Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast August 28 and 29, 2005. Members of the New Orleans Psychoanalytic Center soon realized that they could not quickly resume their practices. Even if homes and offices were intact—which was not always the case—patients were gone. The Psychoanalytic Assistance Fund of the American Psychoanalytic Association stepped in to provide help. Initially established to help refugees of World War II resettle, the fund had not since had an event of this magnitude to which to respond. New Orleans center members Lee Ascherman and Fred Griffin helped APsaA and the fund determine how best to help. An appeal was sent out to APsaA members, who generously contributed $61,880 to the fund. (They also contributed $20,000 to the Red Cross.) Grants of up to $5,000 were offered APsaA members who were privately employed and whose practices were interrupted abruptly by the hurricane. The sum of $103,000 was disbursed—about what the center had predicted would be needed.

The center circulated information about the grants, and reached out to members who were reluctant to apply for help. Members had never anticipated the disorienting experience of being unemployed. Others, some felt, were more in need. The vast majority of those eligible, however, accepted help. Ascherman says that it is difficult for those outside the region to realize “how isolated and overwhelmed people felt…. Once they got over their awkwardness and embarrassment, people felt really moved.” As much as the value of the monetary gift, which Ascherman says was “sizeable” but was “not going to carry the day,” was the deep value of not being forgotten by their colleagues and their organization.

—Michael Slevin