Fellowship Program Flourishes

Only connect! … Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die.”

E. M. Forster wrote these words in Howards End in 1910, the same year Freud was deeply engaged in psychoanalytic politics, trying to cement connections with Jung and his followers in Zurich in order to preserve the future of the psychoanalytic movement. Ninety years later, we psychoanalysts have no interest in isolation, as either beasts or monks, and the American has numerous programs designed to build bridges to colleagues in the mental health professions, academia, political life, the media, and other aspects of public life. The Fellowship Program, one of the oldest of the American's outreach efforts, continues to thrive and grow. Our main business in the Fellowship Program is making and maintaining connections — to young colleagues in psychiatry, psychology, and social work and others who wish to deepen their understanding of psychoanalytic ideas.

The best way to describe how the program works is perhaps through a couple of case

examples. One applicant, a social worker from a relatively small psychoanalytic community, did not win a Fellowship, but like all applicants she was assigned a mentor to meet with and received a subscription to this publication. She wrote me as the 1998–99 mentorship year came to an end to thank me for the opportunity the program provided. Her experience with her mentor had been very positive. They met on a monthly basis.

His enthusiasm and breadth of knowledge of the field was inspiring. Our discussion topics ranged from the structure of the local society to chaos theory. … I was also able to process through some rather practical practice-building issues and learn more about psychoanalytic training. I would highly recommend the experience to any interested party. … I look forward to continued involvement in the American Psychoanalytic Association.

Another “case” — a young psychiatrist from the south — was encouraged to apply by a residency teacher. She was taken aback; her immediate reply to the teacher was that she definitely did not want to be an analyst, and she was reassured that that wasn't necessary. This applicant won a Fellowship. She wrote me later that all aspects of the Fellowship had been instrumental in her eventual decisions to pursue psychoanalytic training, accept a faculty position in a major psychiatry training department, begin her own empirical research in psychotherapy and psychoanalytic outcome, and co-write a psychoanalytic paper that has been accepted for presentation at the Fall Meeting. She told me that in her new position as a psychiatric educator, she looks forward to sharing her excitement about the American as her mentor had for her.

A Wide Range of Applicants

Ninety-three applications were received for the 1999–2000 Fellowship. Eighteen came from psychologists, sixty-six from psychiatrists, eight from social workers, and one from an adventurous English professor who was willing to submit an experimental application (we'd like to move toward including academics in the program, and are working with the Committee on Research and Special Training in an effort to do so). The Fellowship Committee wants very much to increase the number of social work and psychology applicants and to maintain the number of psychiatry applicants. We plan on working with local psychoanalytic communities to accomplish this aim. Any members who have ideas about outreach to the psychology and social work communities in particular should contact the committee.

Applicants came from twenty-three states, but 45 percent of the total number came from Massachusetts, California, and New York. We had two applicants each from Alabama and Mississippi, but none from Florida, Colorado, Washington state, Georgia, or Oregon. The committee wants to work with local psychoanalytic communities to increase the geographic spread of the applicants. Mid-size societies and institutes and the Fellowship Committee can work together to increase the applications to the program and to identify psychoanalytically sympathetic clinical training programs in all disciplines that deserve special contacts.

We are very proud of the fifteen winners of the 1999–2000 Fellowship, who will be joining us at the December meeting. We look forward to meeting them and introducing them to the riches of the Association and psychoanalysis. Their individual biographies appear on page 8. The wide range of their interests is inspiring; many are committed to researching and serving the needs of populations traditionally not reached by psychoanalytic therapy. We have Fellows with strong interests in child treatment, cross-cultural problems, transgender issues, sexual orientation, Eastern religions, and neuroscience — and in the ways all of these fields of inquiry interface with psychoanalysis.

We are concerned, as are a number of members, about the possibility of hurt feelings and alienation among those who apply for the Fellowship and don't win. The Fellowship is a highly competitive program — only fifteen spots were awarded for 1999–2000. However, applicants and sponsors of applicants should be reminded that all applicants, not just those who win the Fellowship, are assigned a psychoanalyst mentor with whom they meet and receive a free subscription to TAP as well as complimentary registration at national meetings of the Association.

Fellowships in Communities

In some cities, local fellowships have been organized based upon the model of the American's program (see “Local Fellowship Succeeds in Philadelphia,” TAP 33/2). The Fellowship Committee is working to promote the development of local fellowships. Local fellowships are a low-cost, easily administered option to provide an entrée for interested professionals into the psychoanalytic community. Academics, journalists, and other non-mental health professionals can be included as they are in the Philadelphia program, yielding a rich interaction that mutually benefits the psychoanalytic community and the “home” disciplines of the fellows.

Bruce Levin, of the Fellowship Committee, led a workshop on local fellowships at the May meeting in Washington, D.C., and will continue to offer such workshops at future national meetings. Members with a particular interest in local fellowships can contact him for more information.

Another effort to “connect” in which the Fellowship Program is involved is a jointly sponsored discussion group with the Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity on cross-cultural issues faced by mental health trainees from Asian backgrounds as they attempt to integrate psychoanalytic values and ideals with traditional Asian cultural values.

The Fellowship Committee faces another round of changes in the year ahead: I will step down as chair as of May 2000 to become editor of TAP, and Lisa Mellman from the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research will assume leadership of the Fellowship Program. We are grateful that members representing child analysis (Moisey Shopper), academia (Abe Zaleznik), and former Fellows (Peter Graham) have joined the committee and will help us with our bridge-building efforts. We also thank longtime members Helen Desmond, Bert Cohler, Warren Procci, and Maggie Hamilton, whose terms on the committee have ended.

The Fellowship Committee is also very pleased to announce the 2000–01 Fellowship. Applications and brochures are now available from APsaA's central office. We are seeking future leaders and educators in psychiatry, psychology, and social work who are interested in the study of the mind in depth. Although every applicant cannot be a winner, every applicant will be welcomed into the national and local psychoanalytic community in multiple and continuing ways including mentorship, research contacts, psychoanalytic news, training information, and information about other programs of the American. We need all members of the Association to promote the program and encourage students, supervisees, and junior colleagues to apply.

Subtle but important changes in the eligibility requirements have been made for the 2000–01 Fellowship. Psychiatry applicants should be in their PGY2 year when they apply. Psychology applicants can now be pre-doctoral students who have completed their coursework. Additional specific details are spelled out in the program brochure.