APsaA members often wonder about the relevance of the IPA to their practices and to psychoanalysis in America. Here begins a regular series in which Piers Pendred, Director General of the IPA, based in London, will fill us in on some particularly interesting developments in the IPA's work. TAP and the IPA both hope that this flow of tidbits of information will inform APsaA members of the IPA's continued relevance to their lives.
TAP will continue to publish more extensive articles about the IPA when more in-depth coverage is desirable.
The Executive Council of the IPA met in Miami in January and endorsed changes to its non-discrimination policy, following many questions and debate by members. The IPA policy now specifically includes “homosexual orientation” within its terms.
This IPA committee has consultative status with the UN, which gives it the right to participate in UN meetings and to offer advice. A number of members were concerned over the participation of two members of the committee in a September 2001 forum for nongovernmental organizations that ran in parallel with the UN Conference on Racism in Durban. The forum was disrupted by unacceptable anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli interventions.
The IPA council meeting in Miami this past January endorsed the work of the UN Committee, particularly in building understanding between the IPA and the UN and its agencies. The council praised committee chair Afaf Mahfouz and confirmed her continuation in this role. However, it arranged for the UN Committee to be restructured by April, with the addition of new members and a group of senior consultants, to avoid these problems in future.
The recommendations of the IPA Structure and Mission Task Force have been accepted, and new procedures are being introduced for nominations in the 2003 elections to the new IPA Board.
The American Psychoanalytic Association, the four U.S. independent societies, the Canadian Society, and the Japanese Society (which is part of the IPA's North American region) have selected Ernest Lawrence, Dominique Scarfone, Edward Nersessian, Jorge Schneider, and Jerry Winer as the members of its Regional Nominating Committee. They will consider proposed names for the 2003 slate between mid-June and mid-July. Any societies or groups with ten or more members may propose names to the committee.
Bob Tyson writes of the second edition of the Open Door Review of Outcome Studies in Psychoanalysis, published March 1, 2002:
The Open Door Review is unique among psychoanalytic publications. It is the only resource for anyone interested in the current status of research on outcome results of psychoanalytic treatment. … It provides a superb framework for assessing the validity and reliability of the studies it reports, and it does so in a manner that is highly accessible and user-friendly.
The review is available from the IPA for $30. [See TAP 35/1, page 18, for a review of the first edition.]
There has long been debate within the IPA as to the format of its congresses. The Executive Council has now agreed to significant changes. These include the incorporation of the training and research pre-congresses into the main body of the congress and the shortening of the event to five days, including the business meeting on the first day.
The 2003 Congress, “Working at the Frontiers,” will reflect these and other changes including the following:
Establishing a system of subject tracks to enable participants to select sessions that most interest them.
Extending the number of small discussion groups, with e-mail groups starting work months prior to the event.
Offering an innovative interdisciplinary program in co-operation with local organizations in Toronto.
The Toronto congress will be much more widely open to colleagues in allied professions than in the past. It will run from Wednesday, July 30, to Saturday, August 2, 2003.