2015 Awards

Clinical Writing & Lifetime Achievement Awards

What makes AAPCSW special to so many of us are the relationships that develop among the members. At our biennial conference, Lifetime Achievement Awards are given to members who have made outstanding contributions to the field of psychoanalytic social work and psychoanalysis. These awards are presented by those who are close to the recipients. This year’s (2015) presentations exemplify how much respect and how deep the friendship bonds develop through the AAPCSW affiliation. Here are some highlights of those remarks.

Awardees: Donna Tarver - Samoan Barish - Judy Ann Kaplan - Patsy Turrini

There were three Lifetime Achievement Awards presented. The first was presented to Donna Tarver by Diana Siskind:

It is with great pleasure that I stand before you to talk about my dear friend and Colleague Donna Tarver and to award her the highest recognition our organization bestows to our outstanding members… I met Donna many years ago at the board meeting where she was asked to become Newsletter Editor. I very much admired her willingness to take on this job despite having no idea of how to go about creating a newsletter. I asked her whether she might like me to provide her with reviews of newly published psychoanalytic books and so began our lovely friendship. Donna has consistently undertaken roles in her profession with nothing less than sheer courage combined with exceptional intelligence.

Learning about Donna' childhood fascinated me; it was so different from any one else I ever met. Born in the Texas panhandle in the town of Willington, population 6,000, she could walk 1/4 of a mile to reach anything in town: school, post office, doctor, food market, general goods store and so on, and those who lived in town all knew each other. Until she left for college this then was Dona’s safe protected world. She tried a few avenues of study but none captured her interest until she made friends with a college student who planned to become a social worker. That was the moment of awakening. She found that learning psychoanalytic theory and technique came very naturally to her. She kept moving up in her analytic circles. Donna was involved in the formation of an analytic institute, established a collaborative program between several institutes, joined the NMCOP (our previous name), and has spent the last 20 + years in a very successful private practice with adults and children. She is a prominent member of the Dallas psychoanalytic community. She works too hard but is that not often the fate of those who love their work and who have the confidence to take on new challenges? And aren’t we lucky that 3 times a year we receive a beautifully executed NEWSLETTER that begins with a most gracious acknowledgement of all who contributed?

Here are Marsha Wineburgh’s comments about Past AAPCSW President, Samoan Barish:

The AAPCSW Lifetime Achievement Award to the most deserving Samoan Barish, DSW, PhD. She has been and continues to be an intelligent, reasoned and thoughtful contributor to clinical social work and clinical social work psychoanalysis.

Samoan came to AAPCSW with a long list of eclectic professional experiences ranging from Social Service Commissioner of Santa Monica, CA, to the Founding Fellow, Former Dean and current Faculty member of the Sanville Institute, formerly the California Institute for Clinical Social Work, a social work PhD program. And she had board experience, having served on the boards of the New Center for Psychoanalysis, the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis. She has written, taught and lectured prolifically. She has published articles in “Contemporary Psychoanalysis” and the “International Forum for Psychoanalysis.”

Dr. Barish has had a rich clinical social work career. She practiced and consulted in numerous social service agencies and hospitals. Her publications have appeared in the Clinical Social Work Journal, the American Journal of Psychoanalysis, the Other/Wise, an online journal of the International Forum of Psychoanalytic Education, The Social Work Psychoanalyst’s Casebook and Therapies with Women in Transition. She is a frequent presenter and workshop participant at statewide, national and international meetings. Some of her most recent presentations include: “Couples who Stray“, “Money Makes the World Go Round, Or Does it?” and “Patients Who Stay With You” and “Thinking About Clothes.”

Finally, Barbara Berger spoke of Past AAPCSW President Judy Ann Kaplan:

This red carpet is my way of bringing full circle my friendship with a great, highly esteemed colleague. Judy Ann Kaplan and I met at a meeting of the International Psychoanalytic and toured together around Nice, visiting Cannes and playing with each other on the Red Carpet — Now is her turn to walk on the Red Carpet. She has written, taught and lectured prolifically.

In the late 1980s Judy joined the Committee on Psychoanalysis of the National Federation of Societies for Clinical Social Work (NFSCSW), which became NMCOP and is now the AAPCSW. She participated in numerous conferences, and for more than a decade served as a member of the National Study Group on Social Work and Psychoanalysis. Eventually Judy became president of the AAPCSW. After her presidency, she continued as a Member-at-Large, and continued to represent AAPCSW as a member of the Psychoanalytic Consortium. In 2008 she became a member of the ACPE Board of Trustees.

Judy serves on the faculty of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis (NPAP), as a training and supervising analyst and member of its Board of Directors. She is also a faculty member and supervisor of the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training Research (IPTAR). She has been the Education Editor of the Psychoanalytic Review since 2008.

Joyce Edward’s comments on Patsy Turrini's award for Clinical Writing:

Patsy has been my dearest friend and colleague for more than 50 years. She is a talented clinician, an inspiring teacher and supervisor. Her writings are remarkable for their scope, their excellence, their originality and for the way in which they show psychoanalysis at its best. She not only has written a significant number of clinical papers on a variety of topics, but through her writings she has taken psychoanalytic theory “beyond the couch.” She has, through a manual and published papers, made developmental theory accessible to mothers and those working with them. She has also reached a wide non-professional audience. Who of those who know Patsy has not shared a psychoanalytic idea with her and heard her proclaim “That's an idea for a paper”? It is not clear to me how many therapists have been prompted to write as a result of her enthusiasm, encouragement, and support, but if they haven't it is not because of her lack of effort. I owe so much of my writing to her generous help. Her affirmation and encouragement have kept me writing, even when I was doubtful of the value of what I was doing. Indeed her affirmation and appreciation of the writings of others is noteworthy.

See complete list of AAPCSW Award Recipients »