On a recent September morning I was walking up Michigan Avenue in Chicago on my way to meet with first-year candidates and new students at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. While considering welcoming comments, it suddenly occurred to me that 25 years earlier on a sunny fall day I began my analytic training. I recalled that first day of class and my excitement.
That excitement greeted me when I walked into the conference room breakfast on this day. I met new candidates and a large number of students-at-large. I was immediately struck by the wide range of experience and background. For example, two students had founded a psychotherapy center, not on Michigan Avenue, but in a working class neighborhood in Chicago. One graduate student from Egypt had counseled prisoners while working on his doctorate. This diverse group included men, women, older, younger, social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, professional counselors and academics. A second-year candidate was there sharing details on his new book.
As various presentations were given, other students began walking into the room where a class was to begin after the meeting. This hugely popular class was on neuroscience and psychoanalysis. How things had changed in 25 years!
Paul Hollinger, the outgoing dean at the Chicago Institute, with other faculty members have succeeded in their recruiting efforts. As Paul introduced each student, he not only knew each name, but also each student's background, experience and interests. In other words, he had utilized his psychoanalytic expertise in developing genuine relationships (something we all do in our offices each day) with these newest members of the psychoanalytic community. Developing relationships with prospective students had facilitated their applying for and beginning psychoanalytic education. Paul matched their interests and experiences with various programs at the institute: Students-At-Large, the two-year psychotherapy program, the Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Program, or the traditional psychoanalytic track. Paul and other faculty members reached out, if not sought out, these students and their psychoanalytic interests.
What a contrast to when I had applied in 1987, following the lawsuit that finally allowed non-medical professionals access to psychoanalytic training at an APsaA affiliated institute. At that time the atmosphere was more about candidates accepting sometimes inflexible “standards” of qualification and education. Could or would we “accommodate” the huge demands of psychoanalytic training? Would we be “worthy” of acceptance, especially those of us who were non-medical candidates? Although that may have been the atmosphere in which I began my training, individual relationships with teachers and supervisors were mostly welcoming, helpful and vital in my development as a psychoanalyst.
Currently, under APsaA treasurer Bill Myerson's able leadership, your Executive Committee, working with our Membership Committee and the Candidates' Council, is committed to increasing our membership. Members are aging and we must be recruiting newer and younger members. This past fall, individual members of the Executive Committee and Membership Committee, as well as officers of the Candidates' Council, met with new candidates from our institutes and centers across the country to encourage them to join our organization. Debbie Steinke-Wardell, who is our staff person in charge of membership activity, reminds us our data show that if a candidate comes to his and her first APsaA meeting early on in their training, they end up coming throughout the rest of their career.
Following Paul's generous introduction, I shared my recollection that I had little interest in APsaA as a first-year candidate. One day a faculty member asked me to substitute for him at a committee meeting at the New York meetings. Although uneasy, I had a “mission,” a reason to go to New York. Once there I met other candidates from across the country. Together we formed a new Candidates' Council that became what our Candidates' Council is today. Many of those candidates I met for the first time 25 years ago remain my closest friends and colleagues today.
Joining APsaA, I suggested, would enrich one's psychoanalytic identity and career beyond the institute through scientific meetings, committee work, connection and friendships with colleagues. Knowledge of psychoanalytic education around the country would emerge, along with the development of a national referral network. APsaA provides outreach and lobbying efforts in D.C. on behalf of our field, along with psychoanalytic social activism, the latter having proved to be a foundation of my psychoanalytic career.
The Executive Committee needs all your help in recruiting. You, the membership, are the best ambassadors and public relations for psychoanalysis. Word of mouth recruiting efforts through personal contact and mentoring are key to our recruiting success. Merely informing students about membership and our meetings in New York or San Francisco next June is not enough.
Personally inviting students to attend and participate in committee meetings and scientific presentations is critical. Lunch and dinner invitations are essential to making new members feel
Mark D. Smaller, Ph.D., is president of the American Psychoanalytic Association.
welcome and a real part of our Association and our field. It's about the relationship.
Following my remarks, a number of students asked for material about how to join, about what social issues APsaA is addressing, and about training and related matters. I plan to follow up with these students and check in with them about their training experiences and offer participation opportunities at our upcoming meetings.
Our generative efforts are essential and a part of what it means to be a psychoanalyst in the year 2014. A welcoming and encouraging atmosphere locally and nationally can insure the future of APsaA and our profession. Please join us in these efforts.