Why CIPS Matters
The Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies (CIPS) has been protecting and promoting the interests of the independent North American IPA societies and their members since 1992. CIPS is the only national organization serving this primary mission. As the national professional association of the independent IPA societies in North America, CIPS musters and coordinates the collective resources of its component societies to perform important professional functions that are beyond the capabilities of any individual society.
Who We Are
CIPS is the national professional organization of the independent societies of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) in the United States. CIPS is composed of five psychoanalytic societies: the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR), the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies (LAISPS), the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society (NPS), and the Psychoanalytic Center of California (PCC). CIPS also hosts a Direct Member Society for IPA members and candidates at IPA institutes who are not otherwise members of a CIPS component society.
CIPS: A unique professional community
The Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies (CIPS) is a unique professional community with unique assets, unique interests, and unique contributions to make to our profession.
The CIPS community actualizes Sigmund Freud's vision of psychoanalysis as an interdisciplinary profession. In addition to training mental health professionals, including psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, marriage and family therapists and psychiatric nurses, CIPS societies welcome trainees and members with backgrounds in law, philosophy, the arts, and the sciences. Like Freud and his followers in the IPA, CIPS is committed to advancing the interdisciplinary character of psychoanalysis, knowing through our own experience that a breadth of knowledge and perspectives nourishes the vitality of our community and the creativity of our members.
Together, the CIPS community is not only interdisciplinary, but also theoretically diverse. Our members work within - and contribute to - a wide spectrum of theoretical and clinical traditions. The CIPS community, recognizing that a richly pluralistic community is a context for theoretical innovation and clinical advancement, nurtures a robust culture of academic freedom and endeavors to ensure the productivity of our diversity by creating innovative contexts to promote collegial dialogue and study across societies.
Together, the CIPS community maintains a vigorous progressive orientation to psychoanalytic education and to the organization of our profession. Many of our members were subject to unfair and discriminatory treatment during the years of the medical orthodoxy. Our founding societies were formed to overcome the exclusionary professional policies and oppressive academic orthodoxies that obstructed our professional aspirations. The struggles of our founders have given rise to a robust tradition of activism in the service of our professional welfare, enabling CIPS to take a leading role in developing and promoting strategies to protect and promote our professional interests.
Why we need CIPS
All professions form national professional associations to serve their professional interests. Professional associations represent the profession to society at large, promote public awareness of professional services and expertise, produce and market meaningful credentials, and engage in political action to secure favorable conditions for practice. At the same time, professional associations work to advance professional knowledge and expert skills, set standards for training and practice, and guarantee the quality of services provided in its name.
Like many other professions, psychoanalysis is governed by a number of national organizations, rather than by a single organization. While these organizations are all committed to the promotion of "psychoanalysis," they do not all share a common vision of what psychoanalysis is or how it should be organized. Each has its own unique interests and each works to advance its own goals. While psychoanalytic organizations are often united in relation to their common goals, their unique interests can also lead to divisions and conflicts.
As independent psychoanalytic societies of the IPA, CIPS and its component societies share many professional interests with other national psychoanalytic associations and works in concert with other organizations to advance those interests. At the same time, being independent IPA psychoanalytic societies, we also have our own unique interests and aspirations:
CIPS is a fully interdisciplinary community. Our societies welcome candidates and members from the arts and sciences as well as the mental health professions. We value the interdisciplinary character of our professional community and seek to protect it.Division 39 of the American Psychological Association, the American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work (AAPCSW), and the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry (AAPDP), each represent the interests of psychoanalysts within a single disciplines (social work, psychology, and psychiatry, respectively) rather than the interests of psychoanalysis as an interdisciplinary community.
CIPS is committed to promoting public awareness of the IPA in the United States. As independent IPA groups, we benefit from expanding public recognition of the IPA.The IPA, founded by Sigmund Freud and his followers in 1910, is the oldest and largest psychoanalytic association in the world. Membership in the IPA is restricted to psychoanalysts who fulfill the most rigorous and recognized international standards for psychoanalytic training in the world. As a confederation of psychoanalytic societies whose training programs are directly accredited by the IPA, CIPS is dedicated to promoting public awareness of the IPA in the United States. The creation of the "Fellow of the IPA" or "FIPA" credential, proposed and promoted by CIPS, reflects the CIPS commitment to the IPA.
As members of the IPA, we have a special interest in promoting our interests within the IPA.Our excellent position within the IPA today is the result of the vigorous advocacy of CIPS on behalf of our members. Over the years of CIPS existence, CIPS has insured the proportional representation of our members on all IPA committees and governing bodies, as well as on the governing bodies of the North American regional organizations of the IPA.
As independent societies, we need a national association to expand collegial networks, create new opportunities for educational and scientific activities, and promote the national reputations of our societies and members.Our founders understood that, as small groups, we needed join together to overcome our professional isolation and expand our organizational capabilities. Since its inception, CIPS has established a powerful presence within IPA, and taken a leadership role in American psychoanalytic affairs, establishing productive relationships with other professional groups to advance common causes while promoting awareness and respect for our member societies. Over the years since its formation, CIPS has also created invaluable contexts for learning and professional development, for advanced study, and for colleagueship and friendship across societies, transforming our separate societies into a vibrant national community of unparalleled diversity and intellectual wealth.
What CIPS does for you
Promotion and protection of an occupation's legal status, professional privileges, social prestige, and marketability all require the sustained efforts of its national professional associations. Professions must engage in lobbying, advocacy, public relations, marketing, and scientific projects to promote its professional standing and enhance market conditions for successful practice.
CIPS protects your practice by opposing threats to our profession.CIPS is a leader in promoting responsible training standards and licensing laws. When the New York legislature enacted Article 163, licensing practitioners who meet egregiously low educational standards as "psychoanalysts", CIPS mounted a national lobbying effort that raised licensing criteria in the implementing regulations, protected the rights of our members to supervise "licensed psychoanalysts," and helped our otherwise unlicensed members to secure the licenses they needed to continue practicing. CIPS developed a "model licensing law" that has inspired licensing initiatives in other organizations and other states, and organized state confederations in New York and California to promote responsible licensing laws for psychoanalysis.
CIPS works with other groups to protect the confidentiality of patient medical records. We are a member of the Coalition for Patient Privacy Rights and participate in regular national briefings on this issue. Confidentiality is a professional privilege that is a necessary precondition for successful practice. But patient privacy rights are under sustained attack in the United States. CIPS has mobilized its members to oppose health information technology legislation that does not include privacy protections. As a result of our efforts, a Senator Schumer voted against the "Wired for Quality Heath Care Act" and the most threatening Health IT legislation was defeated. Most recently, CIPS signed onto an "amicus curiae" brief to protect the confidentiality of patient records against the unlimited access by professional regulatory bodies.
Whatever the issue, CIPS works to keep its members informed about critical issues facing our profession, preparing our members to take on collective lobbying in crucial matters such as the protection of patient privacy rights. The Public Policy Committee sends our regular updates, briefings, and Legislative alerts when important matters are pending. Additional material is available on the CIPS website. See for example the current section on "Privacy Rights".
CIPS promotes your practice by representing you to the community.CIPS promotes your practice through our website, our political action, our collaborative engagements with many other professional groups, and our upcoming book series. CIPS is working to promote the community as a whole, as well as its individual members and component societies. CIPS has created a "Find-an-Analyst" search engine on the CIPS website that has produced referrals for our members, developed and promoted the "Fellow of the IPA" credential ("FIPA"), and spearheaded development of the NAPsaC-sponsored "Find-an-Analyst" website. This website enables prospective patients in North America to find an IPA analyst near them, while promoting awareness of psychoanalysis, the IPA, and the FIPA. A grant provided by the IPA, which was requested by CIPS through NAPsaC, will help fund efforts to publicize this site next year.
CIPS supports and promotes your professional developmentCIPS promotes and supports professional development by nurturing clinical and theoretical dialogue across societies through our clinical conferences, our national teleconference study groups, and other planned educational and scientific projects. The upcoming CIPS books series will provide a publishing outlet for our societies and our individual members. The Book Series Committee and Editorial Board will coordinate the interests of members to generate and nurture book projects.
At the same time, CIPS provides our members with opportunities to engage in scientific, organizational, and political action within CIPS, with other professional groups, such as the IPA, and in the public arena. All CIPS positions, as well as openings for IPA committees and positions, are routinely posted to enable all of our members to get involved.
CIPS promotes your interests in the psychoanalytic communityCIPS looks after your interests in the IPA. CIPS effectively advocated for IPA bylaws that ensured the representation of the independent societies on the governing body of the IPA, and actively promotes the interests of members who wish to serve on the many committees and working parties, successfully ensuring the proportional representation (or better) of our members in these positions. CIPS has successfully lobbied the IPA to support our causes. CIPS mounted a successful campaign within the IPA to create the "FIPA" credential, developed the NAPSAC "Find-an-Analyst" in conjunction with the IPA, and successfully requested IPA financing to publicize the new website.
CIPS is working to promote the North American Psychoanalytic Confederation (NAPsaC) and ensure its future as a strong regional organization of North American IPA groups. CIPS has championed the principle of proportionality with respect to all aspects of NAPsaC and its functioning, including representation on the NAPsaC board, NAPsaC appointments, and the allocation of seats for our members at international conferences. CIPS promoted creation of a NAPsaC Committee on Licensing to support lobbying efforts in New York, spearheaded development of a national "Find-an-Analyst" website, proposed -- and is now overseeing -- development of a second NAPsaC website to help coordinate North American professional activities, and vigorously supported the formation of NAPsaC "Working Parties" to parallel those of the European Psychoanalytic Foundation.
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
CIPS matters because, whatever our goals, we can accomplish more together as a single national organization than we can apart, as single societies. CIPS brings our separate component groups together to form a single professional community.
- Together, we benefit from the rich diversity of our disciplines and theoretical traditions, derive stimulation and support from colleagues outside our local societies, and learn from each other in new contexts.
- United in common cause, we can coordinate our resources, speak with one voice, and exert a measure of influence that greatly exceeds that of our single societies.
- As a national organization, we can advance the national reputations of our component societies, publicize our scientific activities and training programs, and promote the work of our individual members.
- CIPS matters because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
