Julio Calderon reported good news. After the Affiliate Council's membership drive, there were several institutes reporting 100 percent membership among their first-year candidates. There was a 76 percent acceptance rate among first-year candidates, which was a 14 percent increase over previous years and it was the highest since 2000. There are 119 new first-year candidates in our institutes, which is also the highest number of new candidates since 2000. Other good news included the fact that a group of 12 candidates from the Affiliate Council attended the Project for Innovation in Psychoanalytic Education meeting to discuss their views of the current training analysis system. The candidates felt welcomed and their opinions valued by the members of the committee. Calderon said, “Candidates represent the future of our profession and will be most impacted by any changes to our current system.”
Robert Cummings brought the final draft of the practice guideline for the approval of Council. The guideline describes the process of psychoanalytic clinical assessment, clarifies differences, and makes recommendations for psychoanalysts for psychiatric evaluation of adults, particularly involving the physical examination of patients, obtaining records for present and past healthcare treatment, and treatment planning. It also summarizes and clarifies matters of charting. The guideline will be particularly useful as a piece of evidence in members' defense in malpractice cases. The guideline was adopted and authorized for publication by the Council.
“Candidates represent the future of our profession and will be most impacted by any changes to our current system.”
Bob Pyles reported that the RICO (the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act) suit has resulted in settlements from all but three managed care companies charged in the suit. Seventy-seven thousand dollars has been added to the coffers of APsaA through the generosity of many APsaA members who donated their share of the settlements.
James Pyles also reported that, after influencing the inclusion of many improvements in the Health Information IT bill in the Senate, “The war on medical privacy now hangs in the balance.” As the House takes up a bill that is “specifically designed to eliminate privacy protections under state law and possibly even under the psychotherapy patient privilege,” we should be aware that, “the other side does have weapons of mass destruction.” Those weapons are ignorance and money. And what we have to fight with are facts and medical ethics. He asked that we all contact members of Congress and mental health associations and urge them to take a stand on HR 4157 by asking this simple question, “Will patients have a choice?” And he added, “Electronic information may be a good idea, but it must be grounded in established principles of medical ethics, Constitutional law, and the law of medical privilege.”
The final report of the Task Force on Extended Membership Criteria (TFEMC) includes two proposals. Proposal A omits numerical thresholds and is, in the opinion of some, more appropriate for a bylaw. Proposal B includes numbers which are familiar to the Association. The report will serve to guide the members of the Membership Requirements and Review Committee (MRRC) as they develop standards and procedures. Harriet Wolfe said of the task force, “As a microcosm of the Association, we found ourselves reflecting a fault line in our organization related to trust. And this question of trust often comes out in arguments that are based on a funny mix of history and science and get marshaled flexibly to support one or the other side of an argument. We felt we needed to look at the ways in which we resist relying on and learning from each other to create something more forward looking than what we already have. We hope that the current members of the Association will focus on the issues we describe in the report and become prepared to support the evolving work of the MRRC.” The report was endorsed by the Council as it had been the day before by BOPS.
Nadine Levinson reported that in November papers were signed with the Institute of Psychoanalysis in London, with Random House, the Sigmund Freud Copyright, and Harris Trust to take on the Standard Edition, which will be in PEP Archive 1, Version 6.
The Task Force on Reorganization report was considered. Some councilors felt that they did not have enough time to discuss the report. They felt referral to our attorney to put the TFoR recommendations into bylaw language would be premature. Others objected strongly to what they saw as the plan's protection of the succcessor to BOPS from Executive Council oversight. It was referred back to the TFoR by a vote of 33 to 11.
Jane Currin Walvoord, L.C.S.W., is a graduate of the Dallas Psychoanalytic Center, and a member of the Psychoanalytic Association of New York.