Community Guidelines – American Psychoanalytic Association

Community Guidelines

To support APsA’s Community Vision the Board of Directors approved these Online Community Guidelines.

Online Community Guidelines:

Dear APsA Members:

Welcome to the APsA Listservs, also known as APsA Connects.

APsA Listservs provide an important service to its members – the ability to connect with each other and to create new communities of interest. It is vital to the strength of the Association that the Listserv remain a space where innovation and progressive ideas are created and nourished.

APsA Listserv Policies

Please read the following APsA listserv policies to get a sense of the mechanics of how this works, how it can be helpful to our community, and the parameters within which everyone is asked to operate within the listservs. Whether these policies appear to be commonsense or counterintuitive, by explicitly stating each, we hope to prevent misunderstandings. Additionally, these policies are designed to ensure that the listservs are not used in a manner that triggers any antitrust or other legal violations or that infringes on or violates any intellectual property or other rights, and that the listservs are used in a manner consistent with APsA’s status as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization.

1. It is important to be civil and respectful of others’ feelings and ideas at all times. Most email users have had experiences on listservs where things got out of hand. There is something about not being in physical or voice contact with a person that allows one to say things he/she would probably never say directly to the person, particularly in tones that can be hurtful or demeaning.

On APsA listservs specifically, you are urged not to perseverate about anything. If you’re the only one talking about something on the listserv, saying it over and over makes it a diatribe, not a dialogue.

While everyone is free to criticize anyone’s ideas or positions, no one should criticize a person.

If you’re wondering if you’ve made a certain point too many times or if something you’re saying is too critical or would hurt somebody’s feelings, these are good clues to not send your message. You can always save your message for a day or two before sending it to see if you have second thoughts after sleeping on it.

If, in the course of discourse, you have a disagreement that you feel would involve a personal back-and-forth, please try to resolve it “backchannel” or off the listserv.

Moderation of APsA Listservs

The majority of APsA listservs will be unmoderated.

A moderated listserv appoints a moderator who has to approve all messages to the listserv. With an unmoderated listserv, any email sent to the listserv goes automatically to all listserv members. With the APsA listservs, all emails will instantly go to every APsA member who is part of that listserv, unless it is a moderated community.

Moderated and unmoderated listservs each have advantages and disadvantages. A moderated listserv can help prevent postings that may violate antitrust or other laws, infringe on intellectual property rights or violate rights of privacy or other third-party rights. Moderation can also help prevent messages of an attacking or demeaning nature. However, a moderated listserv constitutes a type of top down structure where someone is given the power to decide what information may be shared.

With the creation of this Policy, the APsA Board of Directors decided to maintain unmoderated listservs (with the exception of the Association listserv), so that communication can flow freely between all members. The goal is to facilitate easy communication between members that is respectful and in line with this Policy.

To avoid any misunderstanding or arbitrariness the following policies will be followed:

a. All APsA members who use any APsA listserv are agreeing to this Listserv Policy.

These listservs are for Members only

To minimize the risk that the general public will gain unauthorized access to listserv posts, these listservs are restricted to members only. However, nothing on the Internet, including the listservs, should be considered private. If one member forwards a listserv post to a non-member, that post could be sent anywhere and everywhere. You may indicate in your post whether or not you want your post to be forwarded to other listservs and/or to non-members.

APsA encourages you to forward posts announcing presentations, training programs, institute programs, etc. to non-members and to other listservs.

You do not need the explicit permission of the author to forward these announcements. This is a way to get our presentations, institute programs, and training programs to a wider audience. You may indicate in your post whether or not you want your post to be forwarded to other listservs and/or to non-members.

Referrals and Confidentiality: Considerations

Referrals go to the dedicated Referrals list, not on the Members List. The Referrals List is a member benefit for our Clinical Members only – this includes Psychoanalyst Members, Psychotherapist Members, Psychoanalyst-In-Training Members and Psychotherapist-In-Training Members.

The listservs are an ideal way to increase referrals among Clinical Members. However, you should not use the listservs to post information, whether in the context of referrals or otherwise, if that information could reasonably be used to identify an individual patient or potential patient (e.g., names, postal addresses, birthdates, dates of service, phone numbers, email addresses, social security numbers, health insurance plan information, photos or videos).

All members should keep in mind the inherent lack of confidentiality on a listserv, especially when permission is given to forward a post to a non-member or other listserv. If someone forwards a post, with or without the author’s consent, that post can then be forwarded to anyone. Therefore, referrals are best framed in terms of the type of analyst, therapist, or pharmacologist you’re looking for as opposed to the type of patient you’re referring.

For example, requesting a French-speaking female analyst in Houston, TX who has experience with trauma and immigration for a 3-year-old girl who must use Oxford Health insurance is an informative and protective request. Whereas, requesting a referral for a 3-year-old girl who was abused by her paternal uncle and has just moved to Houston from France and needs to use United Health insurance because her mother works at Joe’s mom and pop candy store, which only offers Oxford Health insurance is a request that reveals too much information about the patient.

In order to eliminate the need for APsA members to open up all referral posts, all referral requests should include in the subject line: Location of analyst, any gender or language requirements of the analyst, and any Insurance requirements of the analyst.

In the above example, the subject line should read: Houston, TX, Female French speaking analyst, Oxford. This would allow anyone not interested or not knowledgeable about the request to ignore it.

In the above example, the subject line should not read more generically as: Referral. This will avoid having members open up the post and feel that doing so was a waste of their time.

The listservs should not to be used to discuss cases or clinical matters

APsA listservs should not be used to talk about clinical material that can potentially be seen by patients and/or families. Although our listservs are intended for use only by APsA members, once a post is sent there is no way of ensuring that it won’t be forwarded to the whole world. Thus, there is no way to guarantee privacy in these listservs.

Third-Party concerns

Members should presume that any third-party content, including any material from journals, newspapers, magazines, or books, whether copied from a website or elsewhere, is protected by copyright. Although it may be permissible “fair use” to post brief excerpts, constituting an insubstantial proportion of a larger third-party work, for non-commercial purposes, there is less likelihood of infringing on someone else’s copyright or other intellectual property rights if the member posts only a summary, citation and/or link with respect to the third-party content. The most prudent course is always to get written permission from the copyright owner before posting third party material.

APsA is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization.

APsA is formed for charitable purposes and, as set forth in its Certificate of Incorporation, specifically (a) to study and advance psychoanalysis, (b) to advocate and maintain standards for the training of psychanalysts and for the practice of psychanalysis, (c) to foster the integration of psychoanalysis with other branches of science, and (d) to encourage research in all fields having to do with the scientific knowledge and welfare of man. Consistent with APsA’s charitable purposes, you are not allowed to use the listservs for commercial purposes, for electioneering or other political activity (e.g., in support or opposition to any candidate or political party in any town, city, state, or federal primary or election or in support of the impeachment of an elected official) or to support other tax-exempt organizations and causes (including, without limitation, other 501(c)(3) organizations).

a. It is permissible to comment on legislative issues, particularly those that impact our field or our patients. Online community users can voice their support or opposition for a position or a bill, but cannot voice their support or opposition to the candidate or party that’s identified with that position or bill.

b. Online community users are allowed to use the APsA Election Discussion listserv to voice respectful support or opposition for any candidate for an APsA election (please note that these communities are only open during active APsA election periods).

Potential for Violation of Antitrust Laws

The following activities are not allowed on the listservs, because of the potential for violation of antitrust laws:

Discussing fees, salaries, or stipends
Suggesting or implying that members boycott or otherwise agree not to participate with insurance providers in general or any particular company. Any discussion of working together against a company, section of industry, or outside organization runs the risk of being seen as unlawful collusion and is strictly forbidden on the listservs or anywhere in APsA.
Using the listservs to agree to not compete with other members or other providers for patients or business.

The listservs should not to be used in any illegal practices

Using a listserv to plan or engage in any illegal practices, whether listed in this Policy or not, is strictly forbidden.

In general, any material, including attachments, that you post using any of the APsA listservs is subject to the APsA Terms of Use, including but not limited to the provisions regarding “Interactive Areas.”

The APsA Community Vision and the APsA Listserv Policies together constitute our new “Policy” and govern use of the APsA Listservs. This Policy also incorporates all of the provisions of the Terms of Use of the APsA website (http://www.apsa.org). By using the listservs, all users are agreeing to abide by this policy.

APsA Community Vision:

In the broad community it creates, APsA provides a place to collaborate, connect, learn and find inspiration for psychoanalysts, psychoanalytic clinicians, educators, scientists, researchers, scholars, students and psychoanalytic institutes, societies and centers. The APsA community gives its members a link to psychoanalysis worldwide and a connection to one another that is essential to our members’ psychoanalytic identity and different from what they obtain locally.

Through its smaller, focused communities, APsA fulfills members’ needs for affiliation, identification, personal connection and professional development. The Association’s communities reflect inclusivity and diversity in culture, gender, race, sexual orientation, theoretical orientation, career stage, age, geography, and discipline.

APsA communities encourage and support innovation in psychoanalytic thinking and its relevance to the world. Anyone who has an interest in psychoanalysis can find a place to connect with the broader APsA community.

APsA provides diverse ways to connect so that everyone can find a place, while protecting the special place of psychoanalysis and psychoanalysts.

At all times, APsA creates professional communities that embody these guiding principles:

Scholarly, Educational, and Collegial
Diverse, Inclusive, Collaborative, and Curious
Compassionate, Open‐Minded, and Respectful
Constructive, Progressive, and Innovative
Welcoming, Tolerant, and Encouraging of Many Points of View

DISCLAIMERS

APsA and its Board of Directors, officers, Executive Committee, and staff accept no responsibility for the opinions or other information posted on the listservs. All posts express the views of the author and not necessarily of APsA. Accordingly, APsA and its board directors, officers, executive committee, and staff will not be held responsible for the content of any post. The listservs are provided “as is” without representations or warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including warranties of title, non-infringement, or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Each listserv user assumes all responsibility and risk for such user’s use of the listservs and the information available by means of the listservs. APsA does not warrant that the information available on the listservs is accurate or complete, or that it will meet any user’s needs, nor does APsA warrant that the listservs will be free of viruses or other harmful components or that use of the listservs will be uninterrupted or error-free. APsA may suspend or permanently shut down any listservs at any time.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

In no event shall APsA be liable for any special, indirect, incidental, punitive or consequential damages in connection with this policy, the listservs (including, without limitation, any content available on the listservs) or any loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with use thereof. The aggregate liability of APsA for any reason (whether in contract, tort (including negligence), common or statutory law, equity or otherwise) for any claims, obligations, liabilities or causes of action arising out of, or relating in any manner to, this policy or the listservs, will be the amount of the most recent annual dues paid by the user to APsA.

APsA Position Statements

APsA Publications

View All

The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JAPA)

The American Psychoanalyst (TAP)

The Candidate Connection

Find a Psychoanalytic Clinician