In Tanya Luhrmann's new book, Of 2 Minds, she describes the chasm between biologic psychiatry and psychotherapy in modern psychiatry. Luhrmann details the evolution of this divide and the current deficit in psychotherapy training during residency that is jeopardizing American psychiatry — as well as psychology and social work. The American's Fellowship Program fills this gulf by exposing early-career trainees to the world of psychoanalysis.
The program itself is of two minds, but without a chasm. First, it invites trainees and early-career professionals in psychiatry, psychology, social work, and now academia to apply for the Fellowship and, regardless of winning, to be assigned a mentor to meet with regularly for a year. In fact, the heart of the program is the mentorship. Well over 100 APsaA members serve as mentors each year, providing one-to-one interaction that informs the mentees about psychoanalysis and is tailored to meet their interests and levels of education. Mentors introduce their mentees to the local psychoanalytic world and often bring them to local programs.
Second, the Fellowship Program selects a small group of Fellowship winners — this year seventeen of them — to attend the two APsaA meetings, meet analysts and present case material, bond within the group of winners, and be exposed to the inspiring activities of our Association. This experience has a profound impact on many of them, some of whom choose to pursue psychoanalytic training and others whose career interests continue to be psychoanalytically informed and psychoanalysis-friendly.
In fact, to further develop bridges between psychoanalysis and related fields, the Fellowship Program has begun accepting academic applicants from fields other than psychiatry, psychology, and social work. A collaboration with the Committee on Research and Special Training (CORST), this plan will include early-career academics and non-mental health professionals from the humanities, social sciences, medicine, law, theology, and the arts. The intent is to bring psychoanalysis to the larger world and bring expertise in applied fields back to the American. We are pleased that this year's Fellowship winners include a chair of an architecture department, a district attorney, and an academic in film and psychoanalytic studies.
“This experience has a profound impact on many of them, some of whom choose to pursue psychoanalytic training and others whose career interests continue to be psychoanalytically informed and psychoanalysis-friendly.”
Other new developments and collaborations have furthered the contributions of our Fellows and Former Fellows to the American. Several Fellows and Former Fellows have made psychotherapy research a significant part of their careers. When they enthusiastically requested a forum to discuss psychoanalytic research, the Fellowship and Program Committees readily endorsed the idea, and a new program, the Research Seminar for Trainees, was born. As part of this program, four Fellows presented their work to Peter Fonagy at the Chicago meetings last spring. Robert Galatzer-Levy chaired the interesting and well-attended program. At the December meetings Stuart Hauser will be the discussant and John Stuart Ablon, a Former Fellow and recent presenter, will chair.
Former Fellows are an important resource to the Fellowship Program and the American as they continue to be ambassadors for psychoanalysis, regardless of their career trajectories. Craig Katz, a Former Fellow and member of the Fellowship Committee, has been charged with the further development of the Former Fellows Association. He will continue to develop programming to involve Former Fellows and keep them connected with APsaA.
Together with Aisha Abbasi, co-chair of the Student Associates Committee, Katz helped develop a program for the December meetings, “Why I Chose to Become a Psychoanalyst,” designed to further expose students and trainees to psychoanalysis and allow Former Fellows a mentoring role within the APsaA. Sponsored by the Student Associates and Fellowship Committees, the program will include a panel of student associates and Former Fellows now in analytic training.
The Fellowship Committee continues to jointly sponsor a discussion group on cross-cultural issues with the Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity. Bruce Levin, a member of the committee, continues to provide a workshop on local fellowships at the meetings. Local fellowships are a successful, low-cost means of providing psychoanalytic programs to interested professionals, academics, and others through local societies.
These exciting developments are a tribute to Prudy Leib's wonderful leadership of the Fellowship Program. She recently stepped down from chairing the Fellowship Committee to become the editor of TAP. She led the program with tireless energy, inclusiveness, and fairness, and always with good humor. She developed a cohesive committee that gets the work done and is devoted to promoting psychoanalysis and nurturing the interests of our talented early-career applicants and Fellows.
This was another year of outstanding Fellowship applicants. Their talents and accomplishments are inspiring and humbling, and they made the selection very difficult. One hundred and twenty applicants spanned the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and social work, and included nine academic applicants in the first year of their eligibility. There were more applicants in all disciplines than there were last year, including seventy-five psychiatrists, twenty-four psychologists, and eleven social workers. They came from twenty-nine states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico; twelve new states were represented this year (Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and Washington).
Lisa A. Mellman, M.D., is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, associate director of the psychiatry residency at Columbia, and a faculty member of Columbia's Psychoanalytic Center. She chairs the American's Fellowship Committee.
Thirty-eight percent of applicants were from California, New York, or Massachusetts.
Applications and brochures for the 2001–02 Fellowship are now available from the APsaA Central Office. We seek future leaders, researchers, and educators in psychiatry, psychology, social work, and academia who have a serious interest in the study of the mind. We ask your help in promoting the Fellowship Program and encouraging students, supervisees, and junior colleagues to apply.
The Fellowship Committee includes new members Tim Dugan, Craig Katz, Kay Long, and Joel Whitebook, liaison to academia. Outgoing committee member Frederic Levine has been very helpful in his role as CORST liaison in expanding the Fellowship to academics.
The Fellowship Committee is of two unconflicted minds in its work promoting psychoanalysis to early-career professionals. We believe that the gap between biology and psychoanalysis, as well as the gap between behavioral and dynamic therapies, can be filled, bridges built, and different identities integrated. The excitement we witness and share as applicants develop new interests and colleagues in the psychoanalytic world assures us that the Fellowship Program plays a key role in bringing together different worlds and frames of mind.
For more information on the Fellowship Program and the 2000–2001 Fellows, see on the APsaA Web site.