Sheldon M. Cohen, PhD

Video statement

Dr. Cohen had a scheduling conflict at the 2012 APA Annual Convention and was unable to record a video statement.

Biography

Currently, I live in Phoenix with my wife, Dr. Dayna Seigal, who is a theologian and an interfaith counselor. Interfaith counseling is one of our common interests and one of the things we do. Our interest in interfaith counseling grew after 9/11. Dayna and I were in a New York City cab on the way to the World Trade Center when 9/11 happened. Some positive human potential had become horrendously destructive. Could the destruction of 9/11 and the destruction that followed have been avoided? I tried to share some experiences and thoughts on the website and later in my blogs and Facebook posts. I believe in "the talking cure.''

In this real-world new world, I became a psysocial analyst. The psysocial analyst works through four inter-related windows: W1 the international global; W2 the national, e.g., the United States; W3 the organizational within nations, e.g., APA; and W4 the individual and group psytherapeutic. The end goal is always the same: To make better, fix, improve, help/heal "the patient.''

My professional background includes private practice, being a university professor and a clinical director of a community mental health center.

In my late 30s, the retinas of my eyes began to tear. I was legally blind for years. I now have fairly normal sight in one eye. My left eye is totally blind. I've not even started to tell the story of my experiences publicly. However, I believe these experiences guide me in my personal life and will make me a unique APA president for our time. I hope to become the first bipolar visual president of APA.

Candidate Statement

No human being can relate face-to-face personally to 7 billion-plus fellow citizens of the world or to 300 million-plus fellow Americans or to 150,000-plus fellow APA members of national APA.org. One challenge in the 21st century is to create town-hall-like genuine democratic long-distance communication spaces within which people can easily share information, ideas and voting.

The second related challenge is about human nearness, closeness and here-and-now immediacy. How do we upgrade (make better, fix, improve, help/heal) this person, this relationship, this family, this group, this community, this organization, this nation? What is the best way to maximize self-actualization/minimize waste of their human potential?

To learn how I've been working on these challenges, go to Realworldnewworld, scohen305.blogspot, meyercohen9islovelove.blogspot and Facebook.

I've been posting on the APA Facebook site since August 2010. Take a trip back and forth on this site with me. I want to be a new age APA president who would continue to work on these challenges with you.