Commission Urges Leaders to Step Up

The 21-member Holmes Commission on Racial Equity in American Psychoanalysis was established in August 2020 under then-president of the American Psychoanalytic Association, William Glover, Ph.D., in consultation with Black Psychoanalysts Speak, a group dedicated to amplifying the voices of Black psychoanalysts and to drawing attention to the concerns of Black analysts and patients. The commission met over the course of three years and was aided by a research methodologist in developing a survey to which 2,259 responded, supplemented by interviews with faculty, administrators, staff, and candidates at psychoanalytic training institutes.

Survey data were collected in four waves between September 17, 2021, and December 12, 2021. Small group interviews were conducted to probe more deeply into specific topics. From this work, the commission derived recommendations in all of the five general topic areas they identified: understanding and addressing racism, recruitment and mentoring, curriculum and supervision in training, racial enactments and institutional responses, and the experience of race on the couch. The recommendations are presented in the report as a set of general guidelines, ideas, and strategies rather than as a specific list of directives.

However, the commission did derive a set of directives for national and local leaders of psychoanalytic organizations and institutes. The commission calls on psychoanalytic leaders to do the following:

• Develop comprehensive strategies to combat systemic racism through mission and value statements, policies, and procedures.

• Develop means for monitoring and remediation of systemic racism at all levels of institutional life including classes, supervision, curriculum, committees and boards, educational programming, publications, and the consultation room.

• Obtain regular consultation from experts in racial equity to enhance racial and other equities and promote inclusion.

• Form and join groups with other psychoanalysts interested in fostering equity for support and to “solidify their resolve to stay the long course required to achieve racial and other equities within psychoanalysis.”

“Each leader of institutes and national [psychoanalytic] organizations needs to say, ‘This organization is committed to doing something about this,’ ” Commission Chair Dorothy Holmes, Ph.D., said. “With this kind of clear commitment about ‘what to do,’ the ‘how to do it’ will not be so difficult.” ■