific Paper Prize Committee was convened, and Jaffe, Holly McMillan, and I were appointed to address the professional issues involved in conducting this competition.
In the early summer of 1998, announcements of the competition were sent to all affiliate members of the American and all the directors of education of APsaA institutes. Twelve papers were submitted by the October 1, 1998, deadline. After reviewing them to ensure anonymity, I sent them to the judges, who were directed to choose the best paper based solely on the quality of the psychoanalytic ideas presented.
The three judges are all former members of the Affiliate Council and at the time of judging were graduates and faculty members of their institutes. The efforts of Katharine Fraser of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute, John Gilkey of the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute, and David Orbison of the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Institute are appreciated. They reported that their work in reviewing the papers was inspiring and gratifying.
The American Psychoanalytic Association Affiliate Council Scientific Paper Prize will be a yearly competition. The 1999 guidelines are as follows. The papers may focus on any psychoanalytic topic. Submissions may be up to thirty pages in length. They must be currently unpublished but of publishable quality. All references to the author's identity must be deleted for this blind competition. The deadline for submission of the papers is August 1, 1999. Please direct all inquiries to Joan Lynch at 847-864-3738. Submit papers, postmarked no later than August 1, 1999, to Joan Lynch, M.D., 1603 Orrington Avenue, Suite 2005, Evanston, IL 60201.
The Affiliate Council of the American Psychoanalytic Association is pleased to offer this intellectual and professional opportunity to affiliate members. We are delighted that this endeavor was so rewarding and exciting to those involved. Creativity and the pursuit of novelty in psychoanalysis is clearly flourishing among candidates.
Joan Lynch, M.D., is a candidate at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. She chairs the American's Affiliate Council Scientific Paper Prize Committee. She is in private practice in Evanston, Ill.