In order to insure that the articles publicizing our spring and winter meetings arrive before rather than after the meetings, TAP has decided to rearrange its schedule. This article is devoted to the upcoming Fall Meeting. We will do our best to bring you news that will still be relevant when the meetings take place. In no city is this likely to be more difficult than New York, where things change so Quickly.
New York City, like today's American Psychoanalytic Association, cherishes its traditions while it is impassioned by new discoveries. I grew up in Manhattan and remember my father's response as we passed the myriad of Con Edison signs that crowded the landscape, proclaiming “Dig We Must for a Growing New York.”
“Well,” he'd chuckle, “it'll be a great city if they ever get it finished.”
I have since learned to live with the reality that that day will never come and to marvel, instead, at the dynamic integration of the old and the new. Here's a small and idiosyncratic sampling of new and old things to see and do in New York City when you come for the meeting in December.
The A. A. Brill Library of the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute was established in December 1948 and is probably the largest psychoanalytic library in the world today. It holds more than 40,000 books, journals, and reprints, which span the literature from the beginnings of psychoanalysis to the present. Memorabilia that document this history are also on view. Computer links to international Internet resources allow the Brill to function in cyberspace, keeping pace in the twenty-first century.
Head downtown to the Chelsea district, and you will find a relative newcomer, Other Books. This bookstore was opened two years ago by Michael Moskowitz, an academic, editor, and psychoanalyst. The New York Times described Moskowitz's “mission … to rescue psychoanalysis from the academic isolation and bitter scholarly skirmishes … by bridging the divide between clinicians and theorists who work in various disciplines.” In addition to the shelves crowded with books that represent these many viewpoints, we find memorabilia of a different sort: an Interpretation of Dreams T-shirt or a notepad encouraging the user to “write what's really on your mind.” Moskowitz runs the bookstore and publishes for Other Press while maintaining an office where he sees his patients at the rear of the bookstore's brownstone home.
One of the oldest museums in New York is the Metropolitan Museum of Art, established in 1879. The 1.5-million-square-foot space sits in a premier location at Fifth Avenue and Central Park and houses more than 2 million objects.
Another old jewel of a museum, as much for its setting as its collection of medieval art, is a bit of a trek but worth it. The Cloisters, in Fort Tryon Park in Washington Heights, was built
from the remnants of five different monastery cloisters, Ask your hotel concierge for directions.
Not to be missed but too many to mention are the galleries all around the city. Many of the newest artists are shown in galleries in SoHo, Chelsea, and TriBeCa (the Triangle Below Canal street).
A suggestion from Arnold Richards: Visit the new home of significant history and tradition, the Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Overlooking Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, this museum is dedicated to “keeping the memory of the past alive and offering hope for the future.”
Restaurateur Danny Meyer is, according to Warren Poland, “not only a mensch” but also a part of the American's history. He's the stepson of Al Frank, psychoanalyst and past winner of the American's Sigourney prize, and son of Roxie Munroe Meyer. His first restaurant, the Union Square Café at 21 East 16th Street in the Flatiron district, became a home to analysts in New York and those visiting from out of town. (By the way, the Flatiron Building, though only twenty-two stories high, was the world's first steel frame “skyscraper” when it was built in 1902. Its original name is the Fuller Building, but its triangular shape gave rise to the nickname by which it is best known.)
Not content to rest on former glories, Meyer has added a host of restaurants to New York's fine dining. After the Union Square Café, he added Gramercy Tavern nearby, then Eleven Madison Park and his newest, Tabla (Indian-spiced American), to the Gramercy Park area. Every one is a celebrated success.
In the “everything old is new again” category is the Brasserie on 53rd between Park and Lexington. Famous for its twenty-four-hour availability and the chance to spot famous entertainers, the Brasserie was closed down after a fire five years ago. It has reopened, but now it closes at 1:00 a.m. — still plenty late for those attending morning meetings the next day.
Janice Lieberman directs us to one of the new trends: chic restaurants in the former meatpacking district of the city. Visit Pastis, Restaurant Florent, or Markt and let us know if the cuisine is as chic as the location.
To end as evenings often do, I offer an old and a new bar. The Oak Room at the ninety-eight-year-old Algonquin Hotel (59 West 44th Street) is famous as the site of the Round Table, a literary salon started by Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, and Robert E. Sheridan, which ran for ten years and boasted many of our most famous literary and theatrical talents.
Or head downtown to New York's first champagne bar, the Bubble Lounge, in TriBeCa at 228 West Broadway. Here you can sample from some 250 different champagnes with a suitable variety of caviar snacks.
For a more complete account of what's available as the meetings come closer, don't forget to check “Time Out New York” () and “Digital City New York” () on the Internet.
New Orleans is up next. Please feel free to send me anecdotes and recommendations for the pre–Annual Meeting issue of TAP. I can be reached at .
Randi Finger, Ph.D., is a child/adolescent and adult psychoanalyst in private practice in Washington, D.C., and an associate instructor for the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute. She chairs the American's Ad Hoc Committee on Outreach for Scientific and Educational Programs.