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 Psychoanalytic Training Institute when the first year classes begin. The candidate will have the opportunity to choose an analyst from a list of Training Analysts of the Institute and will also be given a list of the Training Analysts willing to conduct reduced fee analyses. If the candidate has been in a longstanding analysis with a Training and Supervising Analyst from another institute, the Institute Director, Progression Committee Chair, and Admissions Chair will consider this analyst and analysis to determine if it can be an approved training analysis. If this analysis is not approved, the candidate may request that he/she postpone beginning a new analysis for up to one semester in order to have time to terminate his or her present 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 Development, Theories of Therapeutic Action, Theoretical Controversies and Analytic Listening. Coursework also includes the in-depth study of psychoanalytic theories including Freud, Klein, Anna Freud, Bion and Winnicott, as well as contemporary theories focusing on early primitive and unrepresented states of mind, the role of the analyst’s unconscious participation in the analytic process, as well as radically revised perspectives on gender, LGBT+, as well as 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 after the first semester of the first year and by 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, each seen in person and four or five times a week. These cases need to be supervised by two different Training and Supervising Analysts from the Psychoanalytic Training Institute of CFS. The candidate will be given a list of Training and Supervising Analysts willing to conduct reduced fee supervisions. Each supervision will be on a once a week basis. Double supervision sessions and telephone supervision are considered for a supervisee at a geographical distance from his/her supervisor.
A central educational feature of the control work or supervised experience is the Annual Case Write Up. A member of the Progression Committee and case reader support the candidate in the formulation and written expression of their understanding of the case.
Final Case Presentation
The Final Case Presentation (FCP) represents the culmination of the candidate’s training in psychoanalysis at the Institute. After conferring with the Progression Committee, the candidate initiates the request to present a final case. The candidate will submit a written report of the case to be presented to his/her Evaluation Committee. The Committee, consisting of five members of the Institute, will meet to listen to the candidate’s presentation, and to discuss and evaluate the candidate’s work and readiness to practice independently. Issues such as transference development, analysis of resistance, counter- transference, and establishment of an analytic process are discussed in the group. Successful completion of the Final Case Presentation and approval by the Progression Committee, along with presentation to the Board of Directors and payment of membership dues confers on the candidate membership in the Contemporary Freudian Society and the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA). Colleagues welcome the participation of new members in peer group case discussions, reading groups dealing with theories or new ideas in psychoanalysis, and a rich and diverse menu of scientific programs as part of continuing education. New members will find opportunities to contribute to the ongoing life of the Psychoanalytic Training Institute through committee membership.