The AHP Soviet Exchange Project: 1983-1990 and beyond

Seven years have gone by since AHP sent its first delegation to the Soviet Union. During that time, over 150 North American psychologists, psychotherapists, and educators have represented AHP as delegates in the U.S.S.R. A smaller but growing number of our Soviet counterparts have visited the U.S. This article describes the events, people, progress, and future of the AHP Soviet Exchange Project. Delegates on the first three trips were truly explorers. Without official invitation, they sought ways to establish ties to prestigious institutes, universities, and schools in the Soviet Union. With each new encounter was the hope that this might lead to more lasting, satisfying, and in-depth relationships. The early visits set the stage for more organized and official relationships with Soviet colleagues and institutions. Strong ties were developed with colleagues in Moscow, Leningrad, and Tbilisi, and more recently in Tallinn, Vilnius, and Kiev. Two areas of collaboration with Soviets have emerged over the years: psychotherapy and humanistic education. AHP psychotherapists have worked with groups in six cities, demonstrating practice and discussing recent trends in humanistic psychology. The humanistic education focus has progressed through two offlcial agreements. In the most recent one (1989), the AHP, Georgia State University, and the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences signed a three-year agreement in which American and Soviet scholars and teachers would work together through a series of exchanges, writing conferences, and field testing to develop teaching materials focusing on global thinking. The work of both sides will culminate in an international conference co-hosted by both sides in Leningrad during the summer of 1992. The more that the common people contact each other the more our leaders will be obliged to contact each other as well. -Yulia Siroyezhina Institute of Adult Education, Leningrad