Dear fellow candidates,

It is an honor to have a space in the Newsletter to communicate with our community, as it is also a great responsibility of the IPSO Treasurer to report back the work accomplished  during the first semester in 2014.

You may know that the IPA and IPSO – in turn – are divided into regions, not necessarily following a geographic or historical sense, but related with IPA history. We are happy to report that we have increased our reach with IPA Candidates all over the world, unfortunately there is still a gap between the number of IPA Candidates and IPSO members We are continuously trying to connect with more candidates to show what we can offer and what IPSO means to the psychoanalytical history and future. We are grateful with those who have been active participants as members and a special thanks to the noble donors who are so kind and support us in anonymity. I would like to take this opportunity to say that all help is welcome indeed and if you or someone you know is looking to send a donation to IPSO you can contact me or any other member of EXCOM. Donors  also benefit from a special donor membership.

Next, I would like to share some points observed in each IPA region since I was elected as Treasurer – I believe it would help candidates to understand more about the importance to participate in IPSO activities within  their region.

Europe

The origin of Psychoanalysis and IPA – Europe is a well connected region, mature with institutional communications, regarding bureaucracy with legal and financial procedures. However the percentage of IPA candidates who are members of IPSO is still somehow low, around 53%. So we invite all IPSO representatives to recruit Candidates into IPSO, so they can take advantage of our benefits and to work closer with other candidates around the world.

Europe is the region comprising Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Israel, Australia, and India.  That facilitates the congregation of IPA candidates with IPSO. As we can observe, some European countries include IPSO as part of the investment in psychoanalytical training as a well established practice. Despite the natural differences in culture – as some institutes demand the anonymity of their candidates – we can say that Europe is capable of being more engaged with IPSO.

North America (NA)

This region can be separated in two different modus operandis of relationship with IPSO.

The Asian countries such as South Korea, Japan and China are becoming more active as a consequence of their growth in psychoanalysis and as a result of IPSO reaching to them by internet or at our International Congress, such as Prague Congress where we got to meet the work of Chinese candidates and some fellow candidates from Japan.

The North Americans as a group are very engaged with IPSO and now it is a very good opportunity to make this relationship grow even more with the Boston IPSO and IPA Congress. We already can perceive a growth in the relationship between American candidates and IPSO, so as a growth in the relationship between American Psychoanalytical Association and IPSO, we can also see that Canadian Candidates are more engaged than ever. But USA and Canada still have a gap between the number of IPA candidates and IPSO members – as 72% of North America IPA candidates are IPSO members – that can be closer than what it is today.

Latin America (LA)

It is noticeable the growth of LA IPA candidates becoming IPSO members in the last few years. There were 950 IPSO members in 2013 against 617 in 2012. Despite this fact we have some barriers for IPA candidates to become IPSO members as we only have 68% of IPA candidates who are IPSO members. For example, the great difficulties that government bureaucracy represents for money transfer, money currencies and fees applied by Banks make it harder for a consistency in growth for Latin American IPA candidates to become IPSO members.

To finish my report I would like to apologize to all IPSO members and Institutes all over the IPA world for not being able to mention one by one in this report as space and time is limited and does bring a reality check to all of us.

Best Regards to all,

Renato Pordeus

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