WESTERN CANADA PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIETY AND INSTITUTE CODE OF CONDUCT
(approved January 2023)
Introduction
A code of conduct is understood to be a pillar of ethical management and essential to containment. It is intended to help guide collegial relations within the Western Canada Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (WCPSI). In this regard, it is a companion to relevant codes of ethics of the CPS and the IPA.
Scope
This code of conduct applies to the behavior of all Members, Analysts-in-training (AIT), and Community Affiliates (CA), both within and outside of regular WCPSI activities and work. Being a signatory to this code of conduct is mandatory to participating at WCPSI in any role.
Values
Everyone involved in WCPSI is committed to psychoanalysis as a field of study, profession and identity. There is an appreciation for the complexity of ongoing psychoanalytic formation, with its dynamic ensemble of meetings, conferences, courses, study groups, personal analysis and case work. To participate fully and openly requires an enduring sense of safety, which in turn is dependent on clear boundaries, collegiality, trust and confidence in the sincerity, empathy and good will of colleagues.
Expected behaviors
- Safety
Every Member, Analyst-in-training and Community Affiliate has a right to full participation in WCPSI. This requires safety, and everyone in WCPSI is responsible for creating and maintaining this fundamental requirement. An open, inquisitive atmosphere in which to engage with each other is a pre-requisite for having a viable, healthy organization. Safety is more than the absence of danger. It is an emotion that stems from people feeling empowered as significant members of the group. Everyone in WCPSI must make it safe for others to speak, to give their views and ideas. This means that others can respond or react openly to what is said, but always in a way that avoids attack, which refers to actions or speech that are intended to be denigrating, belittling, condescending or humiliating.
- Harassment
In terms of this Code, harassment is defined as the demeaning of another. No Member, AIT or CA should ever engage in harassment. This form of hostility is likely to make recipients uncomfortable, embarrassed, or left feeling humiliated. Harassment can express different motives, all of which are forbidden by this code: discrimination of any kind, including race, gender, sexual orientation; threats; and bullying. Although overlapping with a sense of safety, harassment and its corollaries are highlighted because these can arise between colleagues, and during interactions where there is a power imbalance. All participants are responsible for maintaining a clear, respectful, collegial and welcoming attitude in their dealings with colleagues. This encompasses all interactions in the WCPSI. It is recognized that Members, AITs and CAs may have multiple roles in relation to each other, including as teachers, supervisors, personal analysts, in addition to that of colleagues. All members take responsibility for maintaining appropriate boundaries and for providing a safe, respectful, kind and empathic setting in which collegial relationships can unfold. This includes receiving constructive criticism with graciousness and humility, despite the multiple roles that are commonplace in small societies and institutes.
- Trust and privacy
Although analysts and other clinicians are trusted professionals and practice confidentiality in their clinical work with patients, it is also important for colleagues to serve as trusted members of the group. They should not engage in needless gossip that betrays the other’s right to reasonable respect and appropriate privacy. Gossip and its counterpart, leaking of information, can be harmful. It undermines the internal cohesion of the group and is injurious to group members. All participants should keep in mind the multiple roles (often unbeknown) that Members, AITs and CAs may occupy in relation to each other, and respect the privacy of information conveyed in any group situation, unless permission has been obtained directly from the participant in question.
- Confidentiality
Members, AITs and CAs must keep confidential any and all clinical material to which they are exposed in the course of participating in the activities of WCPSI.
5. Electronic communication and virtual meetings
This Code of Conduct applies to email and other forms of electronic communication in relation to WCPSI. It needs to be understood that email or texting is suitable for factual correspondence. However, it becomes much less useful when dealing with personal feelings and conveying complex issues likely to stir strong emotions. It is possible to cross a line from discussion to abuse when discourse becomes directed personally at another colleague. Cyberbullying is rampant on the internet. It is the duty of all members to monitor their own conduct while on the internet no matter which communication application is being used.
What to do if you experience misconduct
All participants in WCPSI are bound by the IPA Ethics Code that can be found on the IPA website. This ethics code includes collegial relations as well as the analytic relationship. This set of principles should serve as an additional resource along with the Ethics Code of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society. These are companion documents to each other.
If you experience misconduct, you should consider taking the following steps:
- The first is to raise the concern with the individual in question. This should only apply, however, if you feel sufficiently safe to take this step and it is of nature that can be handled directly, or in the presence of a third party.
- If this step is not feasible, you may contact any member of the WCPSI Board to request a private consultation. At no point will you lose control of such a process and discussion beyond the WCPSI Board will only take place when needed and with the participant’s consent.
- If this issue cannot be handled locally, a consultation could be requested from the CPS Ombuds Office or the CPS Ethics Committee. The email address of the CPS is cpsscp1967@gmail.com
Conclusion
Psychoanalysis is a self-regulated profession around the world. The International Psychoanalytic Association articulates and enforces a high professional standard which is replicated by Constituent Societies, including all branches of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society and the Canadian Institute of Psychoanalysis. Nonetheless, this Code of Conduct is necessary to bring these principles of ethics to the foreground and link them to actual behaviors that are injurious, destructive to the group and plainly wrong. All participants in WCPSI are subject to the terms of this Code of Conduct. It underlines the collective responsibility for a healthy, productive organization that everyone involved will enjoy being part of, because there is confidence that dignity, safety, other basic human rights and educational needs will be fully respected.
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