This is a historic moment in the Association. The Washington meetings of the Board and Council showed that these bodies, which have led the Association for all our history, are both ready for long needed change. We must grasp the significance of this moment in order not to lose it.
The June meetings showed us that change is urgent: The Association seems to be fast approaching a fork in the road. Either we continue as a unitary professional association, embracing our traditional values in both education and practice, or we split into two separate organizations, each free to pursue its own version of priorities and excellence.
Historically, both the Board on Professional Standards and the Executive Council have resisted any tinkering with their structures. BOPS has defended its relative autonomy in the interests of its stewardship over education and credentialing, and Council has defended its authority as the constitutional board of directors. For years, BOPS was dominant. But recently, some members of Council have demanded that BOPS recognize its status under New York law and subordinate itself to Council, accepting that it is a committee like any other. It is clear that excesses on either side are destructive.
How did we come to this point—this point, where the most highly functional psychoanalytic association in the world is in danger of tearing itself in two? The organization has become polarized in an unprecedented way. A group in BOPS feels like it is fighting desperately for its values and beliefs, and a political action group on the other side is fighting to subordinate BOPS and to bring education and standards under membership control.
In January, the Council demonstrated its power to enact the very kind of thing that BOPS leaders have feared, despite assurances that such would never happen to BOPS actions: Council derailed the process of the Task Force on Reorganization—a two-year process conducted in full view of Council and membership and with continuous input from all facets of the organization. This was done despite TFoR approval by 88 percent of voting members. Afterwards, respected BOPS educators began to urge separating BOPS from the Association to create, perhaps, a separate association of institutes or an association of psychoanalytic educators (a competing membership organization). A nightmare possibility also loomed: fragmentation of the world's preeminent psychoanalytic association with some institutes going, some staying, and some torn apart as their members split on the question. In fact, in June, candidates for chair and secretary of BOPS based their platforms on separation scenarios. It is no wonder that the June meetings began on a somber note. No one knew what would happen.
The Association seems to be fast approaching a fork in the road. Either we continue as a unitary professional association, embracing our traditional values in both education and practice, or we split into two separate organizations, each free to pursue its own version of priorities and excellence.
On Wednesday, June 14, of the meetings, in an historic first, BOPS suspended its usual business for five hours to discuss the Plan to Renew the American, a plan based primarily on the TFoR recommendations and developed to preserve the Association as one. BOPS decided to summarize its discussion for the use of members in their voting deliberations. Thus, BOPS decided not to oppose the Renew Plan, whereby most BOPS functions would come under the authority of a new democratically elected board of directors. Only credentialing and certification would be relatively sheltered in a subsidiary corporation—and even these functions would have unprecedented participation by the general membership. The significance of this decision is monumental: BOPS agrees not to oppose fundamental change in its structure.
Then on Thursday, in the next monumental decision, the Executive Council approved the Renew Plan. Thus, the Council agrees—also a first—to relinquish its role as board of directors. Under Renew the American, both BOPS, with its direct representation from every institute, and the Council, with its direct representation from every society, would become parallel “committees of the corporation,” charged to bring initiatives in their areas of responsibility to the new, small Board of Directors for action. The Council would become a deliberative body charged to address the truly important and urgent issues for our profession. Its 60-member structure, ill suited to nimble board responsiveness, is perfect for thoughtful deliberation. At last, a structure would exist in which societies—and thus, membership and practice—could receive focused attention, nurturance, and full organizational support. Just as BOPS has supported and nurtured institutes and education, the new Society Council could focus the collective wisdom of our members on societies, practice, membership, the challenges for us all. We cannot continue our internecine wars. The world moves on, while we ravage each other.
Lynne Moritz, M.D., is president of the American Psychoanalytic Association.
Both Board and Council accept the need for change. Thus, we have a chance. Perhaps we have bought some time.
The Renew bylaws must achieve approval of two-thirds of the members voting in order to be adopted—a very high bar. Some cynics have declared that this will never happen, and they have already launched a highly organized, highly strategized campaign to defeat the plan. The Members List, Openline, and local listservs will once again be flooded with every argument, this time, designed to defeat the Renew Plan. Between now and the election, you will read and hear the rhetoric shaped over the last decade and honed in their last campaign. I ask you to read the negative campaigning—and the positive—with a very critical and careful eye, and don't take any argument at face value. Too much is at stake.
A determined, single-focused small group can nearly always garner enough votes to immobilize an organization that has broad and urgent responsibilities on many fronts. Yet, at this moment, our members must perform the near-impossible feat of a two-thirds vote if our Association is to be free to engage the very real challenges that face us in the world.
Imagine what we could do with freedom to use our resources and creativity to benefit our profession and our patients! Imagine a Council on Research and Scholarship to coordinate and nurture the research and scholarly agendas that would bring us back to the world of science and ideas. Imagine building on our successes in public information to bring back psychoanalysis to our cultural values. Imagine focused attention in state and federal legislatures. Imagine creative innovations in high school and college curricula development. Imagine our Association free to become! We must pass beyond governance as our number one priority.
This Association must stand as one. That is the reason that the Renew Plan was created. Tensions always exist in an organization that encompasses people of passion and commitment to a rich mix of goals, but tensions can be generative. We have contributed enormously to psychoanalysis; our Association is the world leader in training and practice. All the diverse energies and passions of our members are Association assets. To lose that is to lose much.
The lasting impression of the meetings was the dramatic change of mood after the Council vote. From concern and demoralization, the mood became exhilaration and joy. Hope is dramatic. Never before has BOPS not opposed being ruled by a supraordinate board of directors. Never before has Council agreed to yield its role as that board. These are acts of trust and optimism on the parts of both BOPS and Council—trust for the future that our members will elect wisely and trust that our leaders will lead well. And now we face a different but vastly important moment—we must trust ourselves to the wisdom of our members. We can only await the vote.