President’s Message: Dennis Debiak
The Times, They Are A-Changin’ How About Us? is the question posed to the Division of Psychoanalysis by the Steering Committee of last week’s 37th Annual Spring Meeting in NYC. My sense of the answer to this question is a resounding, “yes.” People had very different experiences at this year’s meeting, as is always the case, but a large and diverse group of people shared with me that the Division is changing is important ways. Clearly, we are talking more about identities and the ways these dimensions of who we are impact our clinical work, our worldview and our lives.
The co-chairs of the excellent 2017 Spring Meeting were Maria Lechich and Barry Cohen. The committee members were Eugenio Duarte, Jonathan Eger, Tom Johnson, Alan Kintzer, Steven Kuchuck, Emily Kuriloff, Kevin Meehan, Liat Tsuman and Cleonie White. The Keynote Speakers, Allan Schore and Cleonie White presented compelling and moving addresses that focused on neuropsychoanalysis and race, respectively. I was brought to tears by the music, visual art and literature that Dr. White used in her fascinating and comprehensive discussion of skin color and oppression.
Colin Ennis, the chair of the Division’s Program Committee, did a beautiful job advising the Steering Committee and acting as a liaison between these committees and Natalie P. Shear Associates, our professional conference planner for almost 25 years. The Division has conflicting goals for the Spring Meeting: we want creative, high-quality programs and program formats, special events and opportunities to for socialization AND we also want to respect tried and true procedures and not lose money. Colin, like our former Program Committee chairs, is at the epicenter of this conflict and negotiates it with aplomb.
Of course, there are difficult realities we must acknowledge about the ways in which our nation and our Division are not equally protective of all of us. While many felt more welcome at our Spring Meeting than before, microaggressions and macroagressions related to ability status, race, class, culture, age and generational influences, religion, political affiliation and national origin happened. The Board of Directors, Sections, Committees and Task Forces of the Division are in the process of reflecting on the meeting and how we talk to each other so that we can continue to work toward making the Division as welcoming and respectful of all of our members and guests. As Past President Marilyn Charles said to me, “we have been actively working at listening to what goes wrong sufficiently that we can continue to build towards greater inclusiveness, which will allow us to increasingly enjoy the benefits or our plurality and many voices.”
In this regard, attendees of the meeting will be receiving a survey about their experience of the meeting. I know that we all get too many requests for us to fill out surveys and give feedback, but I implore those of who were in attendance in NYC will take the time to complete the survey and help us to continue to improve our Spring Meetings.
Thanks to all of you who worked so hard for so long to make this such a successful meeting in so many ways. I will remember this meeting for years to come and I know that many attendees will also. In the context of global sociopolitical unrest and serious threats to our health and safety, I want the Division of Psychoanalysis to continue to evolve as a strong community that works toward recognizing the complexity and difference among us. Thank you.
— Dennis M. Debiak, PsyD
Meetings
2017 APA Meeting: Washington, DC: August 3-6, 2018 Spring Meeting: New Orleans April 18-22, 2018 APA Meeting: San Francisco Aug. 9-122019 Spring Meeting: Philadelphia, PA April 3-7, 2019 APA Meeting: Chicago, IL: August 8-11, 2020 Spring Meeting: New York, NY 2020 APA Meeting:
Washington, DC: August 6-9
Treasurer’s Report, April 2017
End of year financial accounting allows us to take a very careful look at the financial state of Division 39. We need to understand a multi-year broad perspective as well as more current issues regarding budgeting and expenditures. This will hopefully enable us to budget wisely and carefully.
While Division sources of income and expenses may vary from year to year, budget choices, taking into account the present situation, are made within the current year. The information below presents the finances from a global five-year perspective, as well as the most recent information for 2016, and giving consideration to the 2017 budget recently passed by the board in January. Please look at the information below, and continue to let us know your preferences as Division members, so that the Division continues to represent your interests in its pursuit of goals and objectives.
Multi -Year Perspective
Financial Reserves
Our financial reserves hit a low in 2007. We had since budgeted $25,000 to increase our reserves from 2007 till 2012. Although we did not budget to increase our reserves in 2012, our reserves have increased every year from 2007 until 2012. In 2012, we had to dip into our reserves, given the lower dues collection and our higher expenses for that year, which included our retreat expense. We had been able to contribute to our reserves from 2012 until 2015, when we significantly dipped again into our reserves due to our significant loss at our spring meeting that year, as well as a drop in our publication royalties and diminishing dues income. Despite these losses we were still left with healthy reserves, of $326,939.72, in 2015, at our targeted goal of one years income in reserves, due to our conservative budgeting. While the 2016 meeting did not contribute a profit to our income, as it now seems that we broke even, and despite lower publication royalties than we had several years back, our increasingly conservative budgeting has left us with $319,143.56 in reserves at the 2016 years end. Given that we have continued to cut back on our expenses, we remain at our goal of one year in reserves.
While our dues collection dipped since 2011, it had remained stable until a dip in 2015, but in 2016 our dues seem to be increasing a bit. The recent Division efforts to encourage younger member involvement in the Division as members and leaders may be helpful toward reversing the declining numbers attributed to an aging membership. Our administrator Ruth Heleine together with the membership committee’s efforts to reach out has helped bring back some who had inadvertently left the division, over concerns re APA. The efforts to increase younger membership are helped with the recent scholars program. The contribution of the scholars program to membership dues revenue is being evaluated, among other criteria, by the program itself.
Despite earlier predictions of a loss at our 2016 Atlanta Spring meeting, more recent figures report that we seemed to have broken even. The concern is that despite predictions that Atlanta could host a profitable meeting, the reality is our spring meetings have tended to be less profitable, and even have recently posed risks of deficits. As a result and for other reasons, the President has convened a Spring meeting task force to assess future directions. Overall, income from spring meetings remains quite variable, While in general meetings held in large urban areas such as NYC in 2011 and 2014, Chicago in 2010, and Boston in 2013 have tended to be more profitable, meetings held in more distant or less urban venues less so, such as San Antonio in 2009, and Santa Fe in 2012. Although our 2015 SF spring meeting had a significant loss of over $42,000 at what was predicted to be a profitable meeting and had seemed successful in terms of attendance, and despite expenses staying true for the most part to budget. This meeting deficit seemed to have been due to too many free registrations offered. The recent change in NY locale, led to increased audio/visual expenses, resulting in smaller profits for our 2011 and 2014 NY meeting. The 2013 Boston meeting exceeded predictions, despite coming at the heels of the Boston marathon tragedy. We still struggle with exorbitant food costs at the New York meeting, however attempts to bring in outside funding through advertising and sponsorship have not been as helpful as predicted. Concerns have been raised regarding the 2017 NY meeting, as many presenters hail from the NY metro area, and therefore there is concern that the guaranteed minimum of sleeping rooms that the Division is financially responsible for, may not be met. Monies from the electronic publication of our journal Psychoanalytic Psychology remain an increasingly important part of our income. Our electronic publishing revenue for 2016 was also higher than 2015, albeit still lower than prior years, which remains due to a drop in membership and hence subscriptions. Electronic publishing revenue consists of royalties from the electronic download of our journal articles and facilitated by our interface with APA publishing. Our recent contract has resulted in both significantly lower journal expenses, and a small dip in royalties as a result, with the reduction in expenses significantly greater than the royalty dip. This relatively new APA journal contract has still resulted in an overall income gain to the Division. Other sources of income such as advertising and investment have remained stable albeit a small part of our income. We additionally continue to receive a GAPPP grant, this year receiving $42,780 to fund 3 years, with our budgeting $13,960 of this income for this year to offset scholars grant expenses; as well as we receive additional funds from APA to offset increased journal editorial expenses, given the relatively recent addition of associate editors and an international editor.
Expenses
The Division’s major expenses, looking at very broad categories, are board, central office, and publication expenses. We have also funded a very rich array of projects.
Board and central office expenditures reflect recent efforts at reducing costs for the most part, including reduced board and committee expenses, our not printing a summer meeting program book, and trying to get better rates for the Fall EC meeting. Publication expenditures support an incredibly rich array of choices including Psychoanalytic Psychology, Division/Review, Insight, PsyScan, PEP Web, our Internet website and our greater presence on social media, including facebook and twitter. Publications expenses were increased this year partly due to a larger issue of Division Review. Monies for other initiatives can vary from year to year, although this year reduced committee and board expenses have enabled us to maintain the targeted one-year in reserves.
Current Perspective with 2016 Financial Data and 2017 Budget as compared with last year’s financial data and budget.
Income budgeted for 2017 include: $219,500.00 dues; $7,782.87 projected profit for the 2017 New York spring meeting, $45,000 publication royalties, $2000 interest and dividend income, $1000 advertising, and the increased APA contribution for journal editorial expenses of $18,500, which includes additional stipends for greater editorial support. The total of budgeted income for 2017 is $308,842.87. The lower budgeted income than the last few years reflects projected lower membership dues income and lower royalties as a result of lower membership subscriptions.
The division currently funds an extensive array of initiative and projects. In addition we have been assured of continued support from the GAPPP grant of $42,780, which enables continued funding for possibly the next 3 years to help fund the Scholars grant program. Despite the end of year deficit of $2,176.46, less than the approximate $11,000 projected 2016 deficit, our having built our reserves, has left our reserves at the targeted one-year budget in reserves, at $319,143.56.
Overall income for 2017 is conservatively projected at $308,842.87 and overall expenses are projected at $308,095.88, projecting a balanced budget and continuing to support the many projects and contributions. Efforts toward reducing expenses and increasing income continue as we move from 2016, we are continuing and expanding on some changes begun last year. We continue to fund stipends for four publication editors and 3 associate journal editors, including maintaining increased expenditure for our printed newsletter, as well as funding the greater presence of the Division on social media sites. We are also funding a scholars grant program, as we seek greater diversity and younger member involvement in the Division.
This report describes the rich array of funded initiatives and projects. A more detailed report with all expenditures is available. Please contact me if you would like a copy. Budget planning and requests for 2017 are due in September, due to the need to receive final numbers regarding our 2017 Spring meeting and our membership in order to be able to conservatively budget, given our recent deficits. We look forward to hearing any thoughts or suggestions as to the ways you would like the division to use its financial resources. Behind each of these numbers are Division 39 members who have contributed their energy, time, and expertise. It is a pleasure to work with all of you.
Arlene (Lu) Steinberg, Psy.D.
Treasurer, Division 39
Full figures available via lu2steinb@hotmail.com
Special thanks to the 2016 Finance Committee for their wise counsel throughout the year
Marilyn Charles, Dennis Debiak, Dana Charatan, Marsha McCary, & David Ramirez, and to the
Division administrator Ruth Heleine for her invaluable help always.
Announcements
Interested in psychoanalysis and social justice?
Read the online newsletter of Psychoanalysts for Social Responsibility! In this edition, Neil Altman discusses APA and torture, Allan Scholom analyzes the Affordable Care Act, Nancy Hollander provides an update on social activism within the section, and Matthew LeRoy and Batsirai Bvunzawabya explore embodying social justice in a training seminar. Link: psychoanalyticactivist.com
Author Connection
Stolorow, R. D. & Atwood, G. E. (2017). The phenomenology of language and the metaphysicalizing of the real. Language and Psychoanalysis, 6(1):4-9.
What are you writing? Future issues will highlight the varieties of publishing activities our members are engaged in. All links to books and articles will be considered. To be included, please e-mail the editor by the 21st of the month. All publications submitted for Author Connection need to comply with the InSight submission guidelines.
Division/Review is now on PEP
As Chair of the Publications Committee—
I’m delighted to announce that Division/Review is now on PEP web and is highlighted in the “What’s New” section of their home page. All eleven issues are available and searchable.
http://www.pep-web.org
Congratulations to Editor David Lichtenstein and to all the contributors! This is a serious achievement—a new voice in the psychoanalytic literature—and one we can all be proud of!
Please join our effort to update and steward Wikipedia’s Psychoanalysis pages!
Wikipedia is one of the most widely used references in the world and is transforming the way we gather information. It provides instant answers in the simplest form and is frequently the first resource consulted when faced with confusing concepts or terms. Yet, psychoanalytic articles on Wikipedia currently lack credible sources and have significant gaps in content. Historically, as psychoanalytic professionals, we do a great job helping individuals, but we don’t do as good of a job helping inform the public. As a profession, psychoanalysis has a corpus of knowledge about the human experience, and as professionals, we have an opportunity to improve the quality of psychoanalytic information available to the public.
The Division 39 Wiki Project is a collaborative effort to disseminate psychoanalytic information in more accessible and relevant ways. As more professionals contribute to this project, the information becomes more accurate and usable by the public.
Please join us in assembling a group of psychoanalytic professionals dedicated to improving the quality of psychoanalytic information on Wikipedia. Graduate students and faculty are especially encouraged to join us. We are seeking the following:
1.) Article Editors – Individuals wanting to edit and/or learn how to edit Wikipedia articles.
2.) Content Consultants – Individuals wanting to review edited articles and provide content-based feedback on an as-needed basis.
For more information about the project, please email Ari Pizer (ari.pizer@gmail.com). We look forward to hearing from you!
Division 39 Leadership
E-mail Directory
Division 39 Board of Directors
President: Dennis Debiak, Psy.D
Past President: Marilyn Charles, PhD
Secretary: Dana L. Charatan, Psy.D.
Treasurer: Arlene (Lu) Steinberg, Psy.D.
APA Council Reps
Norman Abeles, Ph.D.
Laura Barbanel, Ed.D.
David Downing Psy.D.
Mary Beth Cresci, Ph.D.
Stephen Soldz, Ph.D.
Steven Reisner, PhD
Members-at-Large
Shara Sand, Psy.D
Jonathan Eger Psy.D
Jaine Darwin, Psy.D..
Colin Ennis Psy.D.
Diana Diamond, Ph.D.
Devon King, Ph.D.
Scott Pytluk Ph.D.
Kris Yi, Ph.D.
Usha Tummala-Narra, Ph.D.
Section Representatives
Section I: Psychologist-Psychoanalyst Practitioners: Al Brok, Ph.D.
Section II: Childhood and Adolescence: Toni Heineman, Ph.D.
Section III: Women, Gender and PsychoanalysisMarilyn Metzl, PhD
Section IV: Local Chapters: Joseph Schaller, Psy.D.
Section V: Applied Psychoanalysis : Michael Jones Psy. D.
Section VI: Psychoanalytic Research Society: [Not active]
Section VIII: Couple and Family Therapy and Psychoanalysis: Toni Halton Ph.D.
Section IX: Psychoanalysis and Social Responsibility: Liz Goren, Ph.D.
Parliamentarian Laurel Bass Wagner, PhD
Publications
Psychoanalytic Psychology
Elliot Jurist, Ph.D., Editor
DIVISION/Review
David Lichtenstein, Ph.D., Editor
InSight
Kristi Pikiewicz Ph.D., Editor
Committee Chairs, Liaisons
Awards: Dennis Debiak, Ph.D.
Candidates Outreach: Lisa Harris, PsyD, and Ricardo Rieppi, Ph.D.
Continuing Education: Paul Martin, PsyD
Division Liason to Division 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women): Leilani Salvo Crane, PsyD
Early Career Psychologists: Steve Lugar, Ph.D., and Helen DeVinney, Ph.D.
Education & Training: David Downing, Psy.D. and Barry Dauphin, Ph.D.
Ethics & Professional Issues: Joyce Slochower, PhD and Richard Ruth, Ph.D.
Federal Advocacy Coordinator: Marilyn Metzl, Ph.D.
Fellows: David Ramirez, Ph.D.
Finance: Lu Steinberg, Psy.D.
Fund for Psychoanalysis: Marsha McCary, Ph.D.
Graduate Students: Frank Lawatsch, Ph.D., and Zane Dodd, Ph.D.
Infant Mental Health: Stephen Seligman, DMH
International Relations: Ken Reich, Ed.D.
Internet: Barry Cohen, PhD
Liaison to CAPP and IG: Jaine Darwin, Ph.D.
Federal Advocacy Coordinator: Marilyn N. Metzl, Ph.D.
Membership: Devon King, Ph.D., and Daphny Ainslie, Ph.D.
Multicultural Concerns: Leilani Crane, Ph.D., and Sanjay Nath, Ph.D.
Nominations & Elections: Frank Summers, Ph.D.
Outreach: Richard Ruth, Ph.D.
Parliamentarian: Laurel Bass Wagner, Ph.D.
Professional Issues Committee: Sharon Brennan, Ed.D.
Program Committee: Colin F. Ennis, Psy.D.
Psychoanalysis and Community: Judie Alpert, Ph.D. and Mary Joan Gerson, Ph.D.
Psychoanalysis and Healthcare: Eric Sherman, Psy.D and Maureen O’Reilly-Landry, Ph.D.
Psychoanalysis and the Humanities: Spyros Orfanos, Ph.D.
Public Relations: Nina Thomas, Ph.D. and Ankhesenamun Ball, Psy.D.
Publications: Henry Seiden, Ph.D.
Research Committee: Sherwood Waldron, MD
Sexualities and Gender Identities: Scott Pytluk, Ph.D. and Shara Sand, Psy.D.
Specialization and Accreditation: Marilyn Jacobs, Ph.D.