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Legal, Ethical, and Professional Issues in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy
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"The" Voice of Michigan Psychologists?
This Letter to the Editor was written in response to Cynthia McLoughlin's article On Mandatory Continuing Education and was published in the newsletter of the Michigan Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology in October 2000. It is reprinted here by permission of the author.
Continuing education is certainly an integral and ongoing aspect of everyday professional life. What bodies of knowledges, however, constitute continuing education for the feminists? The object relationists? The existentialists? The behaviorists? The cognitive therapists? The phenomenologists? And what educational model, philosophy, and methods are most meaningful in each individual’s continuing education? The proposal submitted to the licensing board seemed to be premised on a logical-positivist’s view of knowledge, ethics, and education, a point of view increasingly recognized as but one perspective amongst many. The rather narrow and traditional positivist perspective does not appreciate, much less represent, the many different theoretical assumptions, purposes, and objectives that characterize the more contemporary theories of psychology and psychotherapy emerging in the psychological community of the 21st century.
In a recent President’s Column, the current president of the American Psychological Association (APA) speaks to A New View of the CE Landscape, in which he encourages psychologists to break with tradition in planning for new models of CE (American Psychologist, June 2000). As he succinctly states, "CE should provide the forum where new, and even controversial, ideas are shared, debated and challenged as a way of encouraging the natural evolution of the profession." We might welcome the recent decision by the governor’s administration to not implement the Michigan CE proposal. This unexpected decision provides an opportunity for us to rethink our traditional notions of the sources and forms of knowledge. And to rethink our traditional educational assumptions, methods, and objectives, including the largely unquestioned presumption of mandatory CE.
If the MPA wishes to speak as the voice of psychology in Michigan, then it might consider sponsoring a series of conferences organized for the purpose of questioning, challenging, and debating such issues by the different psychological organizations in the state. It seems to me that to simply mandate an educational philosophy, model, and body of knowledge that is contrary to the principled beliefs, values, logic, and knowledges of one’s colleagues raises serious questions of institutional(ized) power and ethics in the psychological community.
As a former member and president of the MPA, I would hope that any future CE proposals advanced by the MPA would represent the educational interests, philosophy, and models of all Michigan psychologists. Indeed, as suggested by the current president of the APA, the MPA has a unique opportunity to challenge our received assumptions about psychological knowledge and education; question and break with the institutionalized traditions of the past; and in so doing, proactively participate in the changing nature of our profession.
| ARTICLE: On Mandatory Continuing Education |
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