My Background

My background couldn’t be further away from the world of psychoanalysis. I grew up in the 1950’s and 1960’s on Staten Island, New York, a blue-collar working class environment that was largely second generation Italian-Americans. Although a mere half hour away from Manhattan, known to us as “The City,” Staten Island was worlds apart. I was educated in a Catholic grade school dominated by an order of Hungarian nuns who had yet to recover from the Communist takeover. To this day, Staten Island remains the most conservative outpost of New York City. I attended a public high school which, while still able to provide a reasonable academic curriculum, also saw its mission as preparing its graduates to immediately enter the work force. My background from Staten Island has left me with an enduring respect for hard working, blue-collar men and women seeking a better life for their children.

I remained on Staten Island for my college years, attending Wagner College, which in those days was largely a commuter college, I feel a never ending gratitude to Wagner because here was my first exposure to bigger ideas than what I saw on popular TV shows or discussed on local street corners. For the very first time I read some Freud and that, no doubt, had a lot to do with my desire to become a psychoanalyst. Wagner has grown and changed over the decades, now being a liberal arts college with a national and even an international student body. I have maintained ties with the college and jumped at the opportunity to join its Board of Trustees when a prior President asked me. This is typical for me. I have loyalty to organizations that I feel have given me something valuable and I attempt to be of help, and sometimes I find my way into leadership positions.

I attended the University of Wisconsin for medical school, another eye opening experience. The Viet Nam war was in full force, as was the student protest movement. Madison was a hot bed. This was not conservative Staten Island. I vividly recall massive student marches, tear gas and mace, and an explosion of a building where federally funded research occurred. There was time for studying, however, and I became very stimulated by psychiatry. I began a lifelong friendship with the Department Chairman, which led me into residency training at Wisconsin.

Psychiatric training was a wonderful experience. Wisconsin was an eclectic, democratically oriented, non-hierarchical department. Obviously, this has greatly influenced my own ideas about organizational governance. My first exposure to psychoanalysis occurred at the U.W. residency largely in the person of Joe Kepecs, a geographic training analyst from the Chicago Institute. Joe is currently 93 and still alive. He was an extraordinarily smart, warm, compassionate, witty and encouraging man, thoroughly devoted to psychoanalyses, an ideal role model for an analyst to be. While at UW, I met and married Linda, my wife of 35 years, and now a major executive at the highly prestigious Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

We came to Los Angeles in 1974 and shortly thereafter, I began psychoanalytic training. Our 33 years in L.A. have been a marathon. I have had major faculty and leadership positions in two academic departments of psychiatry and in two psychoanalytic organizations. I never shied away from an opportunity for leadership nor from an opportunity to teach in psychiatric residencies or in psychoanalytic institutes.

My involvement with APsaA began in the early 1990’s when my local Institute asked me to represent them at CNMCT (Committee on Non-Medical Clinical Training), a predecessor of COPAP (Committee on Preparedness and Progress). We felt that the then current admission policies regarding “non-medical” applicants were needlessly restrictive. I argued for reform, and I have been doing so ever since. I have had a long and consistent record of supporting progressive change in ApsaA. Since then I have served as a BOPS Fellow (96-01), been nationally elected as Councilor at Large (97-01) and twice as elected Treasurer (02-05, 05- ).

I am now in my second term as Treasurer. I have consistently brought transparency to our budgetary processes. I have always offered to meet with any interested member at our annual meetings and have always been open to answer any and all questions related to financial matters on our listserve. During my years as treasurer we have had balanced budgets, funded all our programs, established a number of new programs, and we did all of this without raising dues.

I am now running for President, once again, of the American Psychoanalytic Association. I feel a strong wish to lead our organization, especially at a time when change is required both to resolve our dissension and to move us towards meeting the demands of the current environment. Elsewhere on this web page, I’ll tell you more about my ideas for ApsaA and why I believe you can trust me as a leader.



Rock and Roll legend Paul Anka entertaining Linda, myself and our guests during our party this past spring.

As you can see from the picture above, Linda and I do more than work all day. We also have a great deal of fun, often with some of our many friends. Earlier this year we decided to hold an “over the top” party to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary and my 60th birthday. We invited 300 of our special friends including a sizeable contingent from Staten Island. As a reward for them, we had rock and roll legend Paul Anka perform his nightclub act. It was a memorable event!