Psychoanalytic Training InstituteTraining (Personal) Analysis
An essential component of training in psychoanalysis is one’s own personal analysis, also known as a training analysis. One’s own analysis serves to help candidates to develop a deeper understanding of and comfort with their own inner lives so that the challenges of working as a psychoanalyst may be better managed and will thus be more likely to result in providing deeper and more effective treatment for one’s analysands. It also provides candidates with experiential knowledge about the powerful impact – the rewards and difficulties – of engaging as an analysand in psychoanalysis, thus engendering greater empathy in the analysands one works with.
Candidates are expected to begin a four or five time per week analysis with a Training Analyst from the CFS Psychoanalytic Training Institute when the first- year classes begin, if not before. A list of Training Analysts is posted on the website. If an applicant has been in a longstanding analysis with a Training and Supervising Analyst from another institute, the Progression Committee Chair, in consultation with the Institute Director, will determine whether this analyst meets the requirements set out by the IPA to qualify as a training analyst. If the analyst does not meet requirements, the applicant will need to begin a new analysis with a CFS Training Analyst and will be allotted up to six months after beginning candidacy to end his/her/their analysis and begin a new analysis.
Coursework
Candidates in the Integrated Psychoanalytic Training Program are required to attend classes on 12 Saturdays per academic year. Coursework covers a wide range of topics including Analytic Listening, Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Development, Technique, Diagnosis, a full year seminar on Freud’s seminal papers, and Theoretical Controversies in Psychoanalysis. Coursework also includes the in-depth study of psychoanalytic theories including Freud, Klein, Anna Freud, Bion and Winnicott, as well as other contemporary theories. Classes also include perspectives on gender identity, LGBTQ+ and racial, ethnic and neurobiological diversity. The full course of training is four years. For a list of specific courses offered, click HERE.
Readiness-for-Control
An essential part of a candidate’s preparation to become a psychoanalyst is the analyses he/she conducts under supervision. To undertake control or supervised work, the candidate needs to pass a readiness for control examination (RFC). This examination is conducted by a committee of three members of the Institute and is scheduled at the earliest after the first semester of the first year and preferably before the end of the second year depending upon the candidate’s readiness and clinical experience.
Control Work
Candidates must conduct a minimum of two control (supervised) analytic cases, one seen in person four or five times a week. The second can be seen three to five times weekly. Sessions can be conducted in person or with some conducted on-line (the exact ratio of on-line to in person sessions will be decided in consultation with the Progressions Committee). These cases need to be supervised by two different Training and Supervising Analysts from the CFS Psychoanalytic Training Institute. The candidate may request a reduced fee supervision if their financial situation warrants a fee reduction. Each supervision will be on a once a week basis. Supervision can be virtual, although the supervisee in most circumstances should initially have several in-person consultations with the supervisor.
A central educational feature of the control work or supervised experience is the Annual Case Write Up. The supervisor and an assigned case reader support the candidate in understanding and writing up case reports.
Final Case Presentation
The Final Case Presentation (FCP) represents the culmination of the candidate’s training in psychoanalysis at the Institute. If the Progression Committee believes the candidate is ready for final case, then an evaluation committee of five members of CFS will meet with the candidate to review and discuss the candidate’s work. Before the meeting, the candidate circulates a written report to all the members which becomes the basis for starting the case discussion. The committee is tasked with determining the candidate’s readiness to practice Psychoanalysis independently based on what the candidate has assimilated over the course of training. Questions about transference development, counter-transference and evolution of an analytic process in the case are always part of the evaluation. Successful completion of the Final Case Presentation and approval by the Progression Committee and subsequently the Board of Directors followed by payment of membership dues confers on the candidate membership in the Contemporary Freudian Society and the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA).