The announcement of prizes and awards at the Business Meeting of Members at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association in San Francisco was a festive occasion for honoring individuals for their outstanding contributions to scholarship and service.
The mission of the Community Clinics Committee is to expand and enhance psychoanalytic services to underserved communities and individuals. This year the committee presented the Community Clinic Service Award to the Child Development Center of the Houston-Galveston Psychoanalytic Institute.
The Child Development Center, which is directed by Diane Manning, is a multifaceted psychoanalytic community clinic that combats the influence of managed care by offering a preschool outreach program, a psychoanalytically informed treatment service, and professional training. The faculty donates nearly 8,000 volunteer hours of training time each year to the institute's training programs, 5,000 hours to local educational institutions, and more than 2,000 volunteer hours in the community, for a total of more than $2.5 million in professional services each year.
The Committee on Scientific Activities awarded the first Scientific Paper Prize to Jonathan Shedler for “A New Language for Psychoanalytic Diagnosis,” published in JAPA, 2002, 50/2.
When asked to comment on the importance of his paper, Shedler wrote, “There is a widespread belief within psychoanalysis that it is impossible to conduct empirical research without trivializing or eviscerating psychoanalytic concepts. This paper describes an approach to studying personality organization that preserves the richness and complexity of psychoanalytic case formulation while also providing reliable data for research. This same method also has direct application to analytic training and supervision, leading to richer and more accurate case formulations. I hope analysts who think empirical research is not relevant to psychoanalytic practice will read this paper and reconsider their views.”
Jonathan Shedler, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Professional Psychology, University of Denver, and has a faculty appointment in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.
The JAPA Prize is awarded to the author of the best paper published in JAPA during the previous year. This year the prize was awarded to three authors: Rosemary H. Balsam, Richard M. Gottlieb, and Mitchell Wilson.
The prize-winning authors graciously provided descriptions of their papers for this article.
“The Vanished Pregnant Body”
by Rosemary H. Balsam
JAPA, 2003, 51/4
“This paper is part of my ambition to increase a contemporary awareness of the body in mental life and to create a significant place in psychoanalytic theory for the adult female body in its most mature functional capacities. I contend that the well-known, eras-old unconscious phallocentricity in thought has contributed unwittingly to the dominance and acceptance of a mentalized body theory emanating solely from the adult male sexual body represented by the ‘phallus.’ The theoretical concept of female ‘lack’ is viewed from the vantage point of adult pregnancy, which highlights the radical erasure that exists. I suggest that one of the differences between men's and women's bodies
Debra Eder (left) and Carolyn Gatto (right) each receive a special “Certificate of Appreciation” for their many years of dedicated service.
Lynn Stormon, M.A., is the first APsaA public service psychology intern and is currently a doctoral candidate in clinical depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute.
may be understood in terms of the female ‘shifting’ form.”
Rosemary H. Balsam, M.D., is a psychoanalyst in private practice, a training and supervising analyst at the Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis, associate professor of psychiatry at the Yale Medical School, and on the staff of the Department of Student Mental Health.
“Psychosomatic Medicine: the Divergent Legacies of Freud and Janet”
by Richard M. Gottlieb
JAPA, 2003, 5/13
“In the paper, I outline some specific differences between the psychologies of Freud and his near-contemporary Pierre Janet, and trace the legacies of both sets of ideas down to the present day as these are reflected in the sub-discipline of ‘psychosomatic medicine.’ As we all know, the great era of psychosomatic medicine studies has passed. In the end, the Holy Grail of these studies, the link between mental and emotional states and medical illnesses, was never found. In the wake of the abandonment of this quest, and in part due to the stunning new investigative technologies that have become available, a new paradigm of investigation and theory has emerged, currently somewhat clumsily referred to in the aggregate as ‘neuroscience.’ We hold out great hopes for developments in this area and for psychoanalysis to have an important role in its achievements.”
Richard M. Gottlieb, M.D., is a faculty member of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute and founding group chairman of the Berkshire Psychoanalytic Institute, where he is a training and supervising analyst.
“The Analyst's Desire and Narcissistic Resistances”
by Mitchell Wilson
JAPA, 2003, 51/1
“I try to show how the analyst's inevitable desire for particular experiences with their patients leads to resistances that have a narcissistic basis. These desires for particular experiences are often hidden from the analyst because they are clothed in the analyst's technical approach and theoretical point of view.
Using Lacan's ideas about ‘imaginary’ or ‘dual relationship,’ I investigate the specific structure of iatrogenic (analyst induced) and co-created resistances. These resistances involve the analyst's misrecognizing his or her own ideas and feelings for the patient's ideas and feelings (either conscious or unconscious), and intervening based upon these misrecognitions. I discuss the concept of the ‘analytic third’ as an attempted solution to the stalemate inherent in the dual relation.”
Mitchell Wilson, M.D., is a psychoanalyst in Berkeley, California, and a faculty member of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute.
Robert M. Galatzer-Levy received the American Psychoanalytic Association's Distinguished Service Award. Galatzer-Levy was science advisor to the Executive Committee for four years, the first to serve in this capacity. The award lauded him for “the thoughtful and eloquent way in which you represented the interest and point of view of science with the Executive Committee. As its first science advisor, you showed how the perspective of science can be applicable in ways others might not see or speak to, and you carried out the mandate of this position with diplomacy, humor, and great intelligence.”
Galatzer Levy, M.D., is a psychoanalyst in private practice and a faculty member at the Institute for Psychoanalysis, Chicago.
A quiet moment, Ruth Fischer in a sea of chairs at the 93rd Annual Meeting.