The American Psychoanalytic Association is rife with new voices. “New” has many permutations, and I have been eclectic in my interpretation. I have leaned heavily on the arts, but other special sections could easily emphasize research or engagement with the political or social worlds.
The intellectual fecundity of our membership touches all regions of our country. Two of the authors are from New York, one from Cleveland and one from St. Louis.
To start off, Adele Tutter, a remarkably prolific author, is emerging as a mainstay of psychoanalytic journals. She has been published in the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, and the Psychoanalytic Quarterly. She has an especial affinity for the interplay of psychoanalysis and the arts. Her article on Poussin's Narcissus reminds us that interdisciplinary work is a two-way street: Psychoanalysis can learn from the arts.
Our second and third authors have conceptualized rich panel discussions for our meetings. Phoebe Cirio, writing in the first person on desire, offers us a lovely essay drawing, as does Tutter, on concerns of narcissism, this time when one is faced with the natural world. She is an advanced candidate in adult psychoanalysis and a candidate in child and adolescent psychoanalysis.
Melinda Gellman, whose panel on “Silence” will be produced this January, discusses, like Tutter, psychoanalysis and the visual arts, Gellman turning over the facets of negative space and silence in our busy world. The analytic encounter is her subject. Gellman serves creatively and thoughtfully as a non-APsaA member of the Program Committee.
Finally, Vera Camden, a former Committee on Research and Special Training (CORST) candidate and now training and supervising analyst, is a John Bunyan scholar at Kent State University and co-editor of American Imago. She is likely new to many in the American Psychoanalytic Association. She writes about new voices herself, those of an emerging genre of domestic life, the graphic narrative. Not novel.
For each of these voices of APsaA, there is a score more to discover and to celebrate.
Michael Slevin, M.A., M.S.W., a former TAP editor, graduated as academic associate from the Baltimore Washington Institute for Psychoanalysis, where he completed as a clinician the Adult Psychotherapy Training Program. He works at Sheppard Pratt and has a private practice.