For Martin Seligman , it was time to give something back. A renowned author, teacher and researcher at Penn , he had seen his field, psychology, take a few lumps in the '90s, and decided he wanted to work to make things better.

This past summer, Seligman was elected President of the American Psychological Association by the largest vote in recent history.

"The profession has given a lot to me, and I wanted to give something back," he said.

There are three areas that need to be addressed, he said, and the first is changes in health insurance.

"Managed care had done serious damage to the practice of psychology," he said. "It directs patients to abbreviated treatments that cost less; the patient and practitioner are spending fewer hours together. Patients are being routed to the cheapest provider. The whole process is profit driven, and patients are being shortchanged on a nationwide scale.

"The second area that needs to be addressed is that academic jobs and grant availability are at an all time low. We need to reverse this.

"And the third area is how the practice of psychology and the science of psychology can work together to solve both problems. I was elected because I'm trusted by both camps," he said.

His election comes at one of the busiest and most productive periods of his career. In the past six years he has written three widely selling books, Learned Optimism, What You Can Change and What You Can't and The Optimistic Child. and received two multimillion dollar grants from the national Institute of Mental Health. He has also maintained a full-teaching and research load.

"I won't write another book until after my term expires," he said.

Seligman will serve a three-year term of office. He previously was head of the APA's division of clinical psychology.

Seligman said his new post will require "a new set of muscles for me to have," which he'll use to persuade health insurers, the public and the Congress that any short-term fiscal gains made by quicker therapies and research cutbacks will have serious health-care consequences in the long run.

Seligman received his Ph.D. from Penn in 1964, and joined the faculty that year. He has written 13 books and published more than 150 scholarly articles. Recently, he was the leading consultant to Consumer Reports magazine for its recent membership survey on the effectiveness of psychotherapy.

The American Psychological Association, based in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychologists in the United States, with more than 142,000 members.

Return to Compass Features for September 10, 1996