Psychoanalysis in the Larger World: The International Association for Applied Psychoanalytic Studies

On January 24, a group of 22 people—psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, academics, lawyers, and artists, among others—gathered for an elegant dinner, hosted by Stuart W. Twemlow and Nadia Ramzy, co-editors-in-chief of the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, to give birth to the International Association for Applied Psychoanalytic Studies (IAAPS).

The creation of IAAPS is the natural outgrowth of a confluence of forces that point to the importance of psychoanalysts working with others in law, government, international relations, and the full range of academic disciplines to apply psychological knowledge and psychoanalytic ideas to the challenging social and community problems of our times. Necessity is the mother of invention—so it was with hope that we greeted Niko Canner's advice to APsaA at the Winter Meeting in New York City:To achieve greatness at this time in its history and, indeed, to avoid obsolescence, psychoanalysis must take its knowledge out into the world. Thus, with pride and pleasure, we invite our colleagues to share in this opportunity to carry out the mission Canner so sagely offers us.

IAAPS aims to “create a worldwide intellectual community that will strive to stimulate connections that lead to real projects that can be studied and shared. It will stimulate scholarly dialogue between applied psychoanalysts, concerned citizens, and other professionals working on the front lines with social problems…” Although we speak here in the future tense, it is important to note that a growing number of us have already turned our attention to social problems, many of which have been addressed in the various papers that have been published in the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies (the Association's journal) since its inception in 1999 (originally published as the Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies). Articles have covered such issues as violence and terrorism, racism and interethnic conflict, the Holocaust, immigration, school violence, work with inner city children, and the homeless.

Networking for Change

This efflorescence of psychoanalysts' involvement and interest in sociocultural problems both in the consultation room and in the field was powerfully visible at APsaA's Winter Meeting in multiple contexts—panels, symposia, and discussion groups. Topics such as revenge, prejudice, group violence, and terrorism were but a sampling of the discourse that is growing and developing in terms of taking the knowledge of psychoanalysis to the larger world. Nowhere was this more clearly or eloquently stated, for example, than in Lord Alderdice's comment, “Armed only with nonanalytic explanations of violence, our world will not make sense of terrorist attacks…” We see how important it is for human society that the profession involve itself in the serious societal challenges of the 21st century.

Organized as a non-profit corporation, IAAPS will offer its members online video courses offering CEU credits, listservs with ongoing debate and discussion with fellow members of the Association, opportunities for networking with people around the world working in social and community problems, and the posting and discussion of articles through our Web site. Our Web site is scheduled for launch in June and we are offering free six-month trial memberships in our cybercommunity. We will offer listservs in various specific areas; our guest presenters include among others, Peter Fonagy and Jim Gilligan. The first three courses, presently being set up by Stuart Twemlow, Frank Sacco, and several of their colleagues, will focus on ethics and boundaries, safety when dealing with violent clients, and bullying in schools.

Also, being planned is an exciting conference on prejudice in Salt Lake City for the academic year, 2005-2006—specific date to be announced. Additionally, with membership in the Association, comes a subscription to the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, an important publication and discussion forum for the dissemination of psychoanalytic thinking within the context of interdisciplinary discourses and work in the area of social problems.

A number of specific efforts in applied work are already underway and sponsored by our strong supporters. What follows is only a sampling of what psychoanalysts and professionals from other disciplines are doing:

• Phyllis Cath is active in innovative preschool teacher training to assist teachers in gaining a better understanding of the children they teach.

• Shahla Chehrazi heads a mental health team intervening with high risk pre-school children in the inner city.

• John Devine, an anthropologist, and Jon Cohen, a psychologist, are developing psychoanalytically informed programs to improve the social and emotional education of school children.

• Alan Felix studies and helps homeless men in the worst sections of the Bronx. This analyst has reached into this hopeless group with a way to humanize the treatment of one of the most neglected and discarded populations in the United States.

• Afaf Mahfouz, a lawyer and scholar of international law, is currently the chair of the IPA Committee on the United Nations and is studying and working to ameliorate the psychological and sociocultural determinants of prejudice.

  Effectively addressing social problems as well as working towards achieving conflict resolution, reconciliation, and peace are the paramount considerations and goals of IAAPS and the Journal.

• Diane Manning of the Houston-Galveston Psychoanalytic Institute works with an award winning pre-school for disturbed children. The Institute's Child Development Center consults with 100 local schools.

• Henri Parens has developed and conducted research at a Model Parenting Program in the projects of Philadelphia for several decades.

• Nadia Ramzy is developing a multi-faceted Palestinian/Israeli project on conflict resolution (with Lord Alderdice as consultant) involving people from a multiplicity of disciplines and points of view, including psychoanalysts from Israel, other Middle Eastern states, and the U.S.

• Bruce Sklarew applies psychoanalytic insight to group treatment of violent children from high-risk areas of Washington, D.C. in a school-based mourning project.

• Stuart W. Twemlow and Peter Fonagy researched the Peaceful Schools Project that uses a combination of defensive traditional martial arts and psychoanalytic theory focusing on mentalizing and managing power dynamics in the school climate. A randomized controlled trial of the project in nine elementary schools involving 3600 children showed improvements in academic achievement and reduction in bullying by helping schools to become more reflective about their cultures of power, and by promoting altruism to their students. A large scale implementation study is planned.

Effectively addressing social problems as well as working towards achieving conflict resolution, reconciliation, and peace are the paramount considerations and goals of IAAPS and the Journal. Through collaborative work with other disciplines, IAAPS is committed to achieving in this century for society what psychoanalysis achieved for the individual in the last century. We invite you, our colleagues, to join us in these efforts.

For information about IAAPS, please contact Frank Sacco at