Dear Colleagues,
As this year is coming to a close, I would like to take this time of transition to the New Year to look back at the events within the IAAP over the past year, in particular the decisions reached by the Delegates at the Congress in Kyoto. This also provides an ideal opportunity to take a look at the forthcoming New Year for our Association as well as for Analytical Psychology worldwide. My contribution to the Newssheet, which you will be receiving in the next few days, contains at least in part similar information. The overlap is to ensure that all our members are informed about these matters. While the Newssheet is only in English, this letter from the President is translated into the five official languages of the IAAP.
First, I would like to greet you all in my role as the new President of the IAAP. In Kyoto I had the honour of taking over the presidency from my valued predecessor Tom Kelly and with that the responsibility for our Association. It is a great privilege for me and I am delighted. However, it is of course also a challenge that after three years as President-elect I look forward to with pleasure but also with respect.
The extremely successful congress in Japan already lies a few weeks behind us. I think all congress participants continue to be nourished from this enriching and extremely inspiring experience. This congress was a unique opportunity for our Association to make contact with Asia and to foster and encourage the great interest in Analytical Psychology in this continent. I am aware that not all of our members were able, for various reasons, to attend this congress. I sincerely hope however that the IAAP is able within the framework of its various activities to offer them something as well. In this connection, I ask you whenever you have a suggestion or a wish to contact me directly.
The Meeting of Delegates took place on August 31st 2016. I would like to inform you about the results of the voting and of some decisions of the newly elected Executive Committee following its first meeting in Kyoto. The newly elected Executive Committee is composed as follows: The Officers are Marianne Müller (President), Toshio Kawai (President-Elect), Misser Berg (Vice President), George Hogenson (Vice President), Martin Schmidt (Honorary Secretary). The representatives of the Group Members include Alvaro Ancona di Faria (SBrPA, Brazil) Pilar Amezaga (SUAPA, Uruguay/Argentina), Batya Brosh Palmoni (IIJP, Israel), Grazina Gudaite (LAAP, Lithuania), Christine Hejinian (CGJISF, San Francisco), Emilija Kiehl (BJAA, London), Margaret Klenck (JPA, New York), Brigit Soubrouillard (SFPA, France), Regina Renn (DGAP, Germany). I look forward with pleasure to the opportunity of working together with each member of this outstanding team. At a later point in time, we will report in more detail about the 2 responsibilities and tasks of the various Sub-Committees and Working Groups. At the first meeting of the Executive Committee Penny Pickles (SAP, London) was appointed as chairperson of the Ethics Committee. She will assume responsibility for the diverse tasks of this Committee together with a team of five competent members from various parts of the world including Paula Boechat (AJB, Brazil), Andrea Cone-Farran (ANZSJA, Australia), Ulrich Stuck (DGAP, Germany) Elena Volodina (RSAP, Russia), Mark Winborn (IRSJA, USA).
The Delegates chose Vienna as the site for the next IAAP Congress in 2019. I am already looking forward to preparing this congress and to cooperating with the Austrian Society for Analytical Psychology (ÖGAP) in one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and rich with meaningful significance in the history of Psychoanalysis. Next February the Programme Committee will meet for the first time in order to determine the theme of the next congress. The call for papers will be sent out in the course of next year. The Chair of the Programme Committee, George Hogenson, will contact in the near future with a request for suggestions for the theme of the next congress. The Delegates in Kyoto also voted on the admission of a number of new Group Members of the IAAP. Four new Group Members without Training Status were accepted: Chilean Society of Analytical Psychology (SCPA), Colombian Society of Jungian Analyst (SCAJ), Czech Association for Analytical Psychology (CAAP), Finnish-Estonian Group of Analytical Psychology (FEGAP). The CG Jung Institute Zurich (CGJI) was also accepted as a Group Member with Training Status. Three further groups had their status changed and are now Group Members with Training Status: Lithuanian Association for Analytical Psychology (LAAP), Mexican Society of C.G. Jung (SOMEJ), Uruguayan-Argentinean Society of Analytical Psychology (SUAPA). We are very happy about these new Group Members within the IAAP. Most of them come from countries where there were previously Developing Groups of the IAAP which made it possible for them to train to become Jungian Analysts. In total the IAAP now has 64 Group Members.
In addition, the Delegates voted to accept 77 new Individual Members. All of them have completed the Router Programme and have qualified as Jungian Analysts. It is a joy to welcome so many new and also young colleagues into our Association. Many of these Individual Members will now become members of new or existing Group Members. I would like at this stage to greet also all new graduates of the Group Members of the IAAP’s training institutes. I will communicate with them directly in writing and welcome them personally as members of our international Association.
It is a great honour for the IAAP that the Delegates elected five new Honorary Members. These include Harald Atmanspacher (Switzerland), Ulrich Hoerni (Switzerland), Andreas Jung (Switzerland), Shinichi Nakazawa (Japan), Shizutheru Uedu (Japan).
Please visit the new IAAP website in order to inform yourself more specifically about the IAAP and its activities. The website is now functioning again after having had to shut it down this summer as a result of serious technical malfunctioning. We are continuously in the process of updating and supplementing the information to make it as relevant and complete as possible. This will still take some time. Regularly checking the IAAP website is worth the effort. In the future you will regularly find new material on the website.
It is also an important concern of mine to make sure that the structurally complex and varied organisation of the IAAP continues to be led with care and where necessary renewed. I hope 3 the IAAP manages with its activities to bring our members closer together and to stimulate interest. One of the structural tasks amongst others is the procedure for admission of new members. In a thorough process the applications for Group Membership and the relevant documents are being reviewed and reworked, and will be presented to the Delegates for a vote. I have already reported on the newly admitted groups.
A further structural task is the Router Programme. Thanks to it, over the past few years the training of Individual Members has been increasingly refined and further developed. In addition, with this programme the IAAP has reacted to the large demand for training in those regions of the world where there are no Group Members with Training Status. The goal of this programme has always been temporary: it simply lasts until there are sufficient local analysts to form a Group Member of the IAAP with Training Status. From then the Router Programme is no longer necessary or possible. A further service of the IAAP is a consultation and mediation service that can be requested by members in any form of conflictual situation. Up until now this service has not been used very often. This is perhaps a good sign. Perhaps this service is not yet sufficiently well known. For this reason, I mention it here as an explicit reminder.
Next to the direct support of our members, the central goal of the IAAP is that of promoting, developing and disseminating the theory, teaching and practice of Analytical Psychology. This is also solidly entrenched in the IAAP Constitution. The IAAP is an international, global organisation and therefore its functions are specifically focussed. Above all I see them as to foster and encourage international exchange, inform members of developments in our field in different parts of the world, and facilitate cooperation where this is meaningful and productive.
One of the most valuable aspects within our Association is certainly the professional exchange between colleagues from various cultures. Analysts from regions of the world where Analytical Psychology is not that widely known locally have a special task. They are challenged to make Analytical Psychology’s theory and practice compatible with local culture and make it applicable within this frame. Such developments and their subsequent bidirectional influence on Analytical Psychology are likely to be increasingly important themes for discussion in the future. Discussions with members have made us aware of far reaching structural changes in various regions of the world, in particular in the Western countries. Many training institutes complain about a sharp decline in the number of candidates, which has unpleasant financial consequences for them. Some groups have reacted to this by offering new forms of training: psychotherapy training or other forms of training for professions in the social services. In this context, we need to devote time to the reconsideration of our profession as analysts in our time. This theme needs more attention and more intensive discussion within the IAAP. In order to find an adequate basis for a fruitful discussion of these questions, the IAAP will as a first step, collect data to provide information about the actual situation of analytical practice and of the societies worldwide. In the previous administration a Working Group designed a questionnaire which was sent to the Group Members of the IAAP in the form of a pilot study. The responses were wide ranging and informative. This inquiry obviously addressed a need of the members. The results of this investigation showed us that we must continue to carry out a comprehensive survey in this area with the involvement of all members. It is our goal not only to get significant findings, but also to initiate a dialogue within our members that should in turn lead to an intensive discussion about the situation of Analytical Psychology worldwide.
In the future we will be more determined and active in encouraging and initiating research projects within Analytical Psychology and informing members about projects within our 4 Association. This will also be carried out with the help of a special posting on the IAAP website. At this point I would remind you that the IAAP provides financial support for members’ research projects. Requests for financial support can be submitted to the Academic Sub-committee.
We must continue to nurture dialogue with scientific branches of various orientations that come into contact with psychology, like for example, brain research, neurology or other particular branches of the natural sciences. Only in so doing can we today pay credit to the rich contributions of Analytical Psychology, take cognisance of recent developments and discoveries and include these in our current discussions.
Over the past few years psychological analyses and reflections regarding current political or social themes and posing questions have also been intensively discussed and debated within our Association. It is a tried and true Analytical tradition that the theory is not only applied to the psyche of the individual, but also to social and political phenomena. I welcome such initiatives and I am naturally very willing to give it a place within the IAAP. However, it is not possible to make political statements in the name of the IAAP or even to take sides. The IAAP is committed to all its members and may not and will not for reasons of professional ethics, identify with political goals of a particular group of members. At the same time, it is important for the IAAP to conduct the widest possible open exchange and discussion. We will continue to endeavour to find suitable forms that make this possible.
In this sense the Executive Committee will reconsider the „Statement of Acknowledgement and Apology“, as was already announced at Kyoto, after the submitted draft statement was withdrawn and referred to the new Administration for further revision. Fundamental reflection and discussion is now required in order to clarify if, when and in what form the IAAP can and will make such a statement. It goes without saying that this questioning will be discussed within our Association. Statements on behalf of our members must be thought through carefully by us and considered within a much wider context.
In all its activities the Executive Committee is aligned towards collaboration with the members. Its task is to take note of their contributions and initiatives, to focus them and to include them where they fit into a larger context. I am looking forward to taking on these tasks and to exchanging thoughts and ideas with you.
On behalf of the Executive Committee, I would like to wish you, your families and loved ones all the very best in the festive days that lie ahead and for the New Year.
With warm collegial greetings, Marianne Müller President IAAP