I think this short opinion piece in the New York Times has relevance for all psychoanalysts, in our consulting rooms, in our societies, and in the world in general. We are trained to listen and there is so much that we don’t hear for one reason or another. (click here to read Two Silences)
Jane S. Hall
op-ed editor
Author: Jane S. Hall
We Can Stop the Cancer Epidemic
The IP Blog is pleased to bring to your attention an important article on fighting cancer, a problem that touches us all. Click here to read David Servan-Schreiber’s opinion piece, “We can stop the cancer epidemic” published in the Herald Tribune, September 19, 2008. Thank you, David, for letting us know about it.
Jane S. Hall
op-ed editor
The Potenial Repressive Power of Defining Models of Education, An Op-Ed Piece by Jurgen Reeder
In this lastest op ed piece, Jurgen Reeder, author of Hate and Love in Psychoanalytic Institututions the dilemma of the profession, gives us his thoughts about the three models of training sanctioned by the IPA and makes a good argument for less rigidity and more flexibility. Psychoanalytic education is not thriving, as we all know, and I am grateful that Dr. Reeder is keeping this important topic in the forefront of our minds.
–Jane S. Hall, Website OpEd Editor
Click Here to Read: The Potenial Repressive Power of Defining Models of Education, An Op-Ed Piece by Jurgen Reeder.
Barrier Busting
Barrier busting is a business term recently used by Amory Lovins*, an energy wizard and CEO of the Rocky Mt. Institute. He is referring to the need for all those concerned with oil consumption and alternative energy to work together towards a solution. I applaud this concept as it relates to psychoanalysis as well. Psychoanalysis needs to bust barriers too.
The richness of this profession is due to the mix of psychoanalysts, some with doctorates and many without. Exclusionary practices are damaging this profession. Case in point: Today I received an invitation to a meeting
NEW PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVES ON PREJUDICE
Making a Difference in Society
A Conference for the Application of Psychoanalysis to Problems in Society
Co Sponsored by the Harry Stack Sullivan Society,
William Alanson White Psychoanalytic Society, and
Contemporary Psychoanalysis
A conference on prejudice that clearly excludes clinical social workers on its program and on its planning committee – people who have earned the right to practice psychoanalysis, and who have made major contributions to this profession – is misguided and divisive.
My hope, in this short essay, is first of all to educate those who are prejudiced against masters level social work psychoanalysts and lay analysts, and secondly, along the same lines, to make a plea that we respect and listen to diverse points of view from different disciplines.
Anyone who embraces psychoanalytic work knows how difficult and rewarding it can be. Putting energy into turf wars is draining and takes away the chance to learn from each other. Discrimination persists now because of status issues, as the world of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy becomes increasingly stratified under economic pressure. But now is a time to join together as we have much to share. Continue reading Barrier Busting
Discussion of the Certification Process at APsaA
APsaA members are discussing the subject of certification. This editorial by Arlene Kramer Richards gives us one person’s personal experience of the process, along with suggestions for the future. The piece was originally published in États Generaux de la Psychanalyse (2000) and appears here with the requisite permissions. The IP Blog looks forward to many comments so that people can reflect, with open minds, on their positions – whatever they may be.
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DISCUSSION OF THE CERTIFICATION PROCESS AT THE AMERICAN PSYCHOANALYTIC ASSOCIATION
By Arlene Kramer Richards
I became a certified member of the American Psychoanalytic Association in 1998. My experience in becoming certified has caused me to think long and searchingly about the purposes and the consequences of this process. The personal pain induced by the process is the spur for my thinking, but the thinking has gone on long after the pain was assuaged by the concern and sympathetic listening of a few close friends and many colleagues. The process began when I decided to attend a meeting at which prospective candidates for certification were invited to discuss the process. The members of the committee who were present at the meeting assured the prospective candidates that the process would be collegial and that they wanted to use it to get to know the candidates and their way of working as analysts. This sounded good to me. They also gave details of how to write up cases for certification and, most importantly for me as someone who had trained long ago and outside the institutes of the American, said that they were willing to accept a selection of cases from senior people rather than demand that we write up all the cases we had ever had. That was reasonable. I wrote the cases as I would for scientific papers. I tried to spotlight the difficulties that arose in the analyses themselves and the thoughts that had occurred to me as I wrote them up now, many years later. Informed that they had been insufficient, I was encouraged to go to Toronto in May 1998 to present my work in person. This time, I was to bring process on current hours. I was shocked to find that the small subcommittee that interviewed me at that time did not believe that I had presented to them well enough to show that I understood the analytic process. After another write up and another interview, I was told that I had now shown that I did understand the analytic process. For a senior analyst who had done many analyses and supervisions and had been the co-chair of an IPA pre-congress on analytic supervision as well as having been a training analyst so long that some of my analysands were now training analysts, this did not feel good. Was the problem me or was it the process? Or was it both? Much of my thinking about this has been in the service of figuring this out. To begin at the beginning, there was the case write ups. Continue reading Discussion of the Certification Process at APsaA
Thoughts on the Group Self of psychoanalysis…
The International Psychoanalytic website is pleased to present an important op ed piece by Marian Tolpin. This eminent analyst from Chicago explains clearly, articulately, and persuasively why the training analyst title should be retired. The Executive Board of the International Psychoanalytic Association would not permit its publication. The International Psychoanalytic Blog stands for freedom of expression and welcomes comments on this important and timely article.
Jane S. Hall
Op Ed Editor
Thoughts on the Group Self of psychoanalysis,
in light of the controversy over Training Analysis status
Marian Tolpin, M.D.
There is currently a great deal of debate taking place in psychoanalytic training centers, around the world and here in the United States, concerning whether there should be a separate category of graduate psychoanalysts designated as specially qualified to analyze future psychoanalysts. Among those who do believe that there needs to be such a category, further debate has raged on what that special qualification might entail and on the particulars of how (when, by whom) it should be established and evaluated.
In what follows below I reflect on my own experiences in regard to this category and on the lengthy history of the Training Analysis question as a disruptive force in institutional psychoanalysis. As I consider why this fractious issue, which has caused so much dissension in our profession, remains perpetually unresolved, I conclude that the Training Analysis serves a Group Self cohesive function. As such, it joins a list of other myths that have served that function in the past; myths that were clung to but ultimately had to be relinquished in the face of contradictory evidence. Continue reading Thoughts on the Group Self of psychoanalysis…
The Pope’s Visit
I was surprised at my own personal reaction to seeing the Pope on television here in New York City. My hope was stirred as I saw this man who in his white robe spoke of human rights and peace. Cynic that I can be, I was moved and wondered, with the psychoanalytic part of my brain, “what was going on?” I am not a Catholic, nor am I religious. In fact, organized religion mystifies me although I see its benefits for those who choose to practice it. I began to wonder what the Pope and psychoanalysis have in common and came up with one fact: both the church and psychoanalysis are losing candidates. Continue reading The Pope’s Visit
Op-Ed by Sheldon Goodman on Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Psychoanalytic Education in 2008: Deepening the Treatment
Those of you in analytic training have a lot to think about in today’s world. The market place continues to change due to both the insurance industry (particularly managed care) and due to society’s wish for fast cures. But the wish on your part to understand people and what makes them tick is really a calling. A calling, in my mind, is a pull that tugs strongly at your heartstrings – that keeps you going – no matter what. So, I salute all of you for your dedication. And I applaud all of you for following your hearts.
Psychoanalytic education is more exciting than ever; the study of human development is richer and the knowledge already available from the study of genetics is mind boggling. Neuroscientists are proving that our work does affect the brain, but psychoanalysts know that nature is only part of the situation….
This presentation was given at the APsaA meetings to the Affiliate Council. Many requested a copy so here it is.
