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Basis
for Action
While the upset in the APA Council election was the most conspicuous
act of the GAP's at the 1946 convention, a more substantial
groundwork was being laid for the structure and operating rules
of the new group. At the May 27 meeting it was decided
to make working committees the core of GAP.
Indeed, the two key words used most often were action
and work. Membership was not to exceed 200
psychiatrists, each of whom would be assigned to a specific
GAP working committee. Each committee would concern itself
about a particular area of psychiatry--such as mental hospitals,
therapy, relations with governmental agencies, lay groups, etc.
During the first two formative days, prospective members of
the group-to-be had been recruited loosely. As one member
later recalled: I was walking down the APA headquarters
lobby, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around:
it was a friend of mine. He told me a psychiatric action
group was being formed, that he knew I'd be interested to work
with it, asked me to pay five dollars on the spot--to help pay
for secretarial and postage expenses--and asked me to join the
founding group in a certain hotel room that evening at ten.
I was in. I understand others were recruited in the same
way, just like being tapped for a college fraternity.
Hereafter,
it was agreed, members would be chosen with more care.
GAP membership was to be obtained only through special invitation,
not by direct application. Prospective members were to
be selected not on the basis of goodwill, social compatibility,
or professional eminence, but mainly on the demonstrated capacity
for group study of the broad problems facing American psychiatry,
and a willingness to give time, effort, and some money to a
common endeavor that held out little prospect for personal glory.
Suggestions of possible candidates made by individual members
would be sifted through a nominating or admissions committee.
GAP committees
would be small--a maximum of ten or fifteen members on each
was proposed--and would enjoy a great deal of autonomy.
Each committee would choose its own subject for exploration
and possible report. A report was to be rendered only
if and when the committee had something significant to say.
Originally,
there were nine GAP committees--on Therapy, Social Work, State
Hospitals, Cooperation with Governmental (Federal) Agencies,
Cooperation with Lay Groups, Public Education, Racial and Economic
Problems (later changed to Social Issues), Preventive Psychiatry,
and Medical Education.
A third
meeting held on Tuesday evening, May 28, was attended by Drs.
Menninger and Brosin, the tentative committee chairmen, and
a scattering of general members. Plans were laid for assigning
members to specific committees, and for organizing the first
meeting in the fall. The three-day conferences at Hershey,
Pennsylvania, had been proposed as a model for GAP meetings.
The idea took hold, and Secretary Brosin later sought to engage
the Hershey Hotel for the GAP meeting. When this site
proved unavailable, the Westchester-Biltmore Hotel in Rye, New
York, was chosen for the first meeting.
The general
purposes of the new organization, as formulated later, were:
- To collect
and appraise significant data in the fields of psychiatry,
mental health, and human relations.
- To reevaluate
old concepts and to develop and test new ones.
- To apply
the knowledge thus obtained for the promotion of mental health
and good human relations.
Another
contemporary document defined GAP as a group of psychiatrists,
all members of the American Psychiatric Association, who wish
to meet together to study problems more often and more informally
than the stated meetings of the APA permit, and to effect action
where indicated.
From the
outset, Dr. Menninger adopted the policy of keeping the membership
informed of developments through the medium of circular letters,
issued as occasion demanded. This informational device
had been used effectively in the Surgeon Generalís Office during
the war. (Up to January, 1959, more than 286 circular
letters had been issued by successive GAP presidents.)
In his very first circular letter, Dr. Menninger set the tone
of the infant organization. Referring to the initial
meeting in Chicago, he noted that the founders felt strongly
that the basic program of GAP was worth fighting for with
deep conviction, and that real work could bring real results.
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