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Table
of Contents:
How Wisconsin Psychoanalytic Foundation Was Established
Wisconsin Psychoanalytic Foundation Mission
Psychoanalysis for Adults, Adolescents
and Children
Positive Impact in the Community
National Organization
Funding
How Wisconsin Psychoanalytic Foundation Was
Established
Psychoanalysis in Wisconsin can be dated to the end of World War
II, when three Milwaukee doctors—Saul Pollack, John Usow
and Samuel Black –were accepted for training at the Chicago
Institute for Psychoanalysis but resided in Milwaukee. From
1945 to 1978 they bought hundreds of railroad tickets (from Milwaukee
to Chicago) and spent countless hours on analysis, class work
and supervision. During the next few years, some doctors pursued
interests in other states, many psychiatrists begun psychoanalytic
training, while some doctors move to Milwaukee as the need for
psychoanalysis began to flourish. If a person desired psychoanalysis
during that time, they basically had two choices, languish on
local waiting lists or commute to the Chicago Institute.
In 1979, William Offenkrantz, MD, training and supervising analyst
at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, moved to Milwaukee
to establish the Wisconsin Psychoanalytic Foundation. His
enthusiasm, vigor, and considerable organizational skills were
apparent as he forged a cooperative effort by the Foundation,
the Medical College of Wisconsin, and Columbia St. Mary’s
Hospital (formerly Columbia Hospital), a private not-for-profit
community teaching hospital. An energetic board of community
leaders joined in efforts to bring psychoanalytic training to
Wisconsin.
From 1980 to 1984 five additional analysts moved to Wisconsin.
David Black, MD, son of Samuel Black, returned home, having
trained and practiced in San Francisco; L. David Levi, MD, and
Jon Meyer, MD, were recruited from the Washington Institute, Steven
Steury, MD, and Todd Davison, MD, from the Baltimore-Washington
Institute.
Throughout the 1980’s increasing numbers of Wisconsin candidates
were accepted at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis.
The candidates would have their training analysis and supervision
in Milwaukee and attend classes in Chicago, just as Madison students
had done since the arrival of Joseph Kepecs, MD in 1965.
Dr. Kepecs has been an important psychoanalytic influence in the
Department of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin Medical
School. He has been a geographic training and supervising
analyst.
By 1989, there were five training and supervising analysts in
Wisconsin: Drs. Black, Davison, Kepecs, Meyer and Steury.
Dr. Levi had returned to Washington, and Dr. Offenkrantz had retired.
The infrastructure of the foundation was in place so that
by 1993 the first full academic courses were offered in Milwaukee,
ending the need to commute to the Chicago Institute for psychoanalysis.
Currently, there are seven training and supervising analysts,
Todd Davison, MD, Richard Frank, MD, Jon Meyer, MD , Jan Van Schaik,
MD, Linda Garrity, PhD, Virginia Linabury, MD and Prudence Gourguechon,
MD. There are six graduate teachers who have completed psychoanalytic
training, Kenneth Johnson, MD, Jeffrey Taxman, MD, Robert Welker,
PhD, Cynthia Carlson, MSW, Valerie Laabs-Siemon, MS and Lynn Ollswang,
MSW; four advanced candidates; and twoYear III candidates.
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Wisconsin Psychoanalytic Foundation
Mission
The Wisconsin Psychoanalytic Foundation is a non-profit organization
of psychoanalysts and members of the community at large formed
for the purpose of:
1. supporting the Training Institute (WPI), community outreach
programs and research which will foster individual, family and
societal mental health;
2. disseminating psychoanalytic information to help improve the
mental health of our community and individuals/families who reside
in it;
3. partnering with children’s organizations to expand our
services and training to help decrease stress and violence in
our community.
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Psychoanalysis for Adults, Adolescents
and Children
As a therapy, psychoanalysis is based on the observation that
individuals are often unaware of many of the factors that determine
their emotions and behavior. These unconscious factors may
create unhappiness, sometimes in the form of recognizable symptoms
and at other times as troubling personality traits, difficulties
in work or in love relationships, or disturbances in mood and
self-esteem. Because these forces are unconscious, the advice
of friends and family, the reading of self-help books, or even
the most determined efforts of will, often fail to provide relief.
Psychoanalytic treatment demonstrates how these unconscious
factors affect current relationships and patterns of behavior,
traces them back to their historical origins, shows how they have
changed and developed over time, and helps the individual to deal
better with the realities of adult life.
Analysis is a partnership in the course of which the patient becomes
aware of the underlying sources of his or her difficulties not
simply intellectually, but emotionally – by re-experiencing
them with the analyst. Typically, the patient comes four
or five times a week, lies on a couch, and attempts to say everything
that comes to mind. As the patient speaks, hints of the
unconscious sources of current difficulties gradually begin to
appear – in certain repetitive patterns of behavior, in the
subjects which the patient finds hard to talk about, in the ways
the patient relates to the analyst. The analyst helps elucidate
these for the patient, who refines, corrects, rejects, and adds
further thoughts and feelings. Patient and analyst join in efforts
not only to modify crippling life patterns and remove incapacitating
symptoms, but also to expand the freedom to work and to love.
Eventually the patients’ life – his or her behavior,
relationships, sense of self – changes in deep and abiding
ways.
Psychoanalysis is an effective treatment for many people with
moderate to severe difficulties and who have had unsuccessful
attempts with briefer therapies.
Child and adolescent psychoanalysis, both offshoots of adult psychoanalysis,
share with it a common theoretical framework for understanding
psychological life, while also using additional techniques and
measures to deal with the special capacities and vulnerabilities
of children. For instance, the young patient is helped to
reveal his or her inner feelings and worries not only through
words, but also through drawings and fantasy play. In the
treatment of all but late adolescents, parents are usually consulted
to round out the picture of the child’s life. The goal
of the child and adolescent analysis is the removal of symptoms
of the psychological roadblocks that interfere with normal development.
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Positive Impact in the Community
Psychoanalysis is a highly individualized treatment. Whatever
the problem, each is different. Some generalizations can be made
of people who seek this type of treatment:
- Symptoms of depression or anxiety, sexual incapacities or physical
symptoms
- Compulsions or repetitive thoughts or private rituals
- Constricted life of isolation and loneliness or incapable of
feeling close to anyone
- A victim of childhood sexual abuse might suffer from an inability
to trust others
- Repeated failures in work or in love
- The way a person’s character substantially limits their
choices and their pleasures
- Resolve psychological problems that were temporarily or partially
resolved by other approaches
Here are a few examples of success stories: (demographics have
been altered)
- A 38-year-old scientist sought psychoanalysis because of difficulty
modulating his aggression, low self-esteem, and depression.
As result of his psychoanalysis, the scientist was able to set
up his own business, his marriage was much more satisfying, he
was a more relaxed and less rigid parent, his relationship with
his father improved. He was overall a happier human being
with new ways to deal with future problems as they arose.
- A young professional woman in a frenzied state of mental disregulation
began psychotherapeutic treatment. She was seriously depressed,
suicidal, and cutting herself when overwhelmed by waves of desperation.
During the course of intensive psychotherapy including
a brief hospitalization she began to stabilize sufficiently to
understand that her mental organization had been unhealthy for
most of her life. She decided to pursue psychoanalysis to
gain deeper understanding and modulation of her mental disturbance.
Her psychoanalytic treatment was successful. She gained
access to mental resources that had been dormant, interfered with
by pathological processes (e.g. could tolerate and enjoy a wider
range of emotional experience, felt more of a sense of internal
agency and cohesiveness of self, became less self-punitive, and
developed a greater capacity for empathic relations with others.)
She broke a habit of engaging in unhealthy relationships
and married a supportive and loving man. Her professional
work blossomed. She experiences life in a radically changed
way that may be described as balanced optimism.
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National Organization
The Wisconsin Psychoanalytic Institute is an affiliate member
of the American
Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA), located in New York City.
It is the oldest national psychoanalytic organization in
the nation, founded in 1911. The Association is comprised
of Affiliate Training Institutes and Societies in many cities
and has about 3,000 analysts. APsaA, as a professional organization
for psychoanalysts, focuses on education, research and membership
development. Since its founding, the Association has been
a component of the International Psychoanalytical Association,
the largest worldwide psychoanalytic organization.
A major responsibility of the APsaA is creating and maintaining
high professional standards. APsaA works to ensure that
its members meet rigorous training standards and helps individuals
find qualified analysts through its institutes, affiliates, and
information literature.
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Funding
Operations funding comes from our endowment that was established
in 1980, and local foundations such as David and Julia Uihlein
Charitable Foundation, Elizabeth Doolittle Elser Charitable Trusts
and Milwaukee Foundation. The Wisconsin Psychoanalytic Foundation
receives generous support from individuals who respond to our
Annual Letter campaign in the fall and from our Annual Fundraising
Event in the spring. Our effort to diversify our funding base
is an on-going project for our Board of Director Members.
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