The conventional wisdom has been that analysts and investigators involved in systematic research wouldn't be interested in sharing knowledge and in learning from one another. If we attempted to build such bridges, no one would be crossing the bridges in either direction. From the robust attendance at the APsaA's inaugural poster session and the filled auditorium at the clinical research symposium (“Internal Representations Across Time: Bridges Between Empirical Research and Clinical Insights”) at the December meeting, it looks like the conventional wisdom may be wrong.
This inaugural poster session, “Research Relevant to Theory and Practice in Psychoanalysis,” was a crowded and lively gathering, humming with energizing informal exchanges between clinicians and researchers. Analysts who gathered in the East Foyer found senior investigators, post-doctoral researchers, and graduate students standing by their large poster displays ready to engage in conversation and answer questions about systematic research into a variety of psychoanalytically oriented topics. After a brief orienting presentation by a panel of analyst-researchers including Sidney Blatt, Peter Fonagy, and Linda Mayes, the audience browsed freely among the poster displays and engaged the presenters in discussion. The participants lingered for an additional hour past the official end of the session until the displays were dismantled.
One analyst who attended said, “The poster session was one of the most exciting things at this meeting.” Clinicians were not the only group impressed. One ranking investigator was heard to exclaim, “This is really good. People are really involved and interested, asking questions.” Another senior investigator observed that he had presented at other research meetings and found very little interest. “This is the place to present!” he exclaimed.
While poster sessions are a standard part of most scientific societies, they are new to the APsaA. The idea for a poster session emerged simultaneously from members of the Committee on Scientific Activities (CSA), chaired by Robert Galatzer-Levy, and the Ad Hoc Task Force on Psychoanalytic Science, chaired by Allan Compton. This convergence in thinking was an initial piece of good fortune that allowed both the appointment of a CSA Subcommittee on Education and Psychoanalytic Research (now the Subcommittee on Posters and Research Symposia) and an initial allocation of some seed money.
Photo by Prudy Gourguechon
Photo by Prudy Gourguechon
The original subcommittee, chaired by Stuart Hauser with Linda Mayes and myself, was asked by the CSA in late 1999 to explore and develop initiatives for research education in the Association. The idea of beginning this process at national meetings through a poster session and holding a clinical research symposium were under discussion by the subcommittee when the task force submitted its report and recommendations.
With the acceptance of the task force's report and allocation of poster session seed money, the subcommittee began to explore specific ways to implement these directions. Other organizations were consulted for input on their poster session procedures. It became clear that the funds the APsaA had allocated were insufficient. In late spring 2001, Beth Seelig, the new chair of CSA, provided the balance of needed funds from the CSA budget, and thereby made the poster session a CSA priority.
With the necessary funding assured, the subcommittee seized the opportunity to mount
Linda S. Goodman, Ph.D., is a psychoanalyst in private practice. She is a faculty member of the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, where she chairs the Research Committee. She is an associate clinical professor in the UCLA Psychology Department.
the inaugural poster session at the next Fall Meeting in December. Given the severe time constraints, with deadlines a few months away, the subcommittee chose to make the event invitational. The idea was that researchers whose psychoanalytically oriented research was already known to members of the subcommittee would be more responsive to this late invitation to participate. I stepped into the role of poster session coordinator, working as liaison between the Association and poster presenters.
Despite the success of the poster session, we imagine critics of our efforts might ask, “Is it worth doing?”
Some researchers and analysts think it is well worth promoting a meaningful exchange of ideas. Karlen Lyons-Ruth wrote in 1998 that her research would be greatly enhanced by continuing to draw hypotheses and directions of inquiry from psychoanalytic clinical observations. Others have expressed this opinion as well.
Even if researchers could benefit from contact with analysts, what does systematic empirical research and rigorous scholarship from within psychoanalysis and from neighboring fields have to offer psychoanalytic theory and practice? It may offer “revivifying perspectives,” as Philip Holzman and Gerald Aronson wrote in 1992. A central idea underlying the building of bridges between analysts and researchers is the conviction that there is value in fostering openness in both psychoanalytic theory and practice. Knowledge generated through fruitful collaborations between psychoanalytic practitioners and other scientists and scholars will ultimately benefit all.
Expanding on the success of the inaugural poster session, the Subcommittee on Posters and Research Symposia plans to mount another session at the meeting in January 2003, allowing for broader participation of those engaged in research. The subcommittee invites submissions with conceptual and/or empirical relevance to psychoanalytic theory, technique, aspects of practice, and effectiveness of psychoanalysis. Of special interest is interdisciplinary scholarship addressing research questions in “neighboring fields,” including developmental and social psychology, family psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, sociology, literary criticism, historical studies, history of ideas, and art history.
Those interested in further information or in receiving an application for future poster session participation should contact Linda Goodman at , 310-209-5542 (telephone), or 310-471-6141 (fax).