Our objective is to encourage more enthusiasm about strengthening the voice of psychoanalytic theory and practice in the health care area, and to encourage connections between members of our Division working on common problems and in similar clinical or research areas. The origins of our committee date to 2002 with the creation of the Task Force in Psychoanalysis and Health Care. The Task Force founding co-chairpersons, Mary Joan Gerson, PhD and Marilyn S. Jacobs, PhD continue to serve as chairs of the committee. The creation of the Task Force was part of the Presidential Initiatives of then Division president Maureen Murphy, PhD.
The task force was designated a committee in 2007 and its goals are to:
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Increase the awareness of the contribution of psychoanalytic theory and research in the health care arena to medical practitioners and to the public
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Develop models of collaboration with physicians and other health care practitioners to maximize patient care and promote positive health outcomes
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Educate the psychoanalytic community about the relationship of psychoanalytic theory to etiology, symptom exacerbation and pain management and the efficacy of psychoanalytic techniques in treatment planning For the past nine years we have organized a symposium at the Division 39 Spring Meeting