Thursday, January 15, 2015, will remain a historic day for the American Psychoanalytic Association and the William Alanson White Institute (WAW). It was on that day APsaA's Executive Council voted unanimously to approve the WAW Society becoming an APsaA affiliate society. Two days before, 61 new WAW members were approved for membership by the Membership Requirements and Review Committee. One day before, during the meeting of our Board on Professional Standards, BOPS approved a revised version of the APsaA Training Standards to include the WAW training model. As I said to members of the WAW a year before during a WAW “town meeting,” APsaA's invitation to the WAW to join us was probably 70 years overdue. We are grateful and honored the WAW Institute accepted our invitation to affiliate with APsaA.
This process of reconciliation and, finally, recognition began a number of years ago as members of the BOPS Committee on Accreditation of Freestanding Institutes (CAFI) began meeting with the leadership of the WAW. APsaA members participating included Ron Benson, Lee Ascherman, Eric Nuetzel, Al Robins, Beth Seelig, Carmela Perez and others. Even before a review of the WAW program could occur, the CAFI members knew it was essential to listen and acknowledge years of anger and disappointment with APsaA for its exclusionary policies.
As some might not be aware, during the 1950s APsaA attempted to marginalize leaders and teachers of the WAW. It was not until a lawsuit, based on restraint of trade, was threatened by the WAW, that APsaA backed away from these misguided actions. The WAW was aided by legal counsel Abe Fortas, former Supreme Court justice and a former WAW board trustee.
The WAW was founded in 1943 in reaction to exclusionary policies of American psychoanalysis. As Jay Kwawer, WAW director writes, the WAW was:
…a revolutionary alternative to mainstream, orthodox Freudian psychoanalysis in the United States. Its internationally renowned founders, Erich Fromm, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, Harry Stack Sullivan, David Rioch, Janet M. Rioch and Clara Thompson, united by a passionate spirit of dissent, saw the need to challenge the parochial sectarianism and growing rigidity of American psychoanalysis…. They opposed what they perceived to be inflexibility in
Mark D. Smaller, Ph.D., is president of the American Psychoanalytic Association.
Page 1clinical practice, intellectual insularity, a paternalistic system of training and the domination of organized medicine over psychoanalytic training and practice. In response, they created an institute based on the Freudian tradition, enriched by the interdisciplinary perspectives of the social sciences.
Following those initial conversations between the WAW and APsaA, careful study began in order for CAFI members to appreciate the differences, complexity and depth of the WAW education model and their innovative institute programs. The WAW takes pride in the development of the “interpersonal” perspective in psychoanalysis, focusing on the mutuality of the analytic relationship. This perspective was seen as contrary to the “blank screen” model of orthodox psychoanalysis at the time. Such a perspective fully takes into account the impact of culture and environment on the individual.
Historically, the WAW perspective has widened the scope of analytic treatment to include clinical treatment of more severely troubled patients and those individuals in underserved communities. These patients were often seen as “unanalyzable” by many institutes and traditional psychoanalytic theories.
This historic moment reflects a new wave of progress in our Association and our field. We are in the process of working with the American Institute for Psychoanalysis, formerly the Karen Horney Institute, to join us as well. Other independent institutes and societies have expressed an interest in affiliating.
However, amid our efforts in welcoming new institutes and societies, we must remain sensitive to how easily old views of our organization can suddenly emerge. Unnecessary delays in our joint deliberations leading to an invitation can easily reverberate to a time when our Association sought to exclude analysts trained at independent or freestanding institutes. I am committed to acknowledging that painful history and putting it behind us.
I would like to thank the BOPS leadership, past Presidents Bob Pyles and Warren Procci, members of CAFI, and, for recently revising our training standards, Beth Seelig and Dwarky Rao. All contributed to this momentous step. An enormous amount of appreciation goes to Jay Kwawer who steered this process forward both in APsaA and in the WAW Institute and Society. And finally, a thank you to Miri Abramis, who has represented the WAW as a guest for years. Following the Council's action, WAW will hold elections for their new councilors and BOPS fellows.
Erich Fromm, a WAW founder, once wrote, “Creativity requires courage to let go of certainties.” Our collaborative and creative efforts with the WAW will help us address the many challenges to psychoanalysis in these uncertain times, and we will hopefully do so with that courage Fromm calls for.