As I prepare to step down as president of NCSPP and make my final report in IMPULSE, I find myself reflecting on larger issues: the grave state of the world, political uncertainties and inequities, the push for managed care. From that vantage point, it is so clear that psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic institutions must find a way to come together to promote ourselves and to bring what we have to have to the world. It is clear that forming factions that are hostile to one another and separating ourselves from one another only wastes our resources and threatens our place in the world. I think that we must do what we can to promote communication and dialogue among different institutions and individuals and to promote resources that support these goals. IMPULSE is such a resource. 

As the only place where everyone in the psychoanalytic community in Northern California can share their ideas, describe their programs, and list their events, IMPULSE provides an umbrella function that is sorely needed. While I am grateful to NCSPP and to IMPULSE for beginning to take on this role, I think we all need to search our souls in the service of continuing to find ways to both come together and to reach out to and support one another in this exciting endeavor of psychoanalysis. 

Beth Steinberg, Ph.D.
President, NCSPP