Ethics Petition

Many of you may be aware of the grassroots protest among American Psychological Association members that began after the NY Times reported on June 7 that psychiatrists will no longer be used to help interrogate detainees. In a new policy, psychiatrists are explicitly discouraged from participating in such efforts. However, the American Psychological Association's spokesman and director of ethics, Dr. Stephen Behnke, is reported to have said that psychologists believe that helping military interrogators makes a valuable contribution because it is part of the effort to prevent terrorism.

A online petition for psychologists who unequivocally oppose this policy is now available for signatures at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/483607021

The Section V board hopes that all of you will add your names to this petition. We also hope that you will pass it on to colleagues who are members of the APA in clinics, hospitals, and universities, and wherever you work.

SECTION V'S ALL-DIVISION MORTON SCHILLINGER 2006 BIANNUAL ESSAY COMPETITION

IS THE UNCONSCIOUS NECESSARY?

We're pleased to announce the winners!

Victor Iannuzzi, Ph.D. and Todd Essig, Ph.D. will share first prize.

The prizes were awarded at the Spring Meeting of Division 39 in Philadelphia on April 22, 2006

Their essays are posted in the Essays section.


New Student Page

We've got a new student page run by Student members David Kemmerer and Liz Hahn.

Take a look!

http://www.sectionfive.org/students/

Section V at APA, August 2006

Johanna Krout Tabin, a Member of the Section V Board, was chair of the Section V invited panel in August at the APA convention:

Trauma, Obvious or Hidden: Possibilities for Treatment

We psychologists use the term trauma to cover the whole spectrum of psychological and physical experiences which cause a sense of extreme psychic danger. This symposium will refine our clinical sensitivity to three manifestations of traumatic reaction.

Marvin Hurvich examines the annihilation anxieties that may accompany efforts to deal with trauma.

Sharon Farber calls attention to the dissociative process that some patients need when trying to deal with trauma, using their bodies as objects.

Michael Harvey will present a paper analysing the psychoanalytic "disinterest" in working with individuals with brain injury in which he examines the counter-transference difficulties which underlie this neglect.

All the panelists are members of Section V.

These papers appear in the Essays section.

Section V at The Division 39 Spring Meeting, April 2006

Licensing Psychoanalysts: Re-examining the Question of Lay Analysis

The Section V Invited panel at the Spring 06 meeting of Division 39, was "The Licensing of Psychoanalysts: Re-considering the Question of Lay Analysis", a round table discussion with Nancy McWilliams as moderator, and with Lewis Aron, Virginia Goldner, David Lichtenstein and Laurel Wagner participating. It featured a discussion of the questions raised here by David Lichtenstein, Member at Large of the Section V Board, who writes:

With the passage of a law in NY State that establishes the licensing of psychoanalysts, and with movement toward similar laws taking place in various other states, questions about the formal status of the profession: how credentials are established, what the standards of training should be, who should decide such matters, etc., are once again in the air. Now that there is a new political and social meaning to be given to the term "psychoanalyst" as an independent licensed profession, it would seem that even those who practice psychoanalysis under the rubric of their own licensed profession, such as the majority of the members of Division 39, must take account of the changing status that their profession will have in the public sphere.

To read more, go to:
http://www.sectionfive.org/?tag=freeassociation

Our President Elgan Baker writes...

Welcome to the Section website. If you are a member of our Section, we hope that you will find useful information here about the Section Board and our activities and plans as well as information about meetings, competitions for professional writing and even periodic continuing education offerings. If you are not a member of our Section, we hope that you will look around and feel intrigued enough to become interested in our activities and mission and even join us as a member.

As always, we are eager for your input. Our Board has made a specific commitment to engage members of our Section who have not previously been involved in the activities of the Section or its governance. We very much are interested in your ideas, your energy and your involvement. If you have any interest in becoming more involved with the Section and with the Board, please let me know. I would be happy to respond to any questions or to facilitate your involvement in any of the committees which are currently in the process of being formed.

You can reach me at: EBLXA@aol.com

New Mission Statement

Our new mission statement says in part:

We think that psychoanalysis should be a discipline of inquiry not an orthodoxy of belief. That is, that our work, on both the theoretical and the clinical level, is distinguished by the questions being asked and not by the answers which may seem to have been found. We believe that answers are inevitably provisional....

Want to read the whole statement? http://www.sectionfive.org/about/