JFK, Candidates, and Recent Graduates

When John F. Kennedy gave his inaugural address, a country listened as he said “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” He wanted to strengthen the country by stirring national pride in being socially responsible, in giving rather than taking, so he did not focus on the fact that giving is frequently rewarded. Nonetheless, and at the risk of cliché, the following counterintuitive proposition is often true: The more you give, the more you will receive. There are many potential benefits to giving to our organization. It is true for the American as much as it is true for America.

At the same time, the backbone of any organization is what the members give to it. The more members involved, the better for the American. But it's not enough to stir the spirit of giving amongst our members; there must be clear pathways to organizational participation. If such opportunities exist, many of our members will enthusiastically give of their talents, which are considerable. In turn, the American will better serve the community, the profession, and its own membership.

A Case in Point

Over the past several years, a great deal has been done successfully to enfranchise our candidate, affiliate members. Many pathways to participation in the American have been created for candidates. Look through the preliminary program for the upcoming scientific meetings in New York, and you will see the results of these “inreach” efforts. You will find social and scientific activities that specifically target our candidate members.

But it does not stop there. Affiliate members now participate in nearly all committees of the American, as well as being involved in numerous scientific activities. Through the creation of many “pathways to participation” in the American for affiliate members, our organization has grown stronger and healthier.

The great successes in vitalizing our candidate members point the way to the next membership challenge: to make sure our recent graduates do not feel less enfranchised than our candidate members. Again, the challenge is to build pathways for participation in the American and an active program for inreach. It's essential that our recent graduates perceive how much they are valued for the dedication they have demonstrated by successfully completing analytic training. There is no advantage to having our members feel more enfranchised when they are candidates than after they graduate (see page 25).

How can we make our recent graduates feel as valued as they were during their training? One answer is to repeat the kind of inreach efforts for recent graduates that have been done for candidate members, and through such efforts give the American an infusion of talent, energy, and the recent graduates' point of view.

However, in some areas such efforts will entail change, and we are a group that approaches change carefully. Questions will need to be asked and solutions discussed. For example, there are positions in the American that require certification before participation, so recent graduates cannot get involved; members who do not get certified can never get involved. Is this policy protecting psychoanalysis, is it creating an organizational environment where recent graduates feel less valued and respected than they felt as candidates, or both?

Some Ideas

In some parts of our organization, such questions will arise and will need to be addressed, so in some areas we will proceed more slowly. At the same time, we can get going and build more pathways to participation for recent graduates. It's demoralizing to have graduation (a cause for celebration) lead to feeling less connected inside your own national professional organization, especially at a time when psychoanalysis is under assault from the outside. More than ever we need to support each other. No doubt many ideas will emerge as we take up this problem, but here are a few ideas to consider in support of recent graduates.

• Utilize the resources of the American to help recent graduates continue academic involvement at their institutes. For example, workshops that promote teaching skills might be offered at the scientific meetings. Teaching is a skill that for the most part is not taught at our institutes.

• Develop programs to educate recent graduates in how to be more active professionally and politically, both on a national and a local level. The ability to have a public voice, while not for all analysts, can be an asset in developing practice and to the future of psychoanalysis in general.

• Develop more programs that expose recent graduates to alternative applications of their psychoanalytic training. This would tap the expertise of our members with psychoanalytic practice applications outside the consulting room (e.g. in sports, forensics, business, etc.). Ideally, such a program might help our members develop actual skills, although this is a more ambitious goal.

• During the scientific meetings, develop parts of the program in which recent graduates could learn how to become more involved in the American, and where they could meet committee chairs and other leaders of the American.

In general terms, we need to maximize opportunities for participation in the American and access to those opportunities for recent graduates. As our various committees and leaders take on this challenge, in the same way they did for candidate members, there is every reason to expect success, especially with recent graduates participating in the effort.

All these efforts will send an important message to recent graduates. The Membership Committee will be looking at the idea of assisting members who want be more involved in the American (at the upcoming APsaA scientific meetings in New York, there will be a workshop on Saturday morning, December 18, for members interested in becoming more active in the organization). It will let them know that the expertise acquired during their training makes them a highly valued asset to the American. With follow-through that encourages our members who recently graduated to participate in the organization, the American will be strengthened in the way JFK envisioned for America.