Dear SPSI Members and interested individuals:
With a new academic year beginning and a new web site about to be unveiled, this is an appropriate time to review the past year’s activities at SPSI and to describe how SPSI functions.
We are a vigorous, well-run organization. SPSI is, to a large extent, an educational psychoanalytic organization and we have been fortunate to have excellent students who come from a variety of academic and cultural backgrounds. During the last academic year we have utilized SKYPE to allow students who do not live in the Seattle area to participate in our classes. SKYPE has functioned well for us and allowed these students to actively participate in our classes. But this coming year, with more out-of-town (actually out-of-country) students, we will be using a new, more sophisticated technology.
With “Adobe ConnectNow” we will have students from around the world viewing each other and the
Seattle class as they participate in our seminars.
We can, however, do nothing about the time zones our students live in, so some of our students will be up in the middle of the night attending their SPSI classes.
Use of the new audio-visual system is evidence of the success we have had attracting students. Our core psychoanalytic training program, both of our psychotherapy programs (adult and child), and our continuing education seminars draw many students. Our classes tend to be full and, as a result, morale is high and class discussion vigorous, free spirited, and stimulating.
The SPSI Curriculum Committee, which includes student representatives, determines what courses will be taught and their order, while the individual instructors pick the specific topics to be covered during each class, as well as the articles and books to be discussed. This is a dynamic, fun and interesting time in psychoanalysis and this is reflected in the Curriculum Committee instituting several changes. Aspects of neuro-psychoanalysis are now included in the curriculum. There is also a new first year seminar that introduces the clinical and academic associates to the current major psychoanalytic viewpoints. Object relations theory is now earlier in the curriculum and often involves teaching by guest experts in that field. Relational, interpersonal and inter-subjective approaches are now more routinely co-instructed by visiting experts as well. The associates are much more involved in their education than in the past, playing active roles on the curriculum committee and designing their fourth-year elective series in collaboration with interested faculty. For example, this year they requested and were instrumental in designing an elective on French psychoanalysis.
Our Progression Committee (the committee evaluating student progress) has continued to make its policies and procedures open and accessible to Clinical Associates. Recently, the Committee implemented a plan in which all of the Clinical Associates’ supervisors meet with Committee members and student. In this way, the Committee has an opportunity to assist and advise the Clinical Associate.
If the Committee learns that a Clinical Associate is mostly analyzing patients from a particular sector of the population or analyzing just one type of psychopathology, the Committee is able to guide and assist the Clinical Associate to broaden his or her experience.
In an effort to be more responsive to the needs of Clinical Associates, the Committee is also working closely with the Clinical Associate Representative, who is a full member of the committee. The
Committee chair is planning additional meetings with all Clinical Associates to assist them in navigating

the specifics of SPSI progression. Beginning with the September 2011 academic year, the Progression
Committee is directly coordinating reviews with the Child Progression Committee, as several Clinical
Associates are jointly enrolled in the Adult and Child Programs.
The SPSI Child Division (called “the jewel in the crown” by site visitors evaluating our institute, although our CORE and APPP Programs are equally jewel-like) has two training programs – an analytic division and a child psychotherapy division; both of which are well subscribed and offer certification as a child analyst or child psychotherapist. Five people graduated from the analytic division this past year and they are now part of the child analytic faculty. In addition, the SPSI Child Analytic Division is sponsoring the
Western Regional Child Analytic meeting on November 5 th and 6 th in Seattle.
The SPSI Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program (APPP) is a two-year course that aims to help new therapists and seasoned practitioners with theoretical knowledge and clinical understanding. Our
APPP students are people who want to broaden their perspective and deepen their work with their clients. The program focuses on how the unconscious affects the lives, not only of patients but also therapists.
Classes meet for weekly seminars studying psychodynamic theory, human development, and clinical technique and for biweekly clinical case conferences that are led by instructors from different theoretical orientations and backgrounds.
Past graduates of the program find that the experience provides a practical and useful foundation for psychotherapeutic work, has changed how they think about and work with people, and has helped them become part of a larger, supportive professional community.
The SPSI Continuing Education Committee makes vibrant contributions to SPSI. The committee sponsored Ira Brenner MD speaking on dissociation, and George Makari PhD speaking on the history of psychoanalysis. In addition, the committee sponsors “Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Visual Art” – a regularly scheduled psychoanalytic exploration of art and local artists and their work, and “Opera on the
Couch” – a regularly scheduled presentation and discussion about individual operas from a psychoanalytic perspective. A symposium with Evelyn Schwaber MD is scheduled for October 29 th and
30 th . Future plans include a conference entitled “Images of Women” in fall 2012 and a conference on
French psychoanalysis in 2013.
The committee is also beginning to focus on our own members. SPSI members will be discussants when out-of-town speakers present their work and the committee has scheduled a “Conversation about
Ethics” with Rion Hart PhD (the chairman of the American Psychoanalytic Association Committee on
Ethics) for SPSI members.
Our Admissions Committee is beginning its busiest time. This committee has been innovative and successful in its efforts to attract students to SPSI. Put another way, the committee has been successful in helping students pursue their psychoanalytic interests through SPSI’s programs – to the benefit of both the students and SPSI.
On November 19, 2011 from 10am to 12:30pm, the committee will be holding a SPSI open house for anyone interested in analytic training. All are welcome. The committee will have several follow-up events for those who have questions stimulated by their interest in psychoanalysis. To find out more please call Victoria at 206-328-5315

The SPSI Referral Service provides access to negotiated and low fee psychotherapy and psychoanalysis for the public at large. The Referral Service receives up to 10 calls monthly from people in the northwest community wanting psychoanalytic help. After screening, the service provides these individuals with referrals to SPSI clinicians. By providing these referrals, SPSI serves both the community-at-large and the psychoanalytic world.
If you are not a member of SPSI and reading this, information about any of our programs is readily available by calling (206) 328-5315 or e-mailing SPSI at: info@spsi.org
.
As we begin a new academic year, I wish all a good year,
Ronald W. Levin MD
Director, Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute