International Association of Individual Psychology

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Our 1999 IAIP Congress in Chicago was particularly stunning to me. As I wrote for the NASAP Newsletter, “We tend not to realize how insular our views are until we are confronted with contrary ones from persons of like persuasion from elsewhere.” After two hours of discussion with European and Asian Adlerians about the paper I gave at last year’s Congress, I would substantially revise the paper were I to give it again. I learned a lot. .. These types of communications are an important aspect of IAIP. They go on at Congresses and throughout the deliberations of the Sections.

The Council will be meeting for two days in mid-May in St. Paul, Minnesota, prior to the NASAP Annual Meeting. Our agenda will be full. One item, a topic raised in meetings and hallways last summer in Chicago, will be how to increase opportunities for communication, discussion, debate, and just friendly chit chat at our next Congress in Munich in 2002. There was great interest in the presentations, and there were fine presentations in Chicago, but many people longed to be able to talk about them at greater length and depth. The Council will attempt to find ways to help this happen.

A major way to serve the mission of IAIP and to deal with our sometimes problematic financial situation is to increase membership. However, IAIP members are organizations, not individuals, so the effort means identifying national or regional Adlerian groups and encouraging affiliation with IAIP, while also assisting individuals in creating societies and institutes. The former effort has been a continuing one but the latter has been less frequent. I would really like IAIP to make this effort.

I hope the Council will develop a strategy to identify and contact Adlerians wherever they are, to consult with and advise them and encourage them to form societies, recognizing them as prospective new members. Over time this will enable us to further our mission and strengthen our organization.

In some societies, generosity is seen as an individual characteristic. That may not be true in other cultures, and need not be so in Adlerian theory. I am pleased to report to the membership an outstanding example of communal generosity by the Japanese Society of Adlerian Psychology. JSAP has made an unsolicited and substantial donation to IAIP with a sum far in excess of their annual dues. We truly appreciate their magnanimity. I wish to take this opportunity to thank JSAP on behalf of all of us.

Guy J. Manaster, President