Presidential Letter

January 2005

An Open Letter to the Members of IFPE:

The devastation wrought in South Asia is a disaster of monumental proportions that dwarfs in significance almost anything else we might consider. Yet as we take our places with sorrowing others, and give all that we can as individuals in hopes of relieving some suffering, we may remember without shame that looking after our own lives matters too.

So it is in this context that I write to you of the honor and pleasure of having been elected your President. In telling you something more of my sense of and vision for IFPE, I hope to earn further your support and encourage your participation. A European colleague asks, "What does the ëeducation' in ëInternational Federation for Psychoanalytic Education' refer to?"

I've taken some time to think about this.

Ever since my first IFPE conference, some years ago, I have thought of this organization, and referred to it, as rather like a refugee camp, a resting place for exiles (such as myself) fleeing the institutionalized traditions of psychoanalysis. IFPE conferences indeed seem to provide a refuge, a sanctuary, a safe-house for those of us who want to talk about aspects of our practice, our professional identity, our commingled clinical and life experiences in ways that do not find a welcome in more traditional organizations. Yet the notion of "a refugee camp" is undoubtedly too limited to encompass the broad spectrum of those, younger as well as older, idiosyncratically as well as conventionally trained, and from other disciplines, or not trained at all, who find IFPE of interest and value. Our colleague's question moved me out of the refugee metaphor, to encounter this word, "education," (in this context, somewhat awkward and ungainly). This leads me to what I know of IFPE's birth at the dawn of the 90s under the auspices of Division 39 of the American Psychological Association, but there were many other organizations involved, e.g. NPAP, IPTAR among others, even, it has been suggested, the American Psychoanalytic Association. Some in attendance wanted a new organization with which to enter the arena of psychoanalytic certification from a broader perspective, but with all the bells and whistles. With the election of Stephen Friedlandler, IFPE's third president, such hopes were substantially deflated, yet IFPE's existing By-Laws and the Mission Statement grew out of the time before it was entirely clear what place in the firmament of institutionalized psychoanalysis IFPE would come to occupy. While it's possible to catch a foreshadowing of the IFPE of today in both those documents, there has been significant rearrangement and development in the organization's sense of itself, as manifest in the themes of the annual conference in recent years, and in the ambience and experience of those conferences. "What is Psychoanalysis?"; "Psychoanalysis and Psychosis (morphed from "Psychoanalysis and Madness")"; "Psychoanalysis: Culture and Conflict /A Culture in Conflict"; "The Space of Psychoanalysis"; "The Transformational Conversation"; "Ethics, Ethos, & Taboos" --- the sequence conveys a substantial continuity, an overarching version of the conversation that I have observed to happen within each of these conferences: not only among the participants, but among the actual presentations themselves.

So, when IFPE began, "education" may have meant one thing to its founding members, namely to establish a formal and traditional professional identity, and to focus on procedures and techniques. Now, considering all that has occurred inside and outside psychoanalysis in the ensuing years, we may very well take "education" to mean something beyond that definition, something far more personal and variable, occurring over a whole life span rather than sequestered in a circumscribed time period, and leading to our development in altogether unforeseen and unforeseeable ways. It is this expanded notion of "education" that IFPE's recent conferences can be seen to address; it is this expanded notion of "education" that I will serve as IFPE's president.

What I see ahead for IFPE is the strengthening and consolidation of its unique presence: with neither authority to "authenticate" training nor favors to bestow; beholden to no parent institution, theoretical persuasion, or professional discipline; and with nothing to offer save the astonishing opportunity to meet colleagues on safe ground as we consider the human condition (including our own) from all perspectives. By "strengthening and consolidation" I mean

1. To keep doing what we do well: conference content and process.
2. To improve where we falter, through unification and streamlining of administrative functions, already begun under the leadership of immediate Past President Harold B. Davis.
3. To respect that our financial resources have limits, yet seek ways to build upon them.
4. To revisit the By-Laws and Mission Statement, for greater congruence with IFPE's "becoming." This too has already begun with re-visiting IFPE's category of "organizational membership" which at IFPE's inception suggested a kind of sponsorship. In 2004, a proposed amendment to the By-Laws to eliminate this category was defeated at the same time that it was clarified that "organizational membership" is not about sponsorship but stands solely as the demonstration of IFPE's non-competitive inclusiveness that has indeed been there from the very beginning.
5. To reach out internationally, with both hands. On the one hand, welcoming more members from outside the United States, and with the other, working toward the presentation of regional and annual conferences outside the United States.
6. To develop in ways yet to be imagined.
   

1. We welcome Megan Olney as IFPE Administrator. Tina Turnbull, whose warm and competent presence has kept IFPE afloat, will continue as Consulting Administrator. You will note a new address, phone number, and e-mail for membership and administrative services. There is no change to www.ifpe.org
   
2. With the Board's approval, Thomas B. Kirsch and Samoan Barish have been appointed to serve one-year terms on the Board, filling seats left open by election and resignation.
   
3. The 2005 Executive Committee, in addition to Past President (Harold B. Davis), Secretary (Lisa Medoff Kelly), and Treasurer (David L. Downing), will include Arturo Ortiz Castro (co-chair of 2005 conference), Patrick B. Kavanaugh, Douglas Maxwell, and Susan Saperstein. A broad advisory base is essential for this committee. In between semi-annual board meetings, actions needing to be taken will be thoroughly vetted in this group. Only urgencies will be brought to a decision point. Everything else will come to the whole board for even more exploration and discussion. This is a "brown ën' serve" conceptualization of the work of the Executive Committee.
   
4. An ad-hoc committee (Douglas Maxwell, Susan Saperstein, Patrick B. Kavanaugh, and Harold B.Davis) will oversee long-overdue revisions of both the By-Laws and the Mission Statement, to reflect both the spirit and the letter of our actual practice. Douglas Maxwell has agreed to chair the By-Laws portion, and Patrick B. Kavanaugh will chair the Mission Statement portion, but the committee will work as a whole to achieve a greater congruence of these documents. I will participate in an ex officio position. The Board as a whole has the authority to adopt a new mission statement. Any changes in the By-Laws must be approved by the membership. My intent is to have something brought to you for consideration in the next scheduled election (in the fall).
   

You will see some changes in the array of committees and their leadership.

Committees being retired:

• Liaison
• Site

New committee chairs:

• Elections: Harold B.Davis
• Awards: Susan Saperstein
• Membership: Nancy Smith
• History of Psychoanalysis: Rachel Newcombe, Co-chair. Laurence Green, Co-chair
• Publications: Jon Mills, Chair. Max Harris, Newsletter Editor.

New committee:

• Committee on Trauma: Richard Raubolt, Chair

Continuing Committees:

• Hispanic-American Affairs: Lucy Solloa Garcia, Laura Martinez (Co-chairs)
• Parliamentarian: Douglas Maxwell
• Psychoanalysis and Ethics: Patrick B. Kavanaugh, Susan Saperstein (co-chairs)
• Psychoanalytic Research: Arturo Ortiz Castro
• Psychoanalysis and Culture: Lucia Villela-Kracke, Waud Kracke (co-chairs)
• Spirituality and the Psyche: John Beebe, III

IFPE's Sixteenth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference will take place October 21-23, 2005 at Lago Mar, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The theme is "Psychoanalysis and the Stories of Our Lives: Memory, Narration, Discovery." Arturo Ortiz Castro and Judith E. Vida will serve as co-chairs. Watch for the Call for Papers.

The newly constituted Board is as follows (terms are up at the end of the year in parentheses):

President: Judith E. Vida (2005)
Past President: Harold B. Davis (2005)
Secretary: Lisa Medoff Kelly (2005)
Treasurer: David L. Downing (2006)
Members At Large: Douglas Maxwell (2007)
Patrick B. Kavanaugh (2007)
Gerald J. Gargiulo (2007)
Merle Molofsky (2007)
Susan Saperstein (2006)
Arturo Ortiz Castro (2005)
Thomas B. Kirsch (2005)
Samoan Barish (2005)

I will close with a reminder to send your membership renewal promptly; filling out and sending the enclosed form with your dues will ensure that your listing is up to date. We encourage you to invite your trusted colleagues to take a look at us on www.ifpe.org. I look forward to seeing all of you in Fort Lauderdale!

Sincerely,

Judith E. Vida