Volume 43, No. 2, 2009
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the SPRING/SUMMER 2009 AMERICAN Volume 43, No. 2 PSYCHOANALYST Quarterly Magazine of The American Psychoanalytic Association The Long Haul: INSIDE TAP... Healing the Wounds of War AMICA . 8–9 Jonathan Shay Freud in America Jonathan Shay is internationally renowned for rather sweet story—I hope you’re moved in 1909 . 10 his groundbreaking work on the psychological that sense—of how these two Homeric books sequellae of war. His two books, Achilles in Viet- on war and returning from war came to be. I’ve Bear Market Blues. 12 nam and Odysseus in America, have created also discovered that there’s a “man bites dog” new and deep insights into the nature of these newsworthiness to my improbable career. APsaA Impacts injuries. Shay has compared his work with Vietnam I went to work for the VA in 1987 expect- veterans to the descriptions of battle trauma in ing to do something utterly, utterly different. I Stimulus Package. 14 the works of Homer, providing new perspectives was expecting to re-open the experimental Special Section on on issues related to the traumatic effects of neuropathology laboratory that I had had at combat that are as old as mankind itself. In Mass General Hospital, and the veterans kid- Outreach to High recognition of his work, Shay was honored with a napped me. They saw something in me that School Students . 20–23 MacArthur Fellowship. Shay was the keynote I for sure didn’t see in myself, and they redi- speaker at the Presidential Symposium of APsaA’s rected my life by at least 90 degrees. And I The Candidate Winter 2009 Meeting; an excerpt from his mov- thank them for it. Another way that the vet- Online Journal . 27 ing presentation entitled “The Long Haul: Heal- erans redirected me is that I have learned ing the Wounds of War” follows. It is also available over 20 years that while they are a very con- Remembering on the American Psychoanalytic Association tentious bunch who will argue about anything, Samuel Ritvo . 34–35 Online Audio Library at http://www.apsa.org/ the one thing that they are absolutely unified onlinelibrary. This excerpt opens with his intro- on is they don’t want duction by Robert Pyles. other young kids wrecked the way I consider it a singular honor to have the they were wrecked. opportunity to introduce Dr. Shay. I can think And so it is the of no more fitting speaker to begin our Asso- veterans who have ciation’s Soldiers and Veterans Initiative intro- set my feet on the duced by our president, Prudy Gourguechon. missionary path. I I believe you will find Dr. Shay’s work fasci- describe that when nating, and his personal story as moving as I speak with active those he writes about. Dr. Shay. duty folks as a mis- sionary from the vet- 8 erans I serve. They don’t want other It really is a great pleasure to be here. Dr. young kids wrecked Pyles’s enormously generous introduction has the way they were wrecked, so listen up. given me a license to tell you some of the Continued on page 30 THE AMERICAN PSYCHOANALYST • Volume 43, No. 2 • Spring/Summer 2009 1 CONTENTS: Spring/Summer 2009 THE AMERICAN PSYCHOANALYTIC ASSOCIATION President: Prudence Gourguechon Prudy Gourguechon 3 Reporting In President-Elect: Warren R. Procci Certification Examination Committee: Status Report Secretary: Robert M. Galatzer-Levy 5 Treasurer: Judith S. Schachter Written in collaboration with the Certification Examination Committee Executive Director: Dean K. Stein 6 BOPS and Council Report: Highlights from January 2009 Meeting Jane Walvoord THE AMERICAN PSYCHOANALYST 7 Projections: Psychoanalysts and Film: Then and Now Bruce H. Sklarew Magazine of the 8 AMICA American Psychoanalytic Association Editor 10 After Freud Left: Symposium on His 1909 U.S. Visit John Burnham Janis Chester 12 The Pain of a Bear Market John W. Schott Editorial Board Brenda Bauer, Vera J. Camden, 14 APsaA Secures Privacy Protections in Stimulus Bill Jim Pyles Leslie Cummins, Phillip S. Freeman, Maxine Fenton Gann, Noreen Honeycutt, Bob Pyles 15 Politics and Public Policy: Our Finest Hour Sheri Butler Hunt, Laura Jensen, Poetry: From the Unconscious Sheri Butler Hunt Nadine Levinson, A. Michele Morgan, 16 Julie Jaffee Nagel, Marie Rudden, Letters to the Editor Hinda Simon, Vaia Tsolas, 17 Dean K. Stein, ex officio D. B. Ruderman 18 Aliens and Alienists Senior Correspondent 19 Inner Space Esther Rashkin Jane Walvoord Photographer SPECIAL SECTION Mervin Stewart Outreach to High School Students Manuscript and Production Editors Michael and Helene Wolff, 20 American Psychological Association Publishes High School Technology Management Communications “Lesson Plan” on Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Psychology James Hansell The American Psychoanalyst is published quar- terly. Subscriptions are provided automatically to 21 Education Division Launches Teen Web Site Project members of The American Psychoanalytic Asso- Stephen Sonnenberg ciation. For non-members, domestic and Cana- dian subscription rates are $36 for individuals STDs—Reaching Out to Teens Dottie Jeffries and Mary E. Tressel and $80 for institutions. Outside the U.S. and 22 Canada, rates are $56 for individuals and $100 for American Psychoanalytic Foundation Committee: institutions. To subscribe to The American Psy- 24 choanalyst, visit http://www.apsa.org/TAPSUB, or Grants Awarded July 2008–December 2008 write TAP Subscriptions, The American Psycho- analytic Association, 309 East 49th Street, New 25 COPE: Meeting the Challenge of Rehabilitation for Boundary York, New York 10017; call 212-752-0450 x18 or Violators Marvin Margolis e-mail [email protected]. Copyright © 2009 The American Psychoanalytic SPECIAL SECTION Association. All rights reserved. No part of this Candidates publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by Affiliate Council President’s Message: June 2009 Carmela Perez any means without the written permission of The 26 American Psychoanalytic Association, 309 East 27 The Candidate Online Journal Thrives Brenda Bauer 49th Street, New York, New York 10017. 29 The Importance of Becoming Involved: Finding a Home ISSN 1052-7958 and a Future in Psychoanalysis Hilli Dagony-Clark The American Psychoanalytic Association does 34 In Memoriam: Samuel Ritvo not hold itself responsible for statements made in Rachel Z. Ritvo, David Z. Ritvo, and Jonathan I. Ritvo The American Psychoanalyst by contributors or advertisers. Unless otherwise stated, material in The American Psychoanalyst does not reflect the endorsement, official attitude, or position of Correspondence and letters to the editor should be sent to TAP editor, The American Psychoanalytic Association or The Janis Chester, at [email protected]. American Psychoanalyst. 2 THE AMERICAN PSYCHOANALYST • Volume 43, No. 2 • Spring/Summer 2009 FROM THE PRESIDENT issues. A statement opposing corporal pun- Reporting In ishment of children is in the works. The Prudy Gourguechon Soldiers and Veterans Initiative (SVI) has accomplished quite a bit, with a strong section When my chil- governance, and conflicts over governance, on our Web page, several position statements, dren were in when the only point of governance is to a dedicated Internet discussion group, sev- grade school, allow us to accomplish our mission of serv- eral press placements, and the moving article they were taught ing members and advancing the profession of by Russell Carr, a candidate stationed in Iraq, to write essays psychoanalysis. In all we do organizationally, in the last TAP, calling us all to service. A spe- by a method that we should be continuously asking ourselves cially designed logo called attention to SVI spooked me. if the effort spent best serves the members, activities and various speakers and sessions They had to the profession, and the public. at the January 2009 Meeting, including the write an intro- Reviewing my original campaign platform Presidential Symposium with Jonathan Shay. Prudy Gourguechon ductory para- and early TAP articles, I can list these origi- We are now identifying our focus for a next graph listing nal goals: stage of activity. three points they were going to make, then • Focus on societal issues, especially veter- write three paragraphs, one on each point, ans and their families Education Department and a concluding paragraph saying what they • Form a comprehensive Education This project has far exceeded my wildest had said. This technique was stunning in its Department hopes. The outreach Education Division is lack of creativity, but somehow comforting in • Attend to outreach and membership morphing into an Education Department, a its rigid structure. I secretly envied the structure needs common structure in successful nonprofits. and certainty. How calming to know exactly where you were in an argument or a process. And perhaps this pedagogic method did not I believe our organization still spends far too much time really teach writing, but it certainly reinforced dealing with governance, and conflicts over governance, accountability. For this presidential column, I decided to when the only point of governance is to allow us to adopt some of that elementary structure and accomplish our mission of serving members and demand for accountability. It is now a year into my service as your president—halfway advancing the profession of psychoanalysis. In all we do through my term. What did I say I was going organizationally, we should be continuously asking to do? What did I do? How did I do at doing what I said I was going to do? ourselves if the effort spent best serves the members, This exercise is as much for myself as it is the profession, and the public. for you. One of the frustrations of the APsaA presidency, acknowledged by many of my predecessors, is that you feel you are elected • Support ongoing and new activities in With generous support from the Ticho Foun- to accomplish certain goals.