Dear Members and Prospective Members of UCIPC:

Exciting news! Our co-sponsor for the past several years, the New Center for Psychoanalysis (NCP) in Los Angeles, has agreed to help fund the organization on a regular basis, and to support our operations out of their psychoanalytic training center (which has, for years, been at the forefront of providing full psychoanalytic training to academics and non-medical professionals).

As a result, we will now officially be called the University of California / New Center for Psychoanalysis Interdisciplinary Psychoanalytic Consortium (UC/NCP IPC) — just a little more of a mouthful than before…!  Over time, our online identity will be changed to reflect this new name.

Having New Center for Psychoanalysis as a co-sponsor increases both our organizational stability and our operating capital.  Funds contributed by NCP will be used to enhance the organization in many different ways.  We plan to be able to offer the following enhancements to our Annual Meeting:

• Conference subsidies for Graduate Students, Clinical Associates, Academics, and Analysts (in both UC system as well as NCP)
• Travel grants (particularly from those who travel from Northern California to Arrowhead, and have an expressed need).
• Increased conference attendance (from 40 – 50+)
• Additional funds for more ample hospitality (food and drinks) at the conference.
• Honorarium for non-affiliated individual to join us for the conference.

In addition, UC/NCP IPC will support several exciting new initiatives:

1. An annual presentation at the New Center for Psychoanalysis—offered by one of our members, this presentation will report on the current year’s conference theme to the membership of NCP as well as academics and other interested parties. The presenter will be selected at the spring meeting, and will speak on behalf of our organization in early spring of the following year. The presentation at the New Center will serve as a recruiting device for potential attendees for the up-coming Arrowhead conference.
2. $1000 Clinical Associate Essay Prize—UC/NCP IPC will offer a $1,000 award to a current Clinical Associate for the best essay written on the year’s theme.  The winner will be invited to attend the week-end with all expenses paid.  This award will be in tandem with the Hayman Foundation Awards we have offered to University of California graduate students seeking support and recognition for their pre-doctoral research program.
3. Thematic Working Groups—At the up-coming meeting, we will discuss the establishment of working groups (organized around particular research topics) that would meet throughout the year between our annual spring meetings.  Should we decide to implement this, funding would be proposal-driven, and the amount needed relatively small.

As a member of both the Psychoanalysis and Academy Committees of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the International Psychoanalytic Association, I can tell you that UC/NCP IPC is likely the best model in the world for promoting on-going collaboration between the University and the clinically-based psychoanalytic world.

I am very happy we are all part of this program.  We should be mindful, as we go forward, that we are implementing a model to promote synergy between the analytic world and the University.  NCP’s support insures the continuation of our mission.

Jeffrey Prager