The co-editors of the Candidate Connection, Marian Margulies and Holly Crisp-Han, and I think hard about the organizing theme we select for each edition of the newsletter. We look for something of primary importance to candidates, and this has been reflected in themes from the recent past such as the supervisory experience, the “widening scope” of patient selection for analysis and, most recently, creativity and candidacy. Since our last issue came out, an APsaA political divide has found expression in a lawsuit, with one component of the organization in legal dispute with another. I believe most candidates struggle to locate their own opinion on the many weighty matters under debate, and it may feel like the arguments continue a thread with a long tail in the historical past, difficult and time-consuming for those newly arrived to follow.
Candidates are engaged in learning to be psychoanalysts today. Which brings me back to the theme of the latest newsletter. We proposed a counterpoint to the perhaps necessary but rather depressing expressions of the problems we face in our profession. We decided to ask candidates to offer their own, fresher visions of the field. The editors broadly invited candidates to contribute material celebrating their experiences of candidacy and the value that psychoanalysis has brought to their lives and professional growth.
As president of the Candidates' Council of APsaA, I focus more particularly on the enormous contributions APsaA makes to candidate education and to developing an analytic identity. Despite the political roiling and the shouting that sometimes bursts from the lines of a listserv post, APsaA remains not just a good-enough parent to candidates. It is an exceptional one. In my contribution to the issue, I highlight some of the work being done by candidate leaders who chair the many committees of the APsaA Candidates' Council (CC). I invite all candidates to come to the APsaA National Meetings and to attend our meeting of the Candidates' Council. We will orient you to help you navigate the program and learn of opportunities to get involved in the Association.
Candidates' Council officers have been involved in various projects over the last year. President-Elect Phoebe Cirio has been working to revive the Committee on Psychoanalytic Education (COPE) Candidates' Study Group [See “Candidates' COPE Study Group: Challenges of Training,” page 23]. She and I have liaisoned with the International Psychoanalytical Studies Organization (IPSO) vice-president for North America, Marco Posadas of Canada. We aim to forge a stronger connection between our two organizations, thus expanding the opportunities for collaborative work among candidates from a national to an international arena. Marco is eager to help us grow our candidate membership because he correctly notes that every APsaA candidate member is automatically enrolled in IPSO membership as well. Our mutual interest to enlarge our professional organizations is thus served by enrolling candidates in APsaA.
Our treasurer Jamie Cromer has been working on the CC budget. She also serves as the candidate representative to the American Psychoanalytic Foundation. This year, Jamie has been engaged in applying for certification. You can read her article in the current edition of the Candidate Connection where she describes a contemporary experience of the certification process.
Secretary Gennifer Lane-Briggs has been assiduously compiling a candidates' directory of the names of all Candidates' Council members, which comprises its officers, chairs of committees and representatives of each institute to the CC. She has been painstakingly contacting the institutes with the earnest request that each one designate a candidate representative to attend our Candidates' Council meeting during the APsaA National Meetings. We are hoping her efforts pay off so that the majority of institutes will be represented at our next CC meeting.
Gennifer has engaged with the chair of our Digital Media Committee, Anton Babushkin, to develop ways of using technology to promote candidates' professional interests. Most recently, Gennifer has taken on the role of chair of the Mentorship Committee. She will be conducting the follow-up to this pilot program begun by our immediate past CC president, Hilli Dagony-Clark.
I have begun to visit candidate organizations at institutes local to me in the northeast corridor for informal dialogue in the nature of a focus group. I exchange information, telling candidates about APsaA's many programs and the benefits of candidate membership, and I ask for candidate impressions of APsaA. I ask what candidates want of a professional organization and how informed they are about what APsaA offers candidates. My hope is such dialogue will provide information useful in the effort to recruit candidate members.
Navah C. Kaplan, Ph.D., is president of the Candidates' Council.
Angela Retano of the newly renamed Policies and Procedures Committee has rewritten the document that was previously called our Bylaws. The new Policies and Procedures document is now posted on the APsaA website in the Candidates section. She has worked diligently, through many revisions, to create a document that summarizes the function of every CC office and committee and the duties of those so engaged. Anyone interested in learning about the many committees of the CC now has a guide.
Sabina Preter, who chairs the CC Scientific Paper Prize/Writing Workshop, announced there was no prize winner this cycle. She has therefore organized a Writing Workshop conducted by JAPA associate editors. They selected the writings of a candidate and showed how a work-in-progress may be developed into a publishable paper through editorial feedback.
Sarah Lusk, chair of the CC Program Committee, organized two wonderful sessions geared towards candidates for the recent APsaA National Meeting. Each session featured a renowned analyst and candidate.
You can read more about the projects of the various committees in the current Candidate Connection newsletter online. Our committees always welcome new members who are seeking opportunities to plunge into the wide world of the APsaA Candidates' Council. I am easily reached by anyone who has questions, wants more information or has an idea useful to the Candidates' Council. Email:
Editor's Note: You can read the entire issue of the Candidate Connection by visiting