Bulletin of the Psychoanalytic Research Society, Volume III, Number 1, Spring, 1994
"People are some of the strangest things in the world."
--Sigmund Freud
This past year has been an active one for the Society, and highlighting these activities gives me great pleasure. Last Spring, our Section -- with the financial help of the Division and the generosity of many of our members -- established the Psychoanalytic Research Fund. This fund is the first (and presently the only) funding source that specifically supports psychoanalytically-informed empirical doctoral dissertation research. The Advisory Committee to the Fund-co-chaired by Harold Cook and Gwendolyn Gerber, and including Hans Strupp, Robert Bornstein, George Stricker, Norbert Freedman, Joseph Masling, Joy Osofsky and Morris Eagle-diligently reviewed 13 interesting, high quality proposals, and recommended five outstanding proposals for funding. All the students who submitted proposals deserve our praise, as well as our best wishes in completing their dissertations in a timely fashion. Special congratulations go to the recipients of our first round of research awards. They are:
Brian Quinn, New York University: Tests of the Validity of Communicative Psychoanalytic Postulates
Donna Whipple, Antioch University, New England Graduate School: The Relationship of Referential Activity in Speech to Marital Adjustment, Psychosocial Adjustment and Physical Health in Dialysis Patients and Their Partners
Sarah Hahn-Burke, Yeshiva University: Gender Identity Disorder: Intergenerational Transmission of Attachment Disturbances Due to Past Trauma
Stewart Hockenberry, Indiana University: Gender, Shame and Diverging Lines of Narcissistic Disturbance
Michael Prezioso, SUNY-Albany: Object Relations and the Role of Attachment in Identity Formation
I hope that the students who submitted proposals represent a group of active psychoanalytic researchers who throughout their careers will contribute to the development of psychoanalytic theory and practice. We plan to invite this year's award recipients to participate in our "new investigator" symposium, which was launched at last year's annual APA meeting. Our next round of awards have a November 1, 1994 deadline, so please inform and encourage doctoral students that you know to apply. Details can be obtained from Harold Cook, Department of Clinical Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027, or from Gwendolyn Gerber, Department of Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, 445 West 59th Street, New York, NY, 10019.
Needless to say, we need your support to continue this important activity. In this regard, we would like to ask you to lobby for the Section (that is, to call or write to members of the Division Board), encouraging them to allocate funds on a continuing basis to the Psychoanalytic Research Fund. We must continue to fund dissertation research on an ongoing basis if we are to achieve our goal of stimulating high-quality empirical research and extending psychoanalytic concepts. Parenthetically, your personal contributions to the Fund are more than welcome. Just send a check for any amount, made out to the Psychoanalytic Research Fund, to Joseph Turkel, 6 West 77th Street, New York, NY, 10024.
On another note, I would like to draw to your attention our upcoming symposium entitled "Does Psychoanalytic Research Contribute to Knowledge?", which will take place at this Spring's Divisional Meeting in Washington, DC. The symposium, which is scheduled for April 16 at 2 PM, will consist of two fascinating papers, one by Allan Compton and the other by Stephen Portuges. Both will be discussed by Donald Spence. Once again we are having our popular "Afternoon Tea" on April 15, between 4 and 5 PM in the Eisenhower Room. In addition, this August at the APA annual meeting in Los Angeles, we are fortunate to have Phil Shaver, a social psychologist, and Arietta Slade, a developmental psychologist, each present a paper in a symposium entitled "Nonpsychoanalytic Research Contributions to Psychoanalytic Theory and Practice: Attachment Theory". Michael Sperling will serve as chair of the symposium. Michael has also organized a conversation hour on graduate student research that was accepted for presentation at the August meeting. I hope that you will attend these interesting events.
Recently, the Board of our Section has been discussing a variety of issues underlying the general resistance-and at times, outright disdain-expressed by many of our practitioner colleagues toward empirical research. This historical and lingering "research resistance" has led to a dismal state of affairs. For example, a variety of extremely critical comments on psychoanalytic theory and practice have appeared in the media and in some prestigious publications. I assume many of you have seen the Fredrick Crews article in The New York Review of Books, and the subsequent replies to Crews' piece. Unfortunately, the aforementioned published interchange neglected to mention a fair amount of relevant empirical literature on psychoanalytic theory and practice. We should also be mindful of the potential impact the proposed Clinton health care reform package has on the delivery of mental health services, with its accompanied limitations and reasoned demand for documentation of the efficacy of psychoanalytic treatment.
It is time to acknowledge openly the deleterious effect that "research resistance" and denial of research findings' relevance to practice and theory has had on psychoanalysis. Perhaps much of the cause of the "religious" wars that have been fought over theories and models is a result of the insularity produced by data phobia and an anti-empirical stance that many practitioners embrace. This "research resistance" has played an unfortunate role in some of the serious questions being raised regarding the viability of psychoanalysts. I do not think I am overstating the Issue. We must take steps to deal with the problem, and our efforts ought to be directed primarily to young investigators. One thing we would like to do is encourage training institutes and local chapters to incorporate a research component, whether through courses or projects, into their regular curriculum. Another is to try to organize research workshops and a speakers roster for graduate students and candidates. In addition, our Research Fund could, over time, make a significant impact on our discipline. Any thoughts that you have regarding this issue should be communicated to any member of the Section Board, or directly to the Editor of the Bulletin.
I would like to call your attention to our recent attempts to expand our membership internationally. As a result of a recent trip to Western Europe and Russia, I am in the process of generating an active international presence in the Society, and hope that you would be interested in contributing time and energy to such an endeavor. For example, we are exploring the possibility of having a research conference in Europe, hosted by some of our international members. Also, we are interested in providing "free membership scholarships" and free journals to deserving Eastern European colleagues. Anyone interested in the internationalization of our Society should contact me, or write to Theo Fefer, the Chair of our International Committee. His address is 121 Av. des Statuaires, 1180 Brussels, Belgium.
In closing, I would like to thank Charles Garabedian and Maris Bishofs for their insightful drawing and logo which appear in this issue of the Bulletin. In addition, I would especially like to thank the outgoing Section Board members for their hard work during these formative years of our organization. I look forward to working with the new board members on what promises to be a very exciting agenda during the next two years. Finally, for those of you who have not yet renewed your membership, or who know of some prospective new members, see the Membership Form in this issue.