I believe it is fair to say that, in spite of the enthusiastic efforts of the International Psychoanalytical Association to consistently increase information to our entire membership about what is going on in psychoanalysis all over the world, important gaps remain in this information. This has been even truer regarding the efforts of the American Psychoanalytic Association to communicate our views and developments to the international psychoanalytic community. Under these circumstances, I think the present initiative from the American Psychoanalytic Association, under the leadership of Jon Meyer, to increase two-way communications between the International Psychoanalytical Association and the American Psychoanalytic Association is a most welcome step to strengthen our collegial relations.
The objective of this “International TAP” column is to provide information to the American psychoanalytic community about developments in international psychoanalysis, to further open the doors to the IPA's efforts to reach the American membership. This initiative also will help the international psychoanalytic community to become better acquainted with new initiatives and developments in North America. I strongly urge our friends and colleagues in all the three regions to include the “International TAP” in your regular sources of information about what is new in American psychoanalysis. I hope that it will presently foster mutual understanding and involvement of all of us.
—Otto F. Kernberg, M.D.
President, International Psychoanalytical Association, 1997-2001
Hurricane Katrina forced members of the New Orleans Psychoanalytic Center to evacuate the city. Although the institute building was not damaged, the members scattered to the four corners of the United States. By November, analysts at best had resumed 40 to 60 percent of their previous caseloads; some were located where they could not work at all.
The American Psychoanalytic Association collected money for the American Red Cross and for its own Psychoanalytic Assistance Fund. The PAF, established before World War II to help colleagues fleeing Europe resettle, continues to aid analysts facing unanticipated financial hardship. In mid-September, International Psychoanalytical Association President Claudio Eizirik made an international appeal to all IPA members for contributions to the Red Cross and the PAF.
It is unclear when the New Orleans center will be back on its feet. Center president Randolph Harper hopes programming can begin next September.
A joint liaison group of representatives of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies (CIPS) has been formed. Both groups have very similar standards of psychoanalytic education and practice, and are participants in the North American Psychoanalytic Confederation (NAPsaC). Among other issues, the group is concerned about the threat of the low standard psychoanalytic licensing being promoted state by state by the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP). A new liaison group has also been formed between APsaA and the free-standing IPA institute, the New York Freudian Society.
The Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies of Latin America (FEPAL) is in the process of creating a virtual library of psychoanalysis. The goal is to digitalize all psychoanalytic literature from the FEPAL associations so that it is available, at no cost, for online users. The literature will comprise not only journals, but also presentations, workshops, symposiums, debates, congresses, research projects, and monographs from all the psychoanalytic societies and institutes in Latin America.
Different online operations will be possible: data base searches, access to plain texts, links with the Web sites of the component institutions and authors, participation in forums on specific subjects and in shared research, requests for specialist advice, and access to distance learning material.
The virtual library is intended to strengthen the intra- and inter-institutional links between members who feel isolated in their own psychoanalytic institutes. What is also hoped for is that the virtual library will provide a tool to promote a much needed dialogue between psychoanalysts, other mental health professionals, and the public at large.
There will be no charge for use of the virtual library.
An interdisciplinary group of psychoanalysts, library specialists, and computer technicians in Argentina has been working for the past two years on the virtual library. The Pan-American Health Organization provided technical expertise, computer software technology, and free training of personnel.
The Viennese psychoanalytic clinic is putting together a project that will establish contact with several groups of professionals to interest them in psychoanalysis as a successful treatment of patients with personality disorders, and as a conceptual tool for understanding complex mental states. Many of the targeted professional groups, such as teachers, journalists, politicians, and sociologists are interested in what psychoanalysis has to offer to the public. The project will promote psychoanalysis from different points of view through conferences, clinical workshops, a lecture series, and increased contact with the media. It is hoped that it can be up and running in time for the 150th anniversary of Freud's birth next spring.
The Viennese outpatient clinic, founded in 1991, was modeled after the former Ambulatorium of the Viennese Psychoanalytic Society that operated successfully from 1926 until its liquidation by the Nazis in 1936. The earlier clinic, with full support from Freud, provided free and low-fee treatment.
The clinic now sees mostly patients with borderline and narcissistic personality disorders and can treat these patients without fee because of a contract with the national health insurance companies.
Christine Ury, D.Ps., is associate editor and international editor of TAP. She is a faculty member at the Canadian Institute of Psychoanalysis and has a private practice in Montreal.