Dear Colleagues,
In recent weeks I have discussed on this list some of my ideas about the values which need greater emphasis and which are essential to the future of our organization. These include an attention to and an embrace of all forms of diversity (cultural, theoretical, racial, political, etc.) and an attunement to the needs of the next generations of analysts. Let me add another important value, one which garners much lip-service but too little action: transparency. Ours has not been a particularly transparent organization historically and the consequence, to members and non-members alike, has been a legacy of hurt and mistrust.
In the business and political worlds transparency has become an essential antidote to corruption and cronyism. To my mind, it correlates with openness, communication, and accountability, especially of leaders. Democracy by itself does not necessarily protect against plutocracy or the occurrence of abuses. This is why one of my leadership goals for APsaA is maximal transparency. Open meetings, public financial statements and budgetary review, and just a general ethic of freedom of information, are essential facets of a thriving and participatory democracy, and critical to our future success as an organization.
As Treasurer these past five years, I have been consistently committed to transparency, including the establishment of a viable and ongoing Audit Committee. Overall, our organization has made good strides towards greater openness of late, but I think we can, and must, move even further. For both practical and creative reasons, we need our members to play a larger role in the workings and evolution of all aspects of our organization, from financial decisions to membership criteria and beyond. The corollary of such an effort will not only be a more vibrant and meaningful organization, but it will also foster a greater sense of confidence and genuine trust in our Association.
As always, I would be delighted to spell out in greater detail my vision for our future and to hear your thoughts on these directions and ideas (you may visit my website at either www.wrprocci.org or http://warrenprocci.blogspot.com ). Please feel free to contact me at any time (626-793-7957, wrprocci@sbcglobal.net ) and please don’t forget to vote.
Warren R. Procci, Candidate for President-Elect, APsaA
Friday, November 2, 2007
Succession in APsaA- Do We Become an Incubator or a Museum?
We are in danger of becoming a museum rather than an incubator of creative ideas!
Dear Colleagues,
What does this current generation of analysts owe to our next generation?
The Athenian oath was a promise by older leaders to hand over their great city in better condition than they received it. And I believe that those of us who have drawn so much value from our national organization have a similar and irrevocable obligation to our younger colleagues.
In that regard, I propose two avenues towards a richer future for our organization and for all of us within it.
1) As treasurer for the past five years I’ve been substantially involved in strengthening the fiscal bricks and mortars of our organization. It is on this foundation that we need to build an association that is truly representative of our diverse and changing membership. We need to foster the involvement at all levels of committee and community life, including leadership, of our newer and younger members, with all their disciplinary, cultural, and theoretical diversity. As president I will lead and support such efforts, because only in this way can we assure that our organization can remain an incubator for new ideas rather than just a container for old ones.
2) My second point has to do with our Association’s direction: theoretically, clinically and administratively. We need to construct an Association open to the new perspectives arising in the face of current practice realities and to the myriad of newer developments in psychoanalytic theory. We run the risk of being left standing at the station as the best of our rival organizations readily embrace the value and seriousness of new ideas. It may sound obvious, but many in our organization have difficulty grasping the fact that our newer candidates and members, all drawn from varied backgrounds and experience, are essential contributors to developing a modern face and soul for APsaA.
Of course there is more to say about these significant themes, but brevity in this context is undoubtedly appreciated. However, I welcome discussion with any and all of you who are interested, concerned, or enticed by these themes. Feel free to contact me by email (wrprocci@sbcglobal.net) or by telephone (626-793-7957). Please feel free to visit my webpage as well (www.wrprocci.org or http://warrenprocci.blogspot.com)
Very truly yours,
Warren R. Procci, Candidate for President-Elect, APsaA
Dear Colleagues,
What does this current generation of analysts owe to our next generation?
The Athenian oath was a promise by older leaders to hand over their great city in better condition than they received it. And I believe that those of us who have drawn so much value from our national organization have a similar and irrevocable obligation to our younger colleagues.
In that regard, I propose two avenues towards a richer future for our organization and for all of us within it.
1) As treasurer for the past five years I’ve been substantially involved in strengthening the fiscal bricks and mortars of our organization. It is on this foundation that we need to build an association that is truly representative of our diverse and changing membership. We need to foster the involvement at all levels of committee and community life, including leadership, of our newer and younger members, with all their disciplinary, cultural, and theoretical diversity. As president I will lead and support such efforts, because only in this way can we assure that our organization can remain an incubator for new ideas rather than just a container for old ones.
2) My second point has to do with our Association’s direction: theoretically, clinically and administratively. We need to construct an Association open to the new perspectives arising in the face of current practice realities and to the myriad of newer developments in psychoanalytic theory. We run the risk of being left standing at the station as the best of our rival organizations readily embrace the value and seriousness of new ideas. It may sound obvious, but many in our organization have difficulty grasping the fact that our newer candidates and members, all drawn from varied backgrounds and experience, are essential contributors to developing a modern face and soul for APsaA.
Of course there is more to say about these significant themes, but brevity in this context is undoubtedly appreciated. However, I welcome discussion with any and all of you who are interested, concerned, or enticed by these themes. Feel free to contact me by email (wrprocci@sbcglobal.net) or by telephone (626-793-7957). Please feel free to visit my webpage as well (www.wrprocci.org or http://warrenprocci.blogspot.com)
Very truly yours,
Warren R. Procci, Candidate for President-Elect, APsaA
My First Campaign Letter to APsaA Members
The most valuable and important asset of any professional organization is its membership. That is why I am writing to you directly, to ask you to support my candidacy for President-Elect of APsaA. I know that a lot of you have been bored or put off by the postings on the listservs. But those members with little patience for politics "as usual" are often the ones who turn out to be most interested in progressive ideas, so I want to tell you who I am and where I stand. Despite its history of stalwart support for psychoanalysis, APsaA must make some major changes if it is to survive the challenges that face psychoanalysis today. Each of us will soon have to decide who we want to have leading our Association and helping to shape these changes. In this letter I'll tell you something about my background, qualifications, and values. In subsequent communications, I will outline the goals I would embrace as President of APsaA and my vision of the future for psychoanalysis and our organization.
It's been a long journey into this world for me, coming as I did from the blue-collar, working class, Italian-American Staten Island of the 1950s. Going off to the University of Wisconsin for medical school and psychiatric residency was an eye-opening developmental step. That was where I met Joe Kepecs, the charismatic Chicago geographic TA, who first aroused my interest in psychoanalysis.
My training analysis in Los Angeles, where my wife and I moved after my residency, was another great stimulus for personal and professional growth -- a life-changing experience. It set me on the road I have followed ever since, seeking out opportunities to learn, to teach, and, eventually, to lead. For 13 years I was a full-time tenured member first of the USC faculty and then at Harbor/UCLA Medical Center. There, as Director of Residency Training, I pushed hard to involve residents -- not only in matters pertaining to their training, but in all the other aspects of department administration as well. Even then, inclusivity, democracy, and pluralism were key ideals for me and integral to my beliefs about how an organization should be run. I moved into full-time psychoanalytic practice in 1988 and have retained a quarter-time faculty appointment as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harbor/UCLA.
I graduated from the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute in 1984. Between 1992 and 2001 I served as President-elect (1992 to 1994), as President (1994 to 1996), and as Chair of the Education Committee (1996 to 2001). In these positions too I pushed hard for candidate involvement in all aspects of Institute life, as well as for reforms regarding candidate admission, TA appointment, curriculum design, etc.
I first became involved with APsaA at SCPI's request. It was the early '90s, and we were frustrated by what we saw as cumbersome and restrictive policies regarding the admission of “non-medical candidates," as they were called then. I argued for fewer restrictions, including the abandonment of waivers and shifting admissions decisions from the national level to the local institutes. I think I played a role in the eventual development of less restrictive procedures and greater local autonomy.
At APsaA I was a Fellow to BOPS between 1996 and 2001, and nationally elected three times -- once as Councilor at Large (1997 through 2001) and twice as Treasurer (2002 through 2005 and 2005 to the present). I’ve been an officer of APsaA and an Executive Committee member for five years, and a member of our Board of Directors (Executive Council) for nine. Between 1997 and 2000 I also chaired one of our most important committees, the Committee on Government Relations and Insurance (CGRI). During my tenure as CGRI Chair, we made a significant shift to a stricter defense of the privacy of the psychoanalytic setting, and we also hired our current and extremely effective government representative, Jim Pyles.
As officer and Board member I have consistently and vigorously supported such progressive causes as: an expanded membership proposal; a by-law amendment to grant voting rights to candidates; a BOPS-generated proposal to expand the opportunities for TA appointments; a by-law amendment to extend to all members, not just certified ones, the right to hold office; a by-law amendment to remove references to certification from our by-laws; a bylaw amendment to assert Board (Executive Council) oversight; and a by-law amendment to shift authority for TA appointments to individual institutes.
One other significant leadership experience has helped prepare me for the presidency of APsaA. In 1999, I was asked to join the Wagner College Board of Trustees. Soon after I accepted the invitation, I had assumed a leadership position as a member of the Board’s Executive Committee and as Chair of the College’s Committee on Academic Affairs. In these roles I have had opportunity to deal directly with issues pertaining to administrative oversight of academic matters -- a matter clearly and directly relevant to controversies within today’s APsaA. I have participated significantly in the development and implementation of a strategic plan for the college, and in the college’s capital campaign to enlarge its endowment. This is also relevant for APsaA, and one cornerstone of my presidency would be the establishment of a program of development.
I hope I have persuaded you that I am the right person to be APsaA’s president. I don't think it's immodest to assert that few of our prior presidents have been as well prepared, or to point out the advantages of having a chief executive who won't have to learn the administrative ropes on the job. I hope I have also demonstrated a long and consistent history of support for the principles of pluralistic government, inclusive membership, and wide participation, and for local autonomy over central regulation. If you elect me to lead you, there will be no surprises about the positions I take, nor about my willingness to provide effective leadership in dealing with the serious challenges in front of us.
I believe that if we can get beyond our current dissension, a great future once again awaits our field. I would relish the opportunity to lead us toward it. Please feel free to contact me by phone or email and please visit my webpage as noted above.
With best personal regards,
Warren R. Procci, Candidate for President-Elect of APsaA
It's been a long journey into this world for me, coming as I did from the blue-collar, working class, Italian-American Staten Island of the 1950s. Going off to the University of Wisconsin for medical school and psychiatric residency was an eye-opening developmental step. That was where I met Joe Kepecs, the charismatic Chicago geographic TA, who first aroused my interest in psychoanalysis.
My training analysis in Los Angeles, where my wife and I moved after my residency, was another great stimulus for personal and professional growth -- a life-changing experience. It set me on the road I have followed ever since, seeking out opportunities to learn, to teach, and, eventually, to lead. For 13 years I was a full-time tenured member first of the USC faculty and then at Harbor/UCLA Medical Center. There, as Director of Residency Training, I pushed hard to involve residents -- not only in matters pertaining to their training, but in all the other aspects of department administration as well. Even then, inclusivity, democracy, and pluralism were key ideals for me and integral to my beliefs about how an organization should be run. I moved into full-time psychoanalytic practice in 1988 and have retained a quarter-time faculty appointment as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harbor/UCLA.
I graduated from the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute in 1984. Between 1992 and 2001 I served as President-elect (1992 to 1994), as President (1994 to 1996), and as Chair of the Education Committee (1996 to 2001). In these positions too I pushed hard for candidate involvement in all aspects of Institute life, as well as for reforms regarding candidate admission, TA appointment, curriculum design, etc.
I first became involved with APsaA at SCPI's request. It was the early '90s, and we were frustrated by what we saw as cumbersome and restrictive policies regarding the admission of “non-medical candidates," as they were called then. I argued for fewer restrictions, including the abandonment of waivers and shifting admissions decisions from the national level to the local institutes. I think I played a role in the eventual development of less restrictive procedures and greater local autonomy.
At APsaA I was a Fellow to BOPS between 1996 and 2001, and nationally elected three times -- once as Councilor at Large (1997 through 2001) and twice as Treasurer (2002 through 2005 and 2005 to the present). I’ve been an officer of APsaA and an Executive Committee member for five years, and a member of our Board of Directors (Executive Council) for nine. Between 1997 and 2000 I also chaired one of our most important committees, the Committee on Government Relations and Insurance (CGRI). During my tenure as CGRI Chair, we made a significant shift to a stricter defense of the privacy of the psychoanalytic setting, and we also hired our current and extremely effective government representative, Jim Pyles.
As officer and Board member I have consistently and vigorously supported such progressive causes as: an expanded membership proposal; a by-law amendment to grant voting rights to candidates; a BOPS-generated proposal to expand the opportunities for TA appointments; a by-law amendment to extend to all members, not just certified ones, the right to hold office; a by-law amendment to remove references to certification from our by-laws; a bylaw amendment to assert Board (Executive Council) oversight; and a by-law amendment to shift authority for TA appointments to individual institutes.
One other significant leadership experience has helped prepare me for the presidency of APsaA. In 1999, I was asked to join the Wagner College Board of Trustees. Soon after I accepted the invitation, I had assumed a leadership position as a member of the Board’s Executive Committee and as Chair of the College’s Committee on Academic Affairs. In these roles I have had opportunity to deal directly with issues pertaining to administrative oversight of academic matters -- a matter clearly and directly relevant to controversies within today’s APsaA. I have participated significantly in the development and implementation of a strategic plan for the college, and in the college’s capital campaign to enlarge its endowment. This is also relevant for APsaA, and one cornerstone of my presidency would be the establishment of a program of development.
I hope I have persuaded you that I am the right person to be APsaA’s president. I don't think it's immodest to assert that few of our prior presidents have been as well prepared, or to point out the advantages of having a chief executive who won't have to learn the administrative ropes on the job. I hope I have also demonstrated a long and consistent history of support for the principles of pluralistic government, inclusive membership, and wide participation, and for local autonomy over central regulation. If you elect me to lead you, there will be no surprises about the positions I take, nor about my willingness to provide effective leadership in dealing with the serious challenges in front of us.
I believe that if we can get beyond our current dissension, a great future once again awaits our field. I would relish the opportunity to lead us toward it. Please feel free to contact me by phone or email and please visit my webpage as noted above.
With best personal regards,
Warren R. Procci, Candidate for President-Elect of APsaA
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Position Statement 1: Diversity
Dear Colleagues,
Once upon a time we psychoanalysts were a pretty homogeneous lot. The hallways and conference rooms of our semiannual meetings were populated mostly by male physicians. That has changed -- changed remarkably. The number of women in our ranks has increased steadily, as has the number of gay colleagues, and we now include Ph.D. psychologists, MSWs, MFTs, and academics. This new diversity has caused us plenty of growing pains, but it is essential to our successful evolution into the future.
The changes did not come about entirely voluntarily; it was the lawsuit against APsaA in the mid 80s that started the deluge. Our organization is still reeling from the aftermath of that lawsuit, and the scars inflicted by decades of exclusion and mistreatment. Few of the APsaA members of those days expected the changes to be as significant as they proved. Whether supporters of the lawsuit or opponents, most of us figured that only a small number of new analysts would join us, and that they would be absorbed into our culture as they integrated themselves into the membership. I doubt that most “old” APsaA members foresaw the influx of new colleagues that actually resulted, nor the profound, creative, and beneficial ways that it would shape the evolution and culture of our organization.
We include many more women now, for example. Their influence has prodded us to develop new ways of clinical thinking and new modes of discourse. And it can continue to help us grow and develop too. But we will realize the fullest potential of this new opportunity only to the extent that we are willing to nurture it. The new perspectives that our female colleagues bring to the Association may well, if we can allow it, help us improve our organizational dialog, and encourage creative solutions to some of the old problems that have dogged us for years.
Similarly, the advent of other disciplines, clinical and nonclinical, into our field has already enriched our organization clinically, theoretically, and administratively. To adduce just one small example, the new cadre of psychologists and academics, whose training includes research, has expanded a vital, and heretofore underdeveloped, aspect of psychoanalytic studies and we have only just begun to take advantage of that new potential.
Our gay colleagues have done much more than enhance and enliven our clinical and theoretical perspectives on gays – they have also raised our collective consciousness about the dangers and pervasiveness of “normative” assumptions. In response we began to take a public stance against discrimination, and we are now reaping the benefits in a far more favorable public perception as being less rigid and conventional and, once again, as empowering and liberating.
My point is that although our newly found diversity was born in strife, it is nonetheless a major asset -- provided that we all learn to embrace it and allow ourselves to be expanded by the variety of worldviews exemplified in our expanded membership.
I myself have always supported a wider opening of our doors. My earliest involvement with APsaA was to push for greater local autonomy over admissions of non-MD candidates. Along with my many “traditional” teaching and administrative roles, I have spent more than a decade teaching in a non-APsaA institute where the candidate and faculty populations are much more similar to our new profile than to the old one. That institute is thriving, with a reliable supply of candidates and a continually evolving curriculum richly informed by the interests of its members, including such real world and academic areas as women’s studies, gay issues, infant research, and so on.
I think that the history of psychoanalysis, and the history of APsaA, have shown that while change is unsettling at first, it is both necessary and desirable. Let’s work to attract new candidates and new members from all backgrounds. More candidates of color should be our next priority. We need the breadth that comes from difference and the depth that comes from courage. Psychoanalysis aspires to universality, but we can’t live up to that aspiration in an exclusionary bubble.
Diversity is essential for evolution.
Warren R. Procci, Candidate for President-Elect of APsaA
Once upon a time we psychoanalysts were a pretty homogeneous lot. The hallways and conference rooms of our semiannual meetings were populated mostly by male physicians. That has changed -- changed remarkably. The number of women in our ranks has increased steadily, as has the number of gay colleagues, and we now include Ph.D. psychologists, MSWs, MFTs, and academics. This new diversity has caused us plenty of growing pains, but it is essential to our successful evolution into the future.
The changes did not come about entirely voluntarily; it was the lawsuit against APsaA in the mid 80s that started the deluge. Our organization is still reeling from the aftermath of that lawsuit, and the scars inflicted by decades of exclusion and mistreatment. Few of the APsaA members of those days expected the changes to be as significant as they proved. Whether supporters of the lawsuit or opponents, most of us figured that only a small number of new analysts would join us, and that they would be absorbed into our culture as they integrated themselves into the membership. I doubt that most “old” APsaA members foresaw the influx of new colleagues that actually resulted, nor the profound, creative, and beneficial ways that it would shape the evolution and culture of our organization.
We include many more women now, for example. Their influence has prodded us to develop new ways of clinical thinking and new modes of discourse. And it can continue to help us grow and develop too. But we will realize the fullest potential of this new opportunity only to the extent that we are willing to nurture it. The new perspectives that our female colleagues bring to the Association may well, if we can allow it, help us improve our organizational dialog, and encourage creative solutions to some of the old problems that have dogged us for years.
Similarly, the advent of other disciplines, clinical and nonclinical, into our field has already enriched our organization clinically, theoretically, and administratively. To adduce just one small example, the new cadre of psychologists and academics, whose training includes research, has expanded a vital, and heretofore underdeveloped, aspect of psychoanalytic studies and we have only just begun to take advantage of that new potential.
Our gay colleagues have done much more than enhance and enliven our clinical and theoretical perspectives on gays – they have also raised our collective consciousness about the dangers and pervasiveness of “normative” assumptions. In response we began to take a public stance against discrimination, and we are now reaping the benefits in a far more favorable public perception as being less rigid and conventional and, once again, as empowering and liberating.
My point is that although our newly found diversity was born in strife, it is nonetheless a major asset -- provided that we all learn to embrace it and allow ourselves to be expanded by the variety of worldviews exemplified in our expanded membership.
I myself have always supported a wider opening of our doors. My earliest involvement with APsaA was to push for greater local autonomy over admissions of non-MD candidates. Along with my many “traditional” teaching and administrative roles, I have spent more than a decade teaching in a non-APsaA institute where the candidate and faculty populations are much more similar to our new profile than to the old one. That institute is thriving, with a reliable supply of candidates and a continually evolving curriculum richly informed by the interests of its members, including such real world and academic areas as women’s studies, gay issues, infant research, and so on.
I think that the history of psychoanalysis, and the history of APsaA, have shown that while change is unsettling at first, it is both necessary and desirable. Let’s work to attract new candidates and new members from all backgrounds. More candidates of color should be our next priority. We need the breadth that comes from difference and the depth that comes from courage. Psychoanalysis aspires to universality, but we can’t live up to that aspiration in an exclusionary bubble.
Diversity is essential for evolution.
Warren R. Procci, Candidate for President-Elect of APsaA
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
