November, 2002
Dear AAPI Members and Representatives,
I have just completed my term as President of AAPI. As I
complete my term of office I want to catch you up on the latest AAPI activities
and introduce you to the new officers who will be leading us during the coming
year.
On September 27 we held our semi-annual Board of
Representatives meeting in conjunction with the second AAPI conference that was
taking place the next day. We had excellent representation from most of our
affiliated Institutes as well as the two representatives for our individual
members. We were happy to report to our representatives that, in addition to our
21 affiliated Institutes, we had just received the application of another
well-regarded institute, the Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis. We have
also recently received inquiries from an institute in Mexico and hope to
continue to add more affiliated institutes as the prestige of AAPI steadily
increases. By the end of the conference on September 28, our
individual membership was close to 300, the total we had met last year. It is
important that the individual membership continues to increase along with the
affiliated institute membership. We encourage you to talk with your colleagues
about the need to join AAPI as an individual so that our individual membership
reflects the strength of AAPI.
At our Board meeting we had a full and productive discussion
of AAPI's current status and the various options we might consider in
representing our institutes and individual members in professional matters. At
our previous Board meeting in April we discussed a major roadblock to joining
the Psychoanalytic Consortium, a goal many of our affiliated institutes favor.
The membership requirements for the Consortium specify that affiliated
institutes who are members of an organization joining the Consortium must agree
to meet the accreditation standards of the Consortium's accrediting body (ACPE)
within three years of joining the Consortium. Many of our institutes do not
currently subscribe to these standards and are unwilling to modify their
training requirements to meet the standards. To skirt this requirement, we
thought of forming two separate organizations, one an institute-only
organization and the other an individual member-only organization, so that the
individual member-only organization could apply to join the Consortium.
The discussion at the September 27 Board meeting revolved around some of the
potential problems of this approach. We are concerned that we will be less
strong and purposeful as an organization if we divide into two. We also believe
that many questions related to the accreditation of institutes and state
licensure of psychoanalysts are still unresolved. We do not want to weaken
ourselves as an organization only to discover that this was an unnecessary step.
So our Board voted not to form two organizations, to continue to grow as a
unified organization, and to continue to be watchful as to the direction AAPI
should pursue. We will continue to keep you informed on these matters. We also
encourage you to direct your questions and comments to your institute
representatives.
After this lively meeting, we had an equally lively conference
at the Mount Sinai Medical Center on September 28. Our 200 attendees were
provided with detailed clinical material by our presenter, Dr. Joseph Newirth,
and our discussants responded with a wide range of viewpoints about the
material. Our group of presenters will have an opportunity to continue this
discussion in the published version of this conference. The feedback from this
conference has prompted the conference committee for 2003 to consider how we can
improve the format for our next conference, balancing our desire to present rich
clinical material and incisive discussion with issues of patient confidentiality
and respect for differing points of view. I hope you will share your ideas with
the conference committee for 2003 chaired by Dr. Sandra Kiersky. We appreciate
your input and want you to find these conferences educational and enlightening.
We also want a format that will give the individual members of AAPI increased
opportunity for conversation and exchange of ideas amongst themselves as well as
with the officers and representatives of AAPI.
Before closing, I want to thank a
number of people who contributed greatly to AAPI this year. Jim Fosshage has
handled so many tasks this year as a very active Past-President, as the
Membership Chair, and as a hard-working member of the Conference Committee. His
vision for AAPI is central to its organizational success. Ken Frank worked very
hard as a member of the Conference Committee, very graciously filled in as
Secretary for one of our Board meetings, and helped to focus our energies as we
sought the right direction for AAPI. David Wayne and Larry Birnbach both
fulfilled their offices of Secretary and Treasurer, respectively, very
admirably. Dori Sorter has worked very hard on the difficult task of creating
our new Bylaws. Sandra Kiersky attended a number of our conference committee
meetings and executive meetings as President-elect in anticipation of
accomplishing a smooth transition to her presidency. Donna Bamber has been a
strong voice of conscience for all of us. Finally, I want to welcome our new
officers. Sandra Kiersky (Santa Fe, NM) is our new President, Estelle Shane
(Los Angeles, CA) is our President-elect, Gary Perrin (Minneapolis, MN) is our
Secretary, and Steve Knoblauch (New York, NY) is our Treasurer. I know we
have placed the direction of AAPI in good hands, and I look forward to working
with this energetic and dynamic group of officers and representatives as
Past-President. I look forward to seeing all of you at upcoming AAPI events.
With warm regards,
Mary Beth M. Cresci, Ph.D., ABPP
