Some of you may wonder, what is NAPsaC—a backpack? Actually, it is an acronym, representing the regional group of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) Societies in North America. It is the only organization to unite all the IPA Societies in North America, giving them the opportunity to work and think together on matters of common concern.
NAPsaC, the North American Psychoanalytic Confederation, is composed of the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA), which is the only regional association in the IPA; the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society (CPS); the Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies of the United States (CIPS), which includes the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR), the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies (LAISPS), the Psychoanalytic Center of California (PCC), the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society (NPS), and the San Francisco Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies (IPS); and three otherwise unaffiliated societies of the IPA, including the Japan Psychoanalytic Society (JPS), the New York Freudian Society (NYFS), and the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC). Together, these groups make up the entirety of IPA Societies in North America. The Japan Society is included because, as yet, it is the only psychoanalytic voice in Asia and so we welcome them in our North American alliance.
You may have noticed that NAPsaC is a “regional group” of the IPA, and yet APsaA is the only “regional association.” To clarify the distinction, APsaA is the only association within the IPA that completely undertakes its own educational oversight and accreditation, and represents all of its societies under one umbrella. NAPsaC's regionality refers to its geographical locale: It comprises the North American region. It has counterparts in Europe and Latin America known as the European Psychoanalytic Federation (EPF) and the Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies of Latin America (FEPAL). While none of the regional groups has any official IPA status, they are valued and encouraged by the IPA, as they afford each locale an opportunity for psychoanalysts from all the societies to work together and to dialogue with the IPA Board in ways that focus on the specific concerns of each region.
NAPsaC is a young organization that is eager to solidify and foster a North American psychoanalytic identity and to demonstrate its relevance to its constituency. With those intentions, NAPsaC has developed three projects with you in mind.
NAPsaC Find An Analyst Web site () will enable prospective patients in the United States and Canada to find an IPA psychoanalyst near them. The Web site is a public service that allows us to promote psychoanalysis, the IPA, and our own practices in North America. The search functions on the site are linked to an IPA database.
Please note that inclusion in the database is not automatic. The IPA will not release your contact information without permission. You must register with the IPA to be included in the database. Registration is easy—just log onto the site and click on “Get Listed.”
This title was developed and promoted by NAPsaC's Committee on Credentialing. All members of the IPA living in the United States and Canada may obtain FIPA certificates. Log onto the IPA Web site , use your confidential user ID and password to enter the “Private Area,” and click on “Order Certificates.”
NAPsaC strongly encourages all IPA analysts living in North America to use the FIPA designation on business cards, billing statements, professional stationery, professional directories, and society bulletins. FIPA will soon become identified with IPA psychoanalysis in North America, the way “M.D.,” “Ph.D.,” and “C.S.W.” are identified as professional credentials. For more information contact Fredric Perlman, the creator and organizer of the FIPA and Find an Analyst projects, at .
Harriet I. Basseches, Ph.D., FIPA, is chair of NAPsaC. She is a representative to the IPA Board, a training and supervising analyst at the New York Freudian Society, and a member of the Baltimore Washington Center for Psychoanalysis.
The third project, a two-year pilot program, creates two educationally rich and unique opportunities, organized by Abbot Bronstein and his committee. The first is the formation of continent-wide study groups, whose members will meet yearly to focus on clinical material in depth. The second involves the formation of two working parties. One will study the implicit theories of the analyst; the other, comparative clinical methods. The working parties model has been in successful operation in the EPF for some time. Two leaders of the European effort, David Tuckett and Jorge Canestri, are consulting with NAPsaC to help set these up. FEPAL has plans to offer a similar opportunity in Latin America. If you are interested in pursuing the working parties project, contact chairman Abbot Bronstein (); for the study groups, contact committee members Rich Reichbart () or Peter Ruderman ().
We on the NAPsaC Board understand the challenges we face as a new organization in a professional world already densely populated with psychoanalytic organizations. In the few short years of our existence, we have been providing a meaningful forum for our region. We will continue to do so in the belief that the more we find common cause among us, the more we will serve psychoanalysis.
The Board of NAPsaC is dedicated to creating better coordination between our constituent groups and the board of the IPA. The better we can identify the services and support we need in order to survive and thrive as a profession in North America, the better prepared we will be to help ourselves and our patients, and the more vigorously and effectively we will represent the IPA and the greater psychoanalytic world. Not a bad set of goals. We welcome your participation in our new projects.