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DALLAS
SOCIETY FOR PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOLOGY:
A BRIEF HISTORY
DON J.
BRIX, PH.D.
Late in the summer
of 1982 several of us were involved in a beehive of activity that was soon
to result in the formation of The Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic
Psychology. Someone suggested that we tell our local newspapers what we
were up to. As a result, I undertook to write a press release, my first
and, so far, only foray into journalism. It was never published because,
for some reason, the idea was jettisoned before the item was ever
submitted to the media. Now, 9 years later, I’ve discovered a use for
it. Excerpting from it serves my present task nicely.
More recently
local chapters of the Division have been established in many major
cities across the country. In concert with this trend a chapter was
established in Dallas on September 11, 1982. Persons interested in
learning more about the new chapter and investigating the possibilities
of membership are invited to attend two organizational meetings to be
held Saturday, November 6, dunng the Texas Psychological Association
Convention at the Lincoln Hotel, Dallas. The first meeting will be at
9:30 AM, the second at 1:30 PM The Dallas chapter will be hosting Dr.’s
Oliver J.B. Kerner and Marvin Daniels. Dr. Kerner has been active in the
Division since its inception, is currently Chairman of the Committee on
Local Chapters and Co-Chairman of the National Committee on
Psychoanalytic Education for the Division. Dr. Daniels is a
psychologist/psychoanalyst now at the University of Texas at Austin. He
was for many years associated with the Adelphi University postdoctoral
training program in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis and until recently
was Editor of the Division 39 newsletter.
By the time this
announcement was written there was obviously a good deal stirring here in
Dallas. Actually, a lot had been stirring for months previously.
It’s
likely that the Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology (DSPP) would
have eventually been born even had Paul Munves not been finishing his
training at William Alanson White in June of 1982. However, the question
of how we came to be, when we came to be has everything to do with Munves’
completion of his training and his decision to return to Dallas to
establish a practice. Quoting from a letter Paul sent me February 15,
1982, "While I am anxious to establish another full-time practice, I
also hope to facilitate the development of a local chapter of Division 39
of the American Psychological Association. Experience has taught me that
psychoanalytically oriented psychologists need their own organization to
nurture their continued development. I have enclosed a number of items
that I hope will be of interest to you in this regard." He then
proceeded to burn-up the telephone line between New York and Dallas for
the next few months. Frequently Munves would call after I had retired for
the evening and I would speak to him from bed. The conversation ended, I
would begin to anticipate my slightly delayed long winter’s nap when the
phone would ring again. Again it would be Munves with another idea he
wanted to check out with me. His enthusiasm for getting something off the
ground in Dallas was unbounded. And get it off the ground he did.
As the
aforementioned press release indicates, by the end of 1982 we had been
paid a visit by Oliver J.B. Kerner whose enthusiasm for our project was
unbridled. The late Marvin Daniels, who at the time was residing in
Austin, visited us at the same time. Their visit was timed to correspond
with the annual meeting of the Texas Psychological Association (TPA) which
was occurring in Dallas that year. TPA allowed us to conduct a meeting
during its convention at which Kerner and Daniels presented their thoughts
on the merits of starting a local chapter as well as the merits of
approaching patients with a psychoanalytic orientation.
Our first monthly
Scientific Meeting was held December 1, 1982. A discussion of "The
Non-Transference Relationship in the Psychoanalytic Situation" by
Greenson and Wexler was led by Paul Munves along with long-time Dallas
psychologists, Donald Giller and Ray McNamara. Malcolm Bonnheim, who would
later be our third president, distributed the first draft of our bylaws;
the result of the work of his ad hoc committee that had been assigned the
task. Almost immediately we adopted a format of conducting one meeting per
month from September through May. Two of these meetings are all day
Saturday events (a few have included a Fnday evening also) involving
distinguished guests who are usually, but not always analysts. The
remaining meetings are in the evening and are conducted by mental health
professionals from the community, drawn predominantly from our own
membership. The evening meetings are essentially designed to discuss
papers that have been selected and made available to members by our
program committee. Over the years the monthly presentations have ranged
from rather faithful reviews of the assigned articles to the occasional
reading of an original paper authored by a member. The amount of clinical
material included in our monthly programs varies a good deal between
presenters, but seems always to be well received by the group.
Paul Munves
remained on as President until September 1984 when Myron Lazar assumed the
position. During the time Munves was President we hosted Sydney Smith,
Rudolf Ekstein, and Herbert Schlesinger. During Myron Lazar’s term the
Society inaugurated the practice of making available a photocopied
collection of the curriculum articles for the year. Until that time, we
had been relying exclusively on the Langs’ edited Classics in
Psychoanalytic Technique for our readings. During Lazar’ s term we
enjoyed presentations by invited guests Anni Bergman and Roy Schafer. Our
study foci was around Female Identity Development and selected papers by
Roy Schafer.
By the
1985-1986 year, we began to reap the benefits of the practice of
"training" our President by including a year of service as
President-Elect. This enabled our "on-deck" leader to arrange
his or her program well in advance, thus opening the way for considerably
more latitude in selecting themes for the year’s study. During the term
of our third president, Malcolm Bonnheim, we hosted Louise Kaplan and Otto
Kernberg. In preparation for Kaplan’s visit, we studied Conceptions of
Adolescence: Original and Contemporary, and around Kernberg’s
presentation we explored the narcissistic conditions. Division 39 was, by
this time, involved in its own internal tensions involving criteria for
membership in Section 1. Malcolm Bonnheim served us well by his
well-reasoned and evenhanded interpretations—presented in our local
Bulletin—of what the controversy going on at the national level
potentially meant to us in Dallas.
Our fourth
president, for the year 1986—1987, was Dale Godby. Invited guests that
year were a Kohutian, Arnold Goldberg, and the noted psychotherapy
researcher, Hans Strupp. Our themes were developed around the
contributions to the literature of our two invited guests. Godby
endeavored to augment the overall quality of our learning experience by
looking critically at the process of discussion at our meetings. He
instituted the practice of publishing discussion questions pertinent to
the readings prior to each monthly meeting; a tactic that various
presenters since have continued to find useful.
John Herman served
us during the 1987-1988 season. Appearances by invited guest analysts,
Stephen Appelbaum, and Jay Greenberg punctuated a wide-ranging look at
object relations theory during our monthly discussions. The first combined
meeting with the Dallas Psychoanalytic Society took place during Herman’s
term. Perhaps more than any other single officer throughout our history,
John Herman urged us to think about where we were and where we were headed
as a local chapter.
Aspects of
the Psychoanalytic Process was our theme for 1988—1989. Our invited
guests were Lawrence Friedman and Jacob Arlow. Our president was Marc
Rathbun. At this date, Rathbun is assuming the Editorship of our Bulletin.
Over the
years, his trenchant and erudite contributions to the Society, at all
levels of discourse, have distinguished him as a genuine intellectual
presence in our group.
Judith
Samson shepherded us through a year of reexamination of the structure of
governance in our chapter. We hosted E. James Anthony and Leo Rangell
during her 1989—1990 term. Our topic of study was the Oedipus Complex.
Don Brix
served as President during the 1990—1991 period. We devoted one
"semester" to an investigation of Interpersonal Psychoanalysis
and Psychotherapy. Philip Bromberg was our invited presenter. We followed
his presentation with Harold Blum.
For the
1991-1992 season Richard Warshak was our President. Warshak and his
Program Committee offered us a curriculum around the topic of trauma.
Working with Warshak as President-Elect was Dale Roskos.
In 1984,
Richard Warshak launched our Bulletin. The DSPP Bulletin is
a professionally prepared Newsletter, which is published monthly during
the active part of our year; less frequently during the summer months. It
has been edited since its inception by Warshak. The Bulletin has
received many compliments over the years both for the quality of its
content as well as its top drawer physical appearance. Richard Warshak’s
willingness to remain in the editorship over an extended period has
provided a subfle, unobtrusive continuity to the Society. His skillful
management of this aspect of our functioning has contributed to the health
and vitality of the organization in ways that are scarcely possible to
measure. Over the years many individuals have contributed to the Bulletin.
Warshak singles out three members whose contributions have been
singular: David Fans,
Anne Z. Hunter, and Marc Rathbun. The latter two persons took over as
Editor and Associate Editor respectively as Warshak steps aside to become
our President for the 1991—1992 season.
Beginning
around 1987, DSPP began to sponsor extended courses on a limited basis.
These offerings are separate from and in addition to our regular monthly
meetings. An additional enrollment fee is also involved. Covering a
variety of subjects and conducted by our own members as well as analysts
from the community, the courses provide a more intensive examination of
particular topics of interest to members. John Herman, Malcolm Bonnheim,
and Jim Harris have been associated with this realm of the Society’s
activities over the years.
Several of
our members have attended Division level meetings over the years. One
individual, Mary Laurel Bass-Wagner, has emerged as our continuing
presence in Division affairs. Bass-Wagner has, for several years,
represented DSPP at national meetings and is currently serving as an
officer in the Section of Local Chapters.
At this
writing DSPP has logged close to a decade in pursuit of its mission. The
mission is, simply stated: To facilitate the study of the psychoanalytic
point of view so that our daily work as psychotherapists might be improved
and enriched as it becomes informed by psychoanalytic theory and
principle. So far, it seems to be working.
Don Brix is
a psychologist in private practice in Dallas and, as of the year 2001,
continues his long-standing membership with DSPP. History has a way
of not standing still and DSPP has continued to develop as an organization
over the years since this original article was penned. We hope to
update the written history in the near future.
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