In the last president's column, I described a number of research and science initiatives that I have had the opportunity to institute or facilitate. These included the creation of a Task Force on Research and Science, the joint science meetings planned with Division 39, the research project in child-focused training, and the comparative outcome study of psychoanalysis, CBT, and supportive-expressive psychotherapy.
In this column, I will outline some of the resources related to research and science that are available to our members through our Association. Parts of these resources exist in the sheer depth, diversity, and dedication of our members, many of whom have devoted their lives to education, science, and research. These members serve the organization and our discipline in myriad ways—in teaching, in developing the substantive data that must guide the process of change. Other resources flow from these members working within the structures of our Association, structures developed to support and coordinate our scientific and scholarly endeavors, e.g., the Fund for Psychoanalytic Research and the Research Associates of the American Psychoanalytic Association (RAAPA). Yet other resources exist in the work products of these members, available to all. And all members contribute to science through their dues support and individual contributions.
Indeed, since the Omnibus Science Initiative, the influence and penetration of science within the Association have increased exponentially. Some examples are the JAPA associate editor for research (Stuart Hauser), a regular science column in TAP (Andrew Gerber), science advisors for both BOPS and the Executive Council (Stuart Hauser/Linda Mayes and Bert Cohler), and the Program Committee's science liaisons. Furthermore, the Committee on Scientific Activities (CSA), which bears chief responsibility for the research conducted within APsaA, has been recently reorganized with an eye to greater emphasis on coordination and prioritization of projects. Finally, CSA provides support and assistance for all kinds of science needs—survey support, liaison, and oversight. BOPS also includes research components, and research teaching at institutes is now assessed during Committee on Institutes (COI) site visits. Every facet of the Association seems more imbued with an awareness of our status as a scientific endeavor.
Parts of these resources exist in the sheer depth, diversity, and dedication of our members, many of whom have devoted their lives to education, science, and research. These members serve the organization and our discipline in myriad ways—in teaching, in developing the substantive data that must guide the process of change.
This venerable program (established in 1976) serves two vital functions: It provides peer reviews of all proposals for scientific research that request funding from the Association, and it recommends and oversees the expenditure of the allocated funds. Chaired over the years by an array of science luminaries, the fund's current chair is Linda Mayes. The fund has developed its own internal guidelines for the grants it makes, now funding initiatives from new or early career researchers and projects under development. Funding may be approved for two years, the second year contingent on satisfactory progress reports.
The review process is of highest quality. Not only does the fund use reviewers both inside and outside of the Association, as appropriate for expertise, but reviewers give thorough and detailed feedback to the applicants. Projects that may not qualify for funding on first submission can be assisted in this way to clarify and improve the quality of the research effort and its presentation.
The fund, which is supported by donations from APsaA members and by a regular allocation in the Association's annual budget, now supports two or three grants per year as well as several smaller consultation grants.
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An increasingly popular poster session for research, administered by Linda Goodman, Linda Mayes, and Stuart Hauser, has been offered at APsaA's winter meetings for the last seven years. Submissions in January 2007 increased by 30 percent over 2006. A prize is awarded for the best submission and a traveling grant is awarded to a new or early career researcher. This respected and popular event has a standing place on the scientific program, Friday afternoons of the January meetings.
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Researchers who are not otherwise eligible to join the Association as members are allied with us as Research Associates under this program. The Research Associates of the American Psychoanalytic Association (RAAPA) Forum, a full-day meeting at APsaA's winter
Lynne Moritz, M.D., is president of the American Psychoanalytic Association.
meetings, brings clinical analysts, academic psychologists, and graduate students together in an active, integrated working group which seeks to develop new ideas and engagement in collaborative work. It encourages active participation of graduate students, including presentations of their work.
This interface of clinical and research perspectives is clear from previous programs: Linda Mayes presented her work on parental preoccupation; Phebe Cramer, on development of defense mechanisms in children and adolescents; Howard Shevrin, et al., on unconscious and primary process mentation. The 2008 Forum, Saturday of the APsaA Winter 2008 Meeting, will be an in-depth look at single case research, including theoretical and methodological issues.
RAAPA is chaired by Wilma Bucci and John Porcerelli.
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Modeled on the IPA-sponsored University College London psychoanalytic research training program (RTP), the New Haven RTP provides a faculty of visiting professors in psychoanalytic research to work with visiting fellows and psychoanalytic scholars involved in or considering undertaking psychoanalytic research as well as more junior academicians or graduate students wishing to extend their research interests into psychoanalysis, and candidates in psychoanalytic training.
Central to the experience is the opportunity for fellows to present and discuss their own research projects and research goals with the faculty and other participants. What is most important is that the program pushes fellows to refine their research questions and focus. The fellows meet other fellows from around the U.S. and the world, and set up collaborative, consultative bridges. Relationships continue through ongoing consultations and collaborative studies. Fellows consistently report that they leave the program with a more grounded feeling about establishing their identities as psychoanalytic researchers.
Key goals of the model are to provide fellows with mentoring in psychoanalytic research design; to build bridges between social, developmental, neuroscientific, and psychoanalytical empirical perspectives; to foster a mentoring/collaborative relationship among like-minded psychoanalytic scholars in a spirit of inquiry; and to demonstrate the compatibility of research perspectives for practicing analysts.
This training program, chaired by Linda Mayes, is sponsored by the Anna Freud Centre Program at the Yale Child Study Center and the Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis, with partial funding from APsaA.
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Our Web site is undergoing a usability study, and major modifications are in the works. However, important resources already exist for science and research on our Web site. There are two main portals to research resources: the Research tab on the left hand ribbon of APsaA's home page and the Training and Education Programs tab at the top.
A myth exists that there is little or no research undergirding our claims to the efficacy and effectiveness of psychoanalysis and dynamic psychotherapy. These studies exist and their development is a special priority of our Association.
The Research key leads to “Empirical Studies in Psychoanalysis,” which contains bibliographies of published studies, arranged according to (1) studies of efficacy and effectiveness of psychodynamic treatments, (2) studies of psychoanalytic process, and (3) studies of psychoanalytic concepts. A sub-tab contains “Abstracts” of these studies. These are available at and .
Other extraordinary resources are also available:
Sample syllabi for research courses:
Free PowerPoint presentation of significant research findings for our use to present to any audience [See “PowerPoint Outreach Tool on Psychoanalysis Available Free to APsaA Members,” page 10]:
APsaA accredited training institutes or centers that offer programs and/or fellowships in psychoanalytic research:
Links to other psychoanalytic science resource organizations: