At the last Board Meeting I came upon an impasse on my way to creating a C6 for the Division of Independent Practice. There was a determined resistance and a lack of individuals who found it important to have a C6. Some said that it might endanger APA’s non-profit status. Not being sure, the members of the Board were reluctant to act. With the departure of many of the old soldiers (Jack Wiggins, Tommy Stiegel, Stanley Moldowlsky, and Art Kovacs) the wind has gone out of our sails. When Jean Carter suggested that we might now be able to donate as much as $50,000 per year to professional advocacy (the reason our Division exists) I snatched at a compromise that would allow the concept to stay alive.

I realize now that while I am still at the river the water is different. When I went to school 90% of my classes were composed of men. Now more than 75% of the graduate classes are composed of women. I graduated because of the GI Bill of Rights with almost no debt. The average graduate has $100,000 to $150,000 of debt.

Because the insurance companies were vying for a bigger piece of the market, the cost of health insurance, including psychotherapy, was very low and the limits of coverage were extensive. Practices were easy to establish and private practitioners did very well. The day that we established the Division of Independent Practice with 600 some odd signatures, it exploded to more than 6,000 members becoming at once the largest Division in APA. All my friends had full practices and made very comfortable livings.

Today the more typical psychologist is the young woman teaching or working in an agency and carrying a part-time practice. While not the rule, this is a more and more common phenomenon.

At the last APA Council Meeting Dr. Woody complained that a high percentage of psychologists working in Florida were making something between $30,000 and $35,000 per year. This is not worth 8 years of one’s life and $150,000 worth of debt.

One of our political giving arms, the Association for the Advancement of Psychology (AAP) is collecting fewer and smaller donations each year as the old soldiers depart and the new ones make less and owe more.

The question is who or what will save the practice of psychology. The answer, as they say in Ireland, Sein Fein, which means in Gaelic, We Ourselves.

Every year for the past 40 years I have a dozen interns. There are some 400 of them out there and they all keep in touch. Every year the new group inspires me and educates me. They are brighter, stronger, better educated, and more committed to doing well. They believe as I do that the American Health Delivery System has reached the breaking point and will have to be reconstituted shortly as a more realistic system, which truly serves the people of this country. They intend to be a part of it. I feel it is our duty to stay with the fight and to be a part of it, and to make sure that the best trained people in the mental health field get a fair shake in a new system. That’s our job. Let’s stay and fight until the cavalry arrives. I know it’s coming.

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