Selected Facts, Fall/Winter 2018

As usual, we offer accounts of some of our members under NPSI Members and Candidates in Action and in Community Members in Action. We also have committee reports from the NPSI Institute in which you can learn about some of the accomplishments and goals of the dedicated NPSI committees.

In Regional and International News, NAPsaC President Robin Deutsch fills us in on the activities and upcoming programs at NAPsaC.

In Society News, Caron Harrang provides a Special Report on a successful EBOR 2018, including excerpts of reviews from attendees.

We are excited to include The Learned Analyst, the second installment of David Jachim's Analyze This!

I would like to remind our Community Members of NPSI's enhanced member listing. Now you can add information about your practice, your contact information, and a photo. Please send your profile information to me at admin@npsi.us.com

by January 31 ^st .

If you have questions or comments about the articles we publish, or if you have an idea for a story you would like to see included in an upcoming issue, please email me at admin@npsi.us.com. Also, feel free to forward the newsletter to colleagues. Forwarding directions are at the bottom of every issue.

Hollee Sweet

Managing Editor

NPSI Board of Directors

President: Maxine Nelson

Past President: Caron Harrang

Secretary: Michael Dougherty

Acting Treasurer: Caron Harrang

Acting Director of Training: Maxine Nelson

Director: David Jachim

Community Member Director: John Petrov

Administrator/Recording Secretary: Hollee Sweet (non-voting)

Candidate Representative: Anna Delacroix (non-voting)

Candidate Representative: Becky McGuire (non-voting)

Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute is a non-profit corporation dedicated to educational and scientific activities based in Seattle, Washington. The primary mission of the organization is to provide the highest quality psychoanalytic education and training for individuals seeking to become psychoanalysts and psychoanalytically informed psychotherapists. The organization also supports the ongoing professional growth and development of our psychoanalyst, candidate, and community members. In so doing, the organization aims to contribute to the current regional, national, and international psychoanalytic understanding of mental life and to the emotional health, creativity, and well-being of those treated through the practice of psychoanalysis.

Letter from the Pr esident

In this my first letter as President of NPSI, I find myself in the unique position of also being in the role, temporarily, of Acting Director of Training. As such, I thought it would make the most sense for me to write a combined letter for this issue of the newsletter. I wish to begin by acknowledging my heartfelt appreciation for the dedicated work of my two predecessors, Caron Harrang as Past President and Dana Blue as Past Director of Training. Both of them, in their respective roles, left NPSI in a sound state of health that, with your help, I hope to build upon over the next two years.

Because of our proximity to Puget Sound, seagoing vessels have been an important metaphor for NPSI since the very beginning. This past summer, I spent several days in Gloucester, MA, just north of Boston and, on my last evening there, I had the good fortune to sail with a small group of people around Gloucester Harbor in the majestic 72-foot schooner, Ardelle (pictured above), with Captain Harold Burnham at the helm. Ardelle is a Latin name which means "ardent, eager, and industrious," and indeed, the story of the boat's creation bears out how very appropriately it was named. Gloucester is the oldest seaport in the United States, and Harold the 28th Burnham to operate a shipyard there since 1819. The fishing industry had slowed over recent decades for a variety of reasons but prior to this, locally built ships served both a commercial and aesthetic purpose: to support the local economy and inspire scores of artists, photographers, and writers. In a bold, counter-intuitive move, Harold began building the Ardelle in late 2010, at a time when the shipbuilding industry faced its worst slump since it had begun there in the early seventeenth century. Not only was the ship built almost entirely with recycled and retooled wood, but Harold was also extremely creative in enlisting a cadre of volunteers - mostly family and friends-to work alongside him. Thus, the Ardelle was launched on July 9, 2011.

For me, this story of the Ardelle's creation is a testament to VISION, DETERMINATION, and COOPERATION - three adjectives that describe the nature and success of NPSI as well. Thinking about the idyllic two hours I spent on the Ardelle, the two words that come to mind are TRADITION and INNOVATION. Harold Burnham built the Ardelle in the tradition of the great pinky schooners of the 19^thcentury, while also innovating by using recycled materials and enlisting the help of untrained shipwrights. As part of my presidency, I intend to incorporate both of these concepts - tradition and innovation - as I believe both are essential for NPSI to grow and to thrive.

Before sharing some of my hopes for NPSI going forward, I'd like to note a few of the changes in our organization since the last issue that engender optimism for continued growth.

At the Annual Membership Meeting (September 21, 2018) when I became President, Caron Harrang moved into her role as Past President, and Michael Dougherty became our first community member Secretary. Not only is Michael our first community member officer but he will also be working with us entirely remotely as he moved his family to Jakarta, Indonesia for a new job in early November. Because no one has yet stepped up to replace Dana Blue as Director of Training, I will serve in the role as Acting Director of Training for the time being. Fortunately, the Education Committee is an extremely capable group of individuals and we are in the process of shifting responsibilities to accommodate the situation. I'm very pleased to report that NPSI is undertaking a study of group relations this year, with the following two goals: to increase awareness of group dynamics at NPSI, and to further our knowledge of group relations as a future subject area for psychoanalyst members and candidates. Dana Blue is chairing this important committee and any questions about the self-study can be directed to her at dana@dana-blue.com.

In October, NPSI hosted its Twelfth International Evolving British Objects Relations Conference at the elegant and picturesque Pan Pacific Hotel here in Seattle. Caron Harrang, Chair of the EBOR 2018 Organizing Committee, details a full report on this successful and highly regarded event under NPSI Society News.

NPSI is continuing to grow and develop in a number of different ways. For example, our newest cohort of psychoanalysts-in-training began their second year in September and we are looking towards starting another candidate cohort next fall. In addition, our highly successful two-year psychotherapy program, Fundamentals of Psychoanalysis, led by David Parnes, LICSW FIPA, began its third year in October (second cycle). We also launched a Clinical Study Group this fall, facilitated by Don Ross, MD FIPA, the aim of which is to foster an environment of respectful curiosity in which seasoned psychoanalytic psychotherapists can present challenging clinical material and feel helped by the collective imagination of the group. I'm excited to announce that our Continuing Education Committee, under the capable leadership of Jeff Eaton, MA FIPA has created a stimulating program for the year focused on the theme of unconscious phantasy, as part of the newly renamed series, "Scientific Meeting - A Forum for Community Conversation." Information about all of these endeavors can be found on our website www.npsi.us.com.

As our group of community members has grown we are continuing to explore ways to enhance their experience of being a member of NPSI. One way we have begun doing this is to offer enhanced listings of each community member on the NPSI website. In addition, two community members, Ken Cunningham and Bob Fahrer, are working to bring several experts to Seattle, including Vamik Volkan, to lead the greater community in understanding the role psychoanalysis can have in the political sphere through a series of events being planned for early 2020. Both Ken and Bob are available to answer questions you may have about this exciting endeavor; Ken Cunningham can be reached at ken@operationalanalytics.net and Bob Fahrer at robert.beowulf2@icloud.com.

In closing, I'd like to invite each of you to consider strengthening your connection to NPSI by asking yourself what experience during 2018 stands out as most meaningful for you personally. Was it listening to a presentation or participating in a discussion at a Scientific Meeting? Was it attending EBOR and meeting new colleagues from around the world? Was it a relationship that formed or deepened as a result of learning together in a seminar, co-teaching with a colleague, or working with others on one of our committees? Your answer to the questions above may propel you to step forward and join the cadre of volunteers who donate their time, creative energies, and professional capabilities to help us continue to grow as a psychoanalytic membership organization and training institute.

Wishing you all the best in the New Year!

Maxine Nelson, LICSW FIPA

President and Acting Director of Training, NPSI

Letter from the Candidate President

"Courage and Curiosity as Tools for Growth"

This autumn included not only the opportunity to feast one's mind at the EBOR conference but also food for thinking offered by the Annual Dorpat Lecture in Psychoanalysis and Society. This is an event open to the public as well as the mental health community, organized by the Northwest Alliance for Psychoanalytic Study and created in honor of Theodore Dorpat, MD. Dr. Dorpat was a Seattle psychoanalyst who was particularly interested in an analytic approach to understanding the misuse of power in all kinds of human encounters. I was glad I could attend this year's presentation, featuring Caprice Hollins, PsyD, on the topic of Microaggressions: What are They and How are They Harmful. I appreciated the event because of Dr. Hollins' speaking skills and her ability to engage us in direct participation throughout the evening.

Dr. Hollins spoke compellingly about the crucial function of curiosity for engaging in working through injuries caused by racial microaggressions. I can paraphrase her words as follows: We need to be more curious about learning how we have been heard than intent on being heard as "correct" in our words. I believe that she then remarked that of course this curiosity requires courage, because curiosity acknowledges the existence of all we do not know and the possibility of what we so fear: being wrong. I heard these thoughts not only through the lens of my desire to redress the societal assaults of racism but from the lens of my psychoanalytic training experiences. I thought of how anxious I can feel, how much more courage I need to say something, when I do not feel certain. Anxiety says certainty is preferable. But I can value my anxiety as an incentive for learning, and also try to remember that when I feel I "know" what is going on in a session, it may be a warning sign that I have stopped listening to the voice of curiosity. I am forgetting about the unknown with its important potential.

The functions of courage and curiosity in learning also come to mind when I think about our candidate retreat, which we held in early November. The minutes from this meeting dryly acknowledge our discussion of "the inevitable anxiety aroused in taking on the new role of analyst-in-training." Candidates were able to offer each other some practical ways of thinking about risk management, but I think that the entire candidate group felt most supported through our group attention to fear and uncertainty. The experience of the group listening balanced our anxious drive to seek preemptive knowledge. Of course, this sort of support and containment of anxiety is of vital importance for all of our patients, for all of us. Here at Thanksgiving, I found myself grateful that our candidate group can function as a container. We decided that annual candidate retreats could be very valuable. I think this reflects our need to support each other toward the courage of curiosity.

Margaret Bergmann-Ness, MA LICSW

Candidate President

Regional and International News

Report of the North American Psychoanalytic Confederation

By Robin A Deutsch, PhD FIPA, President

I'd like to bring you up to date on NAPsaC events. As you know, the mission of NAPsaC is to promote cooperation amongst all the North American IPA Societies, and until there is an Asian IPA region, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. At the beginning of July, when Lee Jaffe began his term as APsaA President, I assumed the NAPsaC Presidency. I'm very appreciative of the welcome I received from the full Board, and even more so, from the current Executive Committee, Vice President Drew Tillotson, Secretary Caron Harrang, and Treasurer Sandra Borden.

Upcoming Programs

As we know, our psychoanalytic cultures differ not only across the world but across town. NAPsaC's collaboration with other psychoanalytic organizations offers all of us the opportunity to share with other analysts the unique perspective that each analyst and analytic organization has developed. With this in mind, the NAPsaC Program Committee has continued to arrange co-sponsored workshop events with other psychoanalytic organizations. NAPsaC Clinical Workshops create an opportunity to look at the functioning of our analytic minds in real time with clinical material not previously reviewed by the discussants or the group. NAPsaC's next program will take place at the APsaA Annual Meeting in New York on Saturday, February 9, 2019. In addition, we have submitted a proposal to the IPA Congress to be held in London in July 2019 for Clinical Workshops. We will keep you posted about the time and date of that program. NAPsaC is also collaborating with CIPS on their upcoming conference. In another step to learn more about each other, we are pleased that Meryl Elman, a Canadian colleague, has joined the NAPsaC Program Committee in order to enhance our collaboration with the National Scientific Committee of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society.

Task Force on Intra-regional Collaboration

NAPsaC's Task Force on Intra-regional Collaboration, chaired by Maureen Murphy, has been working on a wide range of organizational issues, including NAPsaC structure. The Task Force has already developed some creative ideas that promise to enhance the organization in its mission. As a basic addition, at each of our board meetings, one director is invited to describe their organization, its history, and current manner of functioning to the whole group. In this way, we are getting to know each other. As things evolve, there will be more to say about the developments recommended by the Task Force.

International and IPA News

NAPsaC continues to work together with the IPA and the two other regional organizations - European Psychoanalytic Federation (EPF) and Federación Psicoanalítica de América Latina (FEPAL) - on topics of joint interest. I attended the President's meeting in Lima, Peru in September 2018. During this meeting, current IPA President Virginia Unger presented her initiatives for her presidency. Each regional organization spoke about current issues in their own regions. In addition, there was a meeting of the eJournal Board. NAPsaC is a partner in the eJournal along with APsaA, EPF, FEPAL and the IPA. APsaA and NAPsaC share the North American financial contribution to support the eJournal.

Join Us

While NAPsaC is still a fledgling organization, it is getting more recognition alongside the other regional associations. Although we are the most recently formed IPA regional organization, thanks to the hard work of the Executive Committee and the full Board, we are quickly becoming more and more established.

Still, there is too much work to rely solely on the ExCom and the Board of Directors. If each of us takes on a small task, our organization will continue to grow. While there are many ways to get involved, NAPsaC currently has an opening as Program Committee chair. If you are enthused by bringing your own creativity and joining with other analysts on developing clinical programs, in regional and international collaboration, or if you would like more information about this position, please contact me at robindeutsch@earthlink.net .

NPSI Society News

EBOR 2018 Special Report

By Caron Harrang, LICSW FIPA

"The Body as Psychoanalytic Object: Clinical Applications
from Winnicott to Bion and Beyond"

The International Evolving British Object Relations Conference sponsored by Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute has been taking place in Seattle since 2004. The specific call for an international British object relations conference came from Robert Oelsner, MD FIPA, who was a plenary presenter at this twelfth EBOR some fourteen years after he helped to found it. Our other featured plenary presenter was British psychoanalyst and Winnicott scholar Lesley Caldwell, MA PhD FIPA.

From its inception, EBOR has been noted for two remarkable qualities: its international character, drawing participants from as far away as Uzbekistan and China to our northwest corner of the United States, and its structure, where world-renowned presenters stimulate participant thinking, which is then further refined in facilitated discussion groups, providing time and space to digest new ideas. Additionally, the conference allows for an ample number of individual paper presentations facilitated by NPSI analysts and senior candidates. To my knowledge, there is no other conference in the United States sponsored by an IPA component society that gives individual paper authors who are not plenary presenters a similar platform from which to share and discuss their work with colleagues.

The above-mentioned structure is responsible for EBOR's intimate quality, affording participants a chance to talk together about a subject of shared passionate interest. In focusing this year on the body in psychoanalysis we seemed to have tapped into a theme of tremendous interest to colleagues worldwide. One indication of this was that we had three times the number of proposals submitted this year than for any previous EBOR - so many in fact that the organizers decided to add a third parallel paper session to accommodate as many presentations as space would allow. Notably, the European Psychoanalytic Federation conference scheduled for April 2019 in Madrid is also focused on the significance of the body in psychoanalysis.

One measure of EBOR's success is the significant number of participants who return each year to further professional connections and conversations begun years ago. This year we were proud to welcome a record number of individuals coming to EBOR for the first time - 49 out of 130 participants. Ten of the sixteen individual papers presented came from colleagues who had never before been to EBOR. This increase in newcomer participation speaks to the importance of the theme as well as to the hard work of the organizing committee who helped with conference design, coordinating home stays, vetting individual paper proposals, marketing, curating artwork related to the conference theme, and onsite registration: Margaret Bergmann-Ness, Erin Carruth, Joanne della Penta, Debora de Mello (International section, Brazil), Caron Harrang (Chair), Luca Nicoli (International section, Italy), Jeffrey Ochsner, Carolyn Steinberg (International section, Canada), Hollee Sweet (Administrator), Drew Tillotson and Nancy Winters. We also had a great team of reviewers who read and provided feedback to individual paper authors according to criteria established by myself, Drew Tillotson and Nancy Winters (the EBOR ExCom).

NPSI also hosted four pre-EBOR scientific meetings in the spring of 2018 on topics related to the conference theme, two of which were videotaped and made available through a new program launched in 2018 called My NPSI. Preconference presentations and discussion helped orient those planning to attend EBOR to theoretical concepts related to the body as a psychoanalytic object. A special thanks to presenters Robert Oelsner ("When the Body is a Clinical Fact"), Caron Harrang ("Winnicott's View of the Mind in Relation to Psyche-Soma and the Development of Healthy Dependency in the Analytic Setting"), Dana Blue and Barbara Sewell ("Winnicott's View of the Mind in Relation to Psyche-Soma and the Development of Healthy Dependency in the Analytic Setting"), and Judy K Eekhoff ("The Ego is First and Foremost a Body Ego").

And then there was the conference itself situated in the five-star Pan Pacific Hotel in Seattle's bustling South Lake Union neighborhood. Hui Pan and her event services team worked with NPSI for over a year leading up to EBOR to make sure that every aspect of the conference ran smoothly. This allowed participants to focus on the plenary presentations and individual paper presentations that comprise the heart and soul of EBOR. Moreover, we were able to video record plenary presentations by Joseph Aguayo ("D W Winnicott, Melanie Klein and W R Bion: The Controversy over the Nature of the External Object"), Lesley Caldwell ("Being After Winnicott: Minding the Body, Embodying the Mind"), Robert Oelsner ("Does the Body have a Mind?"), Dianne Elise ("Winnicott, Bion and Beyond: Erotic Embodiment in the Analytic Field"), and Peter Goldberg ("The Body's Way of Dreaming: Music and Psychical Life Beyond Representation"), and will make them available through our website in the near future.

Anyone who was not able to attend will still have a chance to access some of the excellent presentations offered at EBOR and obtain continuing education credit. For additional information, contact Administrator Hollee Sweet at admin@npsi.us.com .

Another way we have of sharing what it is like to attend EBOR is by inviting conference reviews. Although individual and subjective, they provide a window into how emotionally engaging and stimulating the conference was, I believe, for everyone who attended. The first is by training and supervising psychoanalyst Joseph Aguayo who, in addition to being a presenter, also facilitated of one of the discussion groups that followed plenary presentations by Lesley Caldwell and Robert Oelsner. The second is by first time EBOR attendee Daleen Macklin from South Africa. You can read the introductory paragraphs of each review below and use the links to access the complete reviews online.

Capturing the 'Group Voice' in One of the 2018 EBOR Small Discussion Groups

By Joseph Aguayo, PhD FIPA, Group Facilitator

Since the EBOR Small Group Facilitators were given a certain amount of leeway in terms of how they conducted the discussion of the two main plenary papers by Lesley Caldwell and Robert Oelsner, I met with some 20 colleagues and made the following proposal: "With your permission - and here, we as a group have to be in complete accord - I would like to tape record our two meetings today, so that I might listen to the tape a few days from now - not as a group facilitator, but as a group participant - so that I might hazard a guess about what some of the underlying group dynamic themes are in our discussion. No names or confidential clinical material will be used, and I only make this proposal because I have been experimenting with different ways to make conference discussions a bit more emotionally lively and engaging." (Read the full review here.)

Reflections on EBOR 2018

By Daleen Macklin, Clinical Psychologist

I want to firstly thank the organizing committee for making it possible for me to attend and take part in the Twelfth International Evolving British Object Relations Conference. The focus of the conference was on the body as psychoanalytic object. This topic was refreshing, relevant and interesting, especially after the mind has occupied the academic stage in recent years. The theme of the conference promoted reflections and much discussion. Thinking about the body as a psychoanalytic object made me more cognizant of the feelings in my body and in relationships, as a mother, partner, and psychotherapist. (Read the full review here.)

NPSI Institute News

Education Committee

Maxine Nelson, LICSW FIPA (Acting Director of Training)

Dana Blue, LICSW FIPA (Chair, Admissions Subcommittee)

David Parnes, LICSW FIPA (Chair, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Subcommittee)

David Rasmussen, PsyD FIPA (Chair, Progression Subcommittee)

Barb Sewell, MA LMHC FIPA (Chair, Curriculum Subcommittee)

Margaret Bergmann-Ness, MA LICSW (Candidate President, Candidates Subcommittee)

Nicole Wiggins, MA LMHC (Candidate Representative, Candidates Subcommittee)

Hollee Sweet (Recording Secretary)

The mission of NPSI is to provide the highest quality psychoanalytic education and training for individuals seeking to become psychoanalysts and psychoanalytically-informed psychotherapists. The NPSI Institute contains our training programs, with the Education Committee (EC) responsible for the cultivation and maintenance of these programs. The EC is comprised of the chairs of various subcommittees (Admissions, Curriculum, Progression, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program, Training and Supervising Psychoanalysts, Candidates) and possibly ad hoc committee chairs. The EC functions to establish policy for the Institute and as a bi-directional communication hub to coordinate activities of its component subcommittees. To further this coordination, the Director of Training also sits on the NPSI Board of Directors.

Following are brief descriptions of each subcommittee. To read a full report detailing their past year's activities, click here.

Admissions Subcommittee

Dana Blue, LICSW FIPA (Chair)

Margaret Bergman-Ness, LICSW (Candidate Representative)

The primary task of Admissions is to process applications for admission to the training program at NPSI. To accomplish this, the committee holds several clinical open houses throughout the year. The chair arranges for interviews with each applicant, which are then discussed by a team that includes the reviewers and the Admissions subcommittee (excluding the candidate representative). The primary accomplishments of Admissions this past year were to admit an additional candidate to begin in 2019, begin a new Infant Observation group in October 2018, and offer a new clinical seminar aimed at career psychotherapists.

Curriculum Subcommittee

Barbara Sewell, MA LMHC FIPA (Chair)

Anna Delacroix, MA LMHC (Candidate Representative)

Esti Karson, PhD FIPA

In addition to ongoing tasks guided by curriculum policies and procedures this subcommittee is active in the following areas: collecting and analyzing faculty and candidate feedback from classes to improve the quality of the courses; seeking instructors for the newest and continuing candidate classes and clinical seminars; and maintaining an electronic filing system that contains syllabi from past years' didactic classes to serve as templates for current and future offerings.

Progression Subcommittee

David Rasmussen, PhD FIPA (Chair)

Lynn Cunningham, PhD LICSW (Candidate Representative)

Judy K Eekhoff, PhD FIPA

Julie Hendrickson, MA LMHC FIPA

Esti Karson, PhD FIPA

This subcommittee meets monthly with October, December, February, April and June meetings focused on reviewing candidate reports on control cases. On alternate months the committee discusses policies and procedures and clarifies those in light of evolving needs. Each member of the committee serves as a file monitor for three or more candidates. The committee also meets yearly with each candidate to discuss their progression and any issues they may have regarding their training. Over the past year this included three candidates who were writing their graduation papers, five who passed their oral exams, one person preparing for their orals, and six progressing into their second year.

Training and Supervising Psychoanalysts Subcommittee

The TA/SA subcommittee meets on an as-needed basis, this year convening to discuss training standards and the selection process for Training and Supervising Psychoanalysts, and lending support to the task of finding a Director of Training. There is no chair at the present. A list of all current Training and Supervising Psychoanalysts can be found here.

Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program Subcommittee

Dave Parnes, LICSW (Chair)

The Fundamentals of Psychoanalysis course is in its third year. Course participants meet weekly through the academic year to study the bedrock concepts of psychoanalytic theory and technique. Faculty rotates monthly, so that by the conclusion of the course, students have met many NPSI full members and senior candidate instructors in addition to becoming better acquainted with the psychoanalytic concepts that underlie our field.

Candidates Subcommittee:

Margaret Bergmann-Ness, LICSW, Candidate President (Chair)

Nicole Wiggins, MA LMHC (Candidate Representative to the EC)

The purpose of the Candidate subcommittee is to provide support to the candidates during their training and to coordinate candidate communication with the rest of the Institute. Candidates meet as a group once a month. Candidate reps on each of the subcommittees and the Board report back to the group during these meetings. A list of all current Candidates can be found here.

NPSI Member and Candidate News

Full Members and Candidates in Action

by David Parnes, Reporter

In October, The American Journal of Psychoanalysis published a paper byJudy K Eekhoff, PhD FIPA titled, "Terrified by Suffering, Tormented by Pain." The paper was simultaneously translated into French for publication in France and in Italian for publication in Italy.

Adriana Prengler, LMHC FIPA is running as a candidate for IPA Vice President, with Harriet Wolfe as President. Another team, Howard Levine (APsaA) and Kerry Kelly (Contemporary Freudian Society), are also running for President and Vice President respectively. Candidates for President and Vice President take office in 2021, after serving as President-Elect and Vice President-Elect from July 2019.

Caron Harrang, LICSW FIPA is running for a position on the IPA Board representing the Confederation of Independent Component Societies in North America (CIPS). There are two elected positions open to CIPS, four open to APsaA, and one open to Canada. Each region (Europe, North America and South America) is allowed seven seats on the IPA Board. The full list of candidates for Board Representatives from North America includes:

Abbot Bronstein (APsaA)

Louis Brunet (Canadian Psychoanalytic Society)

Douglas Chavis (APsaA)

Ralph Fishkin (APsaA)

Caron Harrang (Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute)

Sue Kolod (APsaA)

David Moore (APsaA)

Maureen Murphy (Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California)

Gunther Perdigao (APsaA)

Jeffery Prager (APsaA)

Bruce Reis (Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research)

Mark Smaller (APsaA)

Leigh Tobias (Psychoanalytic Center of California)

Position statements will be posted on the IPA website in January 2019. Ballots will be emailed to Full Members on March 15, and voting will remain open until April 30. For additional information about NPSI members running for office, please contact Adriana Prengler at lalipren@gmail.com and Caron Harrang at caron@caronharrang.com .

On December 19, Jeffrey Eaton, MA FIPA facilitated a discussion on the topic of Unconscious Phantasy, the first of a series of four NPSI Scientific Meetings aimed at fostering community conversations devoted to key concepts in psychoanalysis. The meetings have been planned to draw on articles about unconscious phantasy from The International Journal of Psychoanalysis and other sources as well as from each facilitator's reflections and those of the participants. The next meetings to continue the exploration will be on February 20 (facilitated by Maxine Anderson, MD FIPA) and on March 20 (facilitated by Judy K Eekhoff, PhD FIPA), with a panel on the theme planned for later in the spring (date TBD).

Caron Harrang, LICSW FIPA will act as designated reader for the NAPsaC Clinical Workshop, part of the 2019 APsaA Winter Meetings. Chaired by Drew Tillotson, PsyD FIPA, the workshop presenters included Hazel Ipp, PhD, Stephen Seligman, DMH, and Randi E. Wirth, PhD FIPA. In these workshops, anonymous verbatim clinical material is presented by the reader. A panel of analysts from the IPA North American region and attendees together hear an analytic hour for the first time, then associate to the material as freely as possible. First the panelists respond, then the audience is invited to respond. The goal is to form a working group to observe how the mind of an analyst works in "real time," as close to an actual session as possible. The function of the workshop is to provide an opportunity for a clinical discussion among colleagues with a diversity of theoretical viewpoints in an atmosphere free of any supervisory dynamics.

On October 27, Lynn Cunningham, PhD LICSW presented her paper, "Hair: So Continuously Fascinating" at the International Forum for Psychoanalytic Education's 29^thAnnual Interdisciplinary Conference in Seattle. The theme of the conference was called "Unsilencing." About the topic Lynn wrote: "It's impossible to know when hair attained the symbolic capacity to arouse emotions, ease tensions of separation and loss, and alter self-awareness. But how curious that we still rely on our hair to express certain painful experiences that can only be communicated in symbolic form and must await an (other) for unsilencing."

************

Community Members in Action

by Connie Sais, Reporter

Sarah C. Townsend, MA MFA is the author of a book, Setting the Wire: A Memoir of Postpartum Psychosis, forthcoming from The Lettered Streets Press in April 2019. Setting the Wire is an account of postpartum psychosis and, more broadly, a meditation on containment. This literary collage weaves together personal anecdote, film, music, visual art and psychology - a visceral reflection on the experience of fragmentation as a young psychotherapist and new mother. For more information, please visit SarahCTownsend.com.

Analyze This!

The Learned Analyst (or Everything an Analyst Should Know)

By David Jachim, PhD FIPA

The answer is relatively simple. If one wants to be a true analyst....he must be interested in sociology, in religion, in history, in literature....because otherwise his vision and comprehension of the patient will be incomplete.

- Anna Freud

In a recent essay (Jachim, 2017) I referred to the term "Analytic Personality", an amalgam of factors that include the personal and technical dimensions needed within the analyst to provide optimal, analytic effectiveness. I am certainly not the first to suggest that the analyst's personality in particular is a critical component in promoting quality work with patients. Schafer (1979) alluded to the significant impact of the analyst's personal attributes upon the analytic process. Rieman and Cheney (1968) went even further in categorizing analyst personality types and their influence on the course of treatment. Indeed, one could even make the case for comparing Winnicott's (1971) "good enough mother" concept to those of the "good enough" personal qualities in the analyst or therapist.

Nonetheless, I would like to suggest an additional Analytic Personality factor, an element that has to do with the analyst's awareness of the world, particularly its social and cultural dimensions. Eisold (1994) has written about the unacknowledged aspects of psychoanalytic culture, a culture that tends to devalue the larger world, to which it sees itself as opposed and superior. He refers to this opposition as a defense against the analyst's own ambition, envy, competition and turbulence in the world. He even mentions Freud as an icon who himself repeatedly described his isolated opposition to the world. Taking Eisold's concepts in mind, I would propose an additional, if not critically needed, component of the analyst's personal competence, a factor I will call Socio-Cultural Acumen (SCA).

SCA includes the analyst's awareness, if not immersion, and participation in social and cultural life (e.g., politics, art, social trends, sports, etc.) and integration of these vagaries into analytic work. After all, our patients bring the effect of these aspect on their lives to us every day. It makes sense to me then for us not only to understand the significance of these effects for our patients but also to be actively involved as analysts in the real world outside of our consulting rooms.

SCA also includes, in my mind, "action along with analysis." Our work primarily focuses on our patients' inner world, eschewing premature action. While cautioning our patients from "acting out" we can perhaps at times fall into "analysis paralysis" and not sufficiently support effective self-agency in their lives. Here I am reminded of an incident many years ago when I was consulting with a senior analyst regarding an important business decision I was wrestling with. Together we reflected on the conscious and unconscious determinants in my decision or, in my case, the delay in making one. After a time of proper exploration, the consulting analyst finally said, "analysis and action should go hand in hand." I am often reminded of that encounter (or confrontation) and think it particularly relevant for the analyst within the political atmosphere of our day.

Benveniste (2018) has recorded the history of socio/political consciousness and action of many past analytic icons such as Jones, Erikson, and Bettelheim, etc. However, I believe that this interest and effort in political climate has not carried over into the collective conscious of analysts today. There are many causes of this deficit as a component of SCA. Eisold (1994) has illuminated some of the causes of this absence, including the analyst's sense of immunity to instinctual influences, the destructiveness of "analytic pairing" promoted in many institutes, and the intolerance of differences in analytic organizations. Jacques (1955) has referred to the "social system defenses" within analytic training organizations that promote the analyst's isolation. Certainly individual defenses against a fear of the world enter here as well.

The effect of SCA deficit can be seen in many psychoanalytic institutes where group/organizational/cultural/political seminars or classes are glaringly absent. This omission fostered by the reasons cited earlier promote a "head in the sand" motif and implicitly suggests that we, as analysts, do not need to deal with issues outside of our consulting rooms. An attempt to break this attitude is highlighted in Lee's (2017) recent publication calling for mental health professionals to become involved and alert the public of the perils of a destructive president. However, this alert is an anomaly in the literature and within analytic training programs. Most of us go on in the privacy of our consultation rooms, avoiding the impact of external society on our patients and the analytic work with the excuse that this is not within the analytic domain. This is a defense against our own arrogance. When this occurs we do a disservice to our patients.

The issue of SCA is highly relevant with regard to the political/cultural waves stirred in America today. The dangerous dismantling of democratic processes and structures by a presidential figure has created dividedness and distrust of our government like never before. This destructive behavior has created a negative modeling motif for most Americans, particularly for our children. The spewing, blatant denial of reality and "untruths" has created increased malaise in our society and is manifested in a sense of helplessness in many of our patients. Such an atmosphere can certainly be an anathema to the mission of psychoanalysis which is to promote tolerance of differences and the

attainment of truth. The eroding aberrations of those "in charge" are rapidly becoming "normalized" and smell alarmingly familiar to what Albright (2018) recalls of Mussolini's tactics of fertilizing autocracy, "To pluck a chicken, one feather at a time...." so the public will not notice.

All this is to say that a robust SCA might include not only the analyst's commitment to and honing of fundamental psychoanalytic principles but also action within the socio-culture (particularly political), speaking out and even becoming involved in theses vertices of outer world. Training institutes can fertilize this behavior by building training programs that include organizational/group dynamics seminars as well as community efforts to heighten the public's awareness of psychoanalytic understanding of "worldly business" such as politics, business, sports, popular music, etc., all components of the real world. Furthermore, the promotion of diversity of thought, avoidance of "demagoguery" of theoretical positions, and having routine "organizational" health examinations within analytic organizations by outside consultants could only help analysts be even more sensitive to their patients' social, political and cultural realities.

Finally, the additional benefit of increasing each analyst's SCA would be to heighten the integrity of our profession. After all there is a popular adage that reads, "If we don't stand for something we'll fall for anything." I believe a high SCA is important because, to borrow a phrase from the current American administration, "It's a matter of national security."

"Chase dem!

Run dem politicians!

When I see dem I get cold

And they say it's a part of it

So they buying and selling your soul..."

- from Mind Control byStephen Marley

You can read all of David Jachim's Analyze This! essays here.

Selected Facts Next Issue Deadline:

The next issue of Selected Facts will be published in mid-June 2019. The deadline for submissions is May 31, 2018.

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