that lll is not ‘eye’LL, but LLL; my initials. i’m in MA, believe it or not. you’d think, as central as boston is, especially to my area of psych (neuropsych), there’d be a more sophisticated setup. but no. it’s become so cronyfied, and i can even see the remnants of mitt romney in there still, it’s hard to know what works to snag an appointment. however, i also see that the website is more often than not actually looking for volunteers, so folks aren’t exactly beating the door down. thankless work, to be sure. but somebody’s gotta do it. unfortunately i think it’s often rather new and inexperienced folks trying to pad the vitae.

it’s not the apa system i’m aiming to fix; they’re in the weirdest position here because they essentially write the template for the rules that every state adopts, but then they throw up their hands and don’t want to get involved in the crappy way these things are applied.

i’m also a member, but not at all active, either. though i’m encouraged by this guy steve reisner who worked so hard to get the anti-torture resolution crafted and passed. so…let’s try to connect somehow. thanks for being so responsive, and i hope these messages between us have not bored anyone out there.

As for the ethics committee itself, no one can volunteer for it. You’re appointed – and you don’t even know your name is being nominated till they tell you. Used to be that happened before committee members voted. Now I don’t think they notify till afterward. There is a veto power over this by the state officers. But pretty much the ethical people nominate other ethical people. That’s how I ended up there.

We’ve had some academics on the committee and there’s actually been an effort to go back and look at how cases were handled, a check on accountability. Also, at each of the quarterly meetings of the whole ethics committee, our Ombudsman for ethics submits his summaries of cases he’s been consulted on. And those are discussed, which provides ongoing ethical thinking, a check on the ombudsman, and a way to keep ourselves all honest I guess.

In our state, WI, nearly all of the psychologists appointed to the board for many years have actually come from our committee. Too often we need to replace someone because the board nabbed them. Our state licensing board does have some laypeople on it. But the psychologists are all highly experienced. There’s really no way for an inexperienced person to do what happens in your state here in WI.

I’d be glad to talk at any point. Not sure how to do that. Where are you? Do I read Illinois in your handle? I’m more interested in personality dynamics and dynamic psychotherapy than trying to fix the APA “system” – at this point in my life. But we could talk about the profession and I have concerns as well. Things expanded too quickly in my view. Training broke down for a number of reasons. I have grave concerns here.

As for the APA, while I’m a member, I’ve never been active in any way. I’m totally opposed to torture. Or any activity related to that by any psychologist.

Off to meeting soon.

and yes, it is true that NH has the worst rep. my ethics prof from grad school (he studied with hans strupp) lives there, and tried to work with them as soon as he was licensed, but gave up quickly because he was astonished at how stupid and myopic they were.

so you’ll know, the apa formed a task force with the asppb to develop guidelines for board members in their application of the code to codes and discipline. cannot determine what’s happening with it, but i don’t expect much. do you know anything about it?

my observation has been that the lapses come not just with lack of experience, but with lack of natural judgment skills, something that is actually hard to learn (just as therapeutic skills are). a bit like a version of your narcissistic PD as applied to palin’s boundary problems, but at a less florid level of the gradient.

also consistent with the palin profile, i feel that many individuals who volunteer for these boards are ill-equipped for the roles. they take it on because often they can’t fill their CVs any other way, and then proceed to impose all that inept insecurity onto a position of authority and – wham! – abuses of power all over the place.

the biggest problem is that the systems are woefully void of controls for accountability (hence the star chamber assertion), so the problems go unchecked and thus perpetuate themselves. and it remains fairly silent because most folks only discover it by getting a complaint filed against them, and then they don’t want to talk about it for obvious reasons.

it’s a huge mess. seriously, if you’re concerned about ethics, this is a crucial issue for the profession. we should talk. in any case, glad you’re out there.

Yes, thank you, Alaska!

Take a look at my article. See if you think it needs changes.

As for staying ethical and staying in practice, I simply dropped out of all managed care networks. That was about when I turned 60. Of course I didn’t count on the market tanking this much!!!

Enjoy: http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/636

(one link is missing, but I’ll add that later. I’m pretty sure the info is at mudflats, though, if someone wants to read about it – that missing link is clearly noted)

the stevens appearance notwithstanding, my main point is i cannot see powell accepting a veep nomination, especially as a second string to fill in for palin, and especially for a losing ticket.

wasn’t really trying to defend the man. have some respect for the impossible position he was in with bush, but he could have shown more courage then.