President's Message by Phil Lebovitz, M.D.

This academic year has been a stimulating year for the Society. The Program Committee has done an excellent job of identifying, and arranging for, high quality papers; the format was modified to have only one discussant in order to facilitate a more lively interaction between the presenter and the attendees. The Pritzker Auditorium at Northwestern's new hospital has proved to be a setting that also promotes contact between the audience and the speaker. Many of next year's presentations have been arranged, also.

The biennial conference of March 2000 accomplished its goals of beginning an exploration of the clinical issues facing us when we treat lesbians and gay men, as well as establishing a basis for clinical discussions with members of the gay and lesbian mental health community. The attendance was very good. The Society attempted to include pharmaceutical companies and to obtain funding from them for the conference. This, however, was only a partial benefit. The Conference planning committee learned that specific guidelines are essential for working with these companies; if the Society decides to approach them again in the future, terms, such as kind of exposure and cost for the opportunity, will have to be clearly presented and accepted prior to the conference.

Over the summer I am asking the members to think over an issue about the categories of membership that has come to the attention of the executive committee in the last few months. A proposal to broaden the Society's full membership category to include any applicant who has graduated from a recognized psychoanalytic institute, even if the institute is not accredited by the American Psychoanalytic Association, was briefly discussed at the April business meeting. The attendance at the business meeting was too low to consider the possibility of a definitive resolution of this issue at that meeting. The agreement reached by those at the meeting was to inform the membership of this idea through this column and through a mailing; the November business meeting would then be the time to reach a decision about this proposal.

The Society has an application for membership which is used when one seeks to become a member. The application inquires about the applicant's training and requires the applicant to sign a statement that he/she will abide by the American's principles of ethics and will abide by the Society's provision of the Psychoanalyst Assistance Committee. The application is reviewed by the membership chair/committee, is then brought to the executive committee; and then the applicant's name is circulated among the entire membership for comments. The applicant's credentials must meet basic standards in order to reach the point of his/her name being circulated.

The question which most of us raise is what is gained by broadening our membership in this manner; alternatively, the challenge might be raised whether this would "dilute" or lower our standards. Although this will most likely be the focus of the discussion of this proposal, a reasonable case can be made that by allowing graduates of other institutes to be part of our membership, we have more opportunity to influence the standards of other parts of an analytic community and to become the umbrella organization which could function as a local consortium of the kind in which the American participates in its effort to establish certification across psychoanalytic groups.

Finally, I have deep appreciation for Hank Evans as he completes his year as past president, for Dick Herron as he completes his term as treasurer, for Steve Flagel as he finishes as secretary, to the program committee ( Dan Busch, George Moraitis, Brenda Solomon, Sallee Jenkins, Joe Cronin), and the biennial conference committee (Jim Fisch, Dottie Jeffries, Bert Cohler, Bob Fajardo, Marty Fine, Dennis Shelby, Hank Evans, Virginia Saft).

Director's Column by Jerry Winer, M.D.

Summer is fast approaching and we look forward to a more relaxed pace at the Institute after an unusually busy year. To celebrate the end of the academic year, this year's graduation party will be held at The Standard Club. Congratulations to the graduates: Linda Garrity, Neal Spira, Robert Welker, Michael Grover (Child and Adult), and Colin Pereira-Webber (Child and Adult). During this past year, we have also welcomed Caryle Perlman, Steve Stern, Leo Weinstein, Colin Pereira-Webber, and Neal Spira to the Institute faculty.

The American Psychoanalytic Association held its Annual Meeting in Chicago during May, and the Institute and Society co-hosted a cocktail party on Tuesday, May 9th. Over 200 guests marveled at the wonderful facilities of the Institute and were treated to excellent food and drink. Thank you to Brenda and David Solomon and Caryle Perlman who co-chaired the local arrangements committee.

After almost a full year of planning, the Institute's very ambitious Conference on Youth and Violence took place over the weekend of May 12-13. Although registration was lower than we had originally anticipated, by all accounts the conference was a resounding success. Over 200 registrants representing schools, law enforcement, social service agencies, the legal system, clergy, health care providers, and state and local government, heard presentations by local and national experts from a variety of disciplines. The Public Forum provided an opportunity for members of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the lay public to attend a portion of the conference on Friday. This "town meeting" was moderated by Chicago's own John Callaway, with panelists Mark Smaller, Elijah Anderson from the University of Pennsylvania, Steven Marans from the Yale Child Study Center and the Western New England Institute, Douglas MacDonald, Assistant Chief of Police for New Haven, CT, and Paul Vallas, Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools. The conference would not have occurred without the "blood, sweat and tears" of a very industrious committee, under the chairmanship of Bob Galatzer-Levy. Pat Rueckheim, who devoted countless hours to organizing the program and preparing the very distinctive brochure, is in the process of constructing a report to be presented to the conference's lead sponsor, The Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust and other supporters and interested parties.

The first Thomas James Pappadis, M.D. Prize was awarded to Paul David Meyer for his paper entitled "Freud and the Human Sciences." Mr. Meyer just graduated from the University of Chicago. The paper will appear in the next volume of The Annual of Psychoanalysis, which is a special volume on "Freud and the Modern World." Contributors to the volume include members of our own psychoanalytic community, as well as Peter Loewenberg, Glen Gabbard, and Marcia Cavell. The volume of The Annual will also be published in a special paperback edition to be offered for sale at the bookstore of The Field Museum when the Library of Congress Freud exhibit "Conflict and Culture" comes there in October 2001.

I am very proud to report that the Barr-Harris Children's Grief Center has met the matching grant of $50,000 for this year. The Barr Foundation and Irving Harris each agreed to double their support from $25,000 to $50,000 if the Institute was successful in raising an equal amount. With a little more effort, and hopefully the expertise of a Development Director, maybe we can up the ante to $75,000!!!

The Board of Trustees elected new officers who are already taking on fresh initiatives for our organization. The new officers are: Eva Lichtenberg, chair; Mara Blumenthal, vice-chair; Harvey Kallick, treasurer; and Henry Evans, secretary. They are actively recruiting new members, and I am very excited to report that Renee Gelman, M.D. will be joining the Board. Renee maintains an apartment here and visits approximately every six weeks, so she will be able to attend Board meetings and many of the Institute activities and social functions.

In our ongoing efforts to reach out to other schools, agencies, and cultural institutions, the Institute will jointly sponsor a half/day conference with the C. G. Jung Institute on The Interpretation of Dreams: 2000. This will be held on October 28th at the Jung Institute in Evanston. Bob Fajardo chairs the committee meeting with representatives of the Jung Institute to plan this program. Bob Galatzer-Levy and Harry Trosman will make presentations, as will two members of the faculty of the Jung Institute. A brochure is being prepared and will be distributed at the end of the summer.

To date, seven candidates have been accepted for the fall class of the Core Program. The Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program has received 7 applications for its fall class and expects several more. A number of past students of the Psychotherapy Program have gone on to candidacy in the Core Program. Congratulations to Jim Fisch who was recently appointed Director of this very successful program.

Victoria Lautman recently interviewed me about our Institute and psychoanalysis for "City 2000." This is an effort to record in sound and visually the city of Chicago in the year 2000 for the future.

A very fine summer to everyone.

Abstract: This paper explores the pictorial imagery that is often used to explain the mind and mental processes. In particular it examines the gap that is said to exist between neurophysiologic and psychologic phenomena, the barrier said to explain the separation of unconscious from preconscious and conscious ideation and the split said to constitute the essentials of disavowal and denial. In each of these visual renditions, the claim is made that there is a logical contradiction, which stems from linear thinking. In addition the paper aims to suggest to the reader that the proper appreciation of these erroneous images might remove present-day futile efforts to pursue solutions based upon these images.

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