Bulletin of the Psychoanalytic Research Society, Volume II, Number 1, Spring, 1993

The President's Message

Harold Cook, Ph.D.
Teachers College, Columbia University

"We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak."
--Epictetus

The feedback we received regarding the first issue of the Bulletin was very positive, and since then our membership and activities have grown considerably. For this, our second issue, I'd like to review some recent accomplishments and newly initiated activities, but first I want to call for an increase in your participation.

The strength and influence of the Psychoanalytic Research Society is dependent upon your involvement in the Society, the Division, and perhaps even in a wider, more public arena. We could have some effect on the direction of federal research funding toward psychoanalysis and on the delivery of mental health services. We now have a potentially receptive Secretary of Health and Human Services (Donna Shalala), and an ally in Tipper Gore. Communicating your views to them and to members of Congress and the media (via letters to the editor, etc.) can be worth the effort.

Besides renewing your membership (see form on back page) and voting for officers (elections are imminent), I'd like to encourage you to submit papers describing your research for presentation at the Division's Annual and Spring Meetings, and to the Division journal, Psychoanalytic Psychology. In addition, brief research articles, notes, letters to the editor, announcements regarding your work (and sketches for a logo) are welcome in this Bulletin. For the well-being of our profession, we also need you to become active in the various committees of the Society and Division. The greater our presence and visibility in the activities of the Board of the Division, the greater the likelihood that over time our colleagues will experience a new sense of appreciation of the contribution that research has and will continue to make to psychoanalytic theory and practice. If you want to participate in the Society, contact the chairperson of the committee you are interested in. The names and addresses of committee members appear elsewhere in this issue.

Now, I'd like to review some of the recent activities of the Psychoanalytic Research Society. The first, as you probably know by now, is the appointment of Robert Bornstein as the new editor of the Bulletin of the Psychoanalytic Research Society. His efforts have resulted in a great second issue and I'm sure that his enthusiasm and contributions to future issues will continue to make the Bulletin a success. Second, I hope you plan to attend the symposium that we are sponsoring at the Division's Spring Meeting. Sidney Blatt and Maxine Greene will each present papers on Saturday, April 17, 1993 at 10:30 AM in the West Foyer Room of the Waldorf Astoria. The panel, entitled "Mental Representations in Clinical Practice and Culture" will be a unique opportunity to hear an active researcher and clinician, someone whose work you're probably familiar with (Sidney Blatt), and a philosopher whose work you're probably unfamiliar with (Maxine Greene) discuss a similar topic from their respective perspectives. In addition, I hope to see you at our "Afternoon Tea" on April 17 from 2:00 to 4:00 PM in the Louis VI West Room at the Waldorf.

The Board is extremely proud of several recently launched activities which I'd especially like to draw to your attention. One is the establishment of the Psychoanalytic Research Fund, with an advisory board consisting of Morris Eagle, George Stricker, Norbert Freedman, Jay Osofsky, Joseph Massing, Gwendolyn Gerber and myself. Start-up money for the Fund has been allocated by the Society ($1000 from our meager budget), as well as from the Division, whose allocation of $3500 consisted of the money remaining from the 1990 Bethesda Research Conference. Also, many members of the Society have donated money to the Fund. We appreciate their generosity and warmly welcome additional members' contributions.

Initially, because of limited resources, the Fund will be used to support empirical doctoral dissertation research that is psychoanalytically oriented. Depending on the number o: worthy submissions, stipends will probably be in the $500 to $1000 range. Only proposals submitted by members of the Society will be considered for support. Submit five copies of the proposal not longer than 10 double-spaced pages. Proposals must include a rationale for the study, detailed methods, a statement regarding the significance of the study for psychoanalytic theory or practice, references, a proposed budget and a time schedule. Since the proposals will be blind-reviewed, the author's name and affiliation should appear only on a cover sheet, and not in the proposal itself. The proposed research must have been formally accepted by the student's dissertation committee, and a statement to that effect from the chairperson of the committee must accompany the submission. Submissions must be postmarked no later than October 1, 1993. For additional information regarding these guidelines, contact Dr. Gwendolyn Gerber, Department of Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 445 West 59th Street, New York, NY, 10019.

Second, we are inaugurating our "New Investigator Series" at this year's annual APA meeting. We hope that this series will provide a forum for relatively young and new researchers to present their work at the section's sponsored symposium at the annual APA convention. Ideally, over time these symposia will be made up of our Research Fund award recipients who will report the results of their investigations. Please do attend the APA meeting this August, where Morris Eagle will chair our first New Investigator symposium entitled "Using Significant Autobiographic Memories to Examine Psychoanalytic Theory." Papers will be presented by Denise Hien, Arthur Heiserman and Aviva Rhode, and they will be discussed by Christine Whyte-Earnshaw. We would like to continue this series on a regular basis, providing an opportunity for new investigators to present their research findings to a receptive and supportive audience.

Third, the Board would like to encourage the establishment of regional chapters of the Psychoanalytic Research Society. In this regard, the Section hopes that some of you in different parts of the country (and perhaps the world) might want to organize a scientific meeting in your area, similar to the one held last may in New York. We would be very happy to modestly support and sponsor such an activity.

Finally, I would like to thank Jake Berthot for his thought-provoking drawing, and Sharon Garbe for the logo, both of which appear in this issue. Islands also to all of you who have helped the Society flourish. I look forward to seeing you at the upcoming Divisional meeting in New York.


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