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PARTISAN REVIEW
topic: to the impact of patients' psychic reality on technique; on bor–
derline and psychotic states; on perversions and neurotic disorders; on re–
ality and dreams; on multidisiplinary approaches and theoretical plural–
ism; and on a patient's effect on the analyst's psyche. As in Freud's time,
the creativity of the analyst in enabling analysands to pursue their talents
was discussed in a number of major sessions as well as in the many
workshops. All of these presentations, and most of the discussions, were
on a most serious and high level.
Nevertheless, the future of psychoanalysis appears bleak. In a way the
discipline's organizational success portends its eventual decline. As in ev–
ery other profession, democratic participation, though an absolute ne–
cessity, induces a watering down of substantive theoretical advances by
favoring representation by countries, languages, regions, and so on, over
outstanding achievement. The IPA was created by disparate, inquisitive
minds, by gifted, visionary figures who tended to be a bit lunatic and
ambitious, and who were not attuned to organizational discipline and
procedures. Freud himself, when confronted with these issues, got impa–
tient, imperious, and set up his secret committee. As Joseph Sandler, the
outgoing president, stated, correctly, until recently the sort of con–
tentions that occurred during the latest elections were present as well.
But before 1985, the membership of non-medical analysts was a non-issue
everywhere except in the United States; behind-the-scenes politicking was
over what country would receive the presidency and other honorific
jobs; and it was almost possible to keep secret, or reduce rumors to a
minimum. Now, the admission of new groups poses unanticipated prob–
lems, such as the need to hold elections by mail ballots.
The most serious issue, I observed, revolves around the type of
training and personal analyses the members of a particular group have
had. That too, however, is not uniform and may range from twice to
five times per week. The New York Freudian Society and the
Psychoanalytic Center of California, for instance, have members with
doctoral degrees ranging from social work to sociology and clinical psy–
chology, as well as others with no more than an M.A. Collegiality, im–
plied Norbert Freedman who represents the International Psychoanalytic
Society (IPS) - which consists of the groups newly admitted to the IPA
- demands that all members of these societies be treated equally within
the IPA, that clinical Ph.D.s not be favored .
It
is not yet clear whether
the democratic impulse will mean that theoretical standards will have to
be lowered - by offering equal representation on scientific panels as well
as on committees. Time will tell. However, it is certain that just as in the
past, the sort of battles rampant in every other American professional as–
sociation now are being played out within the IPA as well. The enemies
