T he National Multicultural Conference and Summit (NMCS) was held in January 1999 in Newport Beach, California. Hosted by the American Psychological Association's (APA's) Division 17, Counseling Psychology; Division 35, Society for the Psychology of Women; and Division 45, the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues, the two-day series of keynote addresses, symposia, and forums brought together some of the most well-known multicultural scholars and practitioners in the field to (a) examine state-of-the-art issues in ethnic minority psychology; (b) facilitate difficult dialogues on race, gender, and sexual orientation; (c) forge multicultural alliances for political action and advocacy; and (d) develop strategies for multicultural organizational change. The events of the summit are considered historic and revolutionary for several reasons.First, the idea for the NMCS arose from the election of the first Asian American president of APA (Richard Suinn) and the realization that five other persons of color were elected presidents of their respective APA divisions (Divisions 17, 35, 36, 44, and 45). l As individuals were chosen for leadership positions, we were presented with a three-year window of opportunity to make a meaningful difference in ethnic minority issues in the profession of psychology. For many years, the members of Divisions 17, 35, and 45 have been influential in addressing issues of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and other forms of prejudice and discrimination. Each of us saw a clear need to spearhead change by bringing together outstanding psychologists who have worked in the areas of race relations, diversity, and multiculturalism. Never before in the history of APA has such a large number of multicultural experts been brought together to assess the current state of psychology with respect to its relevance to culturally different populations. In addition to the presenters, over 500 other psychologists and graduate students from throughout the nation attended the event.

Multiculturalism, in its broadest terms, not only is defined by race and ethnicity but also involves topics of gender, sexual orientation, and disability. Underlying this notion is the assumption that there is no one way to conceptualize human behavior, no one theory that explains the realities and experiences of various forms of diversity, and no particular set of competencies that have been proven to be effective with every form of diversity. Yet, it is possible to seek and provide information that can move psychologists and other social scientists forward in the search for multicultural awareness, respect, and competence. The 2nd National Multicultural Conference and Summit, held in January 2001 in Santa Barbara, California, was designed to promote knowledge about multiculturalism in these broad terms. This introduction to the special section is designed to (a) provide an overview of the proceedings of the Summit, (b) identify themes that emerged throughout the Summit with a special focus on the major keynote addresses, and (c) recommend future directions for education, training, practice, and research in multicultural psychology.

In this chapter I discuss issues related to minority student recruitment and retention and present the model that is used at the California School of Professional Psychology: Los Angeles (CSPP: Los Angeles) to address these issues. If one surveys the literature, it is easy to note the ever-present shortage of ethnic minority mental health professionals in the field of psychology (President's Commission on Mental Health, 1978) as well as the continuing underrepresentation of ethnic minority students and faculty (Bernal, Barron, & Leary, 1983). The rapidly increasing numbers of ethnic minority individuals who potentially may seek psychological services is clearly disproportionate to the numbers of ethnic minority individuals entering into and finishing doctoral programs in the field of psychology (Bernal et al., 1983). It is clear that, although ethnic minorities nearly doubled their number among doctoral recipients between 1975 and 1984, they still represent only 8.7% of the new doctorates U.M. Jones, 1987). Furthermore, although ethnic minority students have shown interest in psychology and psychology-related experiences, their numbers in graduate school programs simply do not reflect their interest 0. M. Jones, 1987).Why, then, does there appear to be difficulty in the recruitment and subsequent retention of minority students in graduate programs? These problems occur because most institutions are not fully committed to, and do not behave in ways that allow for, successful recruitment and retention of ethnic minority students. If institutional values do not support the development of policies and programs that are geared toward successful recruitment and retention of ethnic minority students, then, in fact, the situation that currently exists in most graduate school programs in psychology is realized fully.When we talk about institutional values, we are in essence asking why and for what reason institutions are committed to having a diverse and mixed group of students within their educational structure. And further, we are asking what institutions 131

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Another shortcoming of the authors of this text is their frequently rather inexpert and insufficient grasp of the importance of psychopathology in strategic planning for psychotherapy. Although this sounds anomalous, perhaps, for a text on strategic treatment, an example is the handling of pathology by Follingstad and Breiter on the topic of battering by males. These authors not only become lost in a "blame game" regarding domestic violence problems, they also report without comment several Millon Clinical Multiphasic Inventory and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) normative studies of domestic violence perpetrators, which mark these disputants as either "personality disorders" genetically, or point out that they have a relatively high predominance of MMPI high point codes with Psychopathic Deviate scores. Is this a suprise?Although it is a strength of Prescriptive Treatments that psychopharmacologic treatment is emphasized by its chapters' authors, still the coverage of psychopharmacology issues is often thin. For example, the chapters on Schizophrenia and on the different variants of Major Depression do not mention or emphasize newer pharmaceutical developments, both with respect to antipsychotics and to newer uses of anticonvulsant medications. Even when psychopharmacologic effects are mentioned, this is often done in overbroad positive generalizations. The suggestion is conveyed that for most serious clinical problems, certain pharmaceutical agents are the essential components of treatment. Often, however, it is more nearly factual to make certain limited statements. In the treatment of certain psychotic symptoms, for example, some symptoms like hallucinations and delusions (the "positive" symptoms of thought disorder) yield to antipsychotics fairly often.Furthermore, several of the Prescriptive Treatments chapters make overly dogmatic statements about so-called "guidelines for treatment." It seems transparently obvious at least to this writer that the (mostly academic) authors welcome simplifcation, and the more symptomatic the focus and the more treatment-manual-oriented the interventions die better, however homogenized or contorted the circumstances.On balance, nevertheless, this text by Hersen and Ammerman is one of the best of its type available. Numerous clinicians at various levels of training should find this an extremely valuable professional resource. Once the field of psychotherapy becomes more recognizably homogeneous in certain respects, perhaps it will then be free to become more beneficially heterogeneous, and perhaps even more broadly applicable. Psychotherapy researchers need continued inspiration to help us ascertain the critical elements in treatment, with sufficient procedural clarity to make their methods teachable. Practitioners need a broader knowledge-base and as wide an array of intervention strategies as possible. Hersen and Ammerman should be congratulated for producing a text that augurs well for both these tasks.