Overview of Psychoanalytic Training at CFS

One is not a psychoanalyst, one becomes a psychoanalyst. In the same way that I think you are not a father or a mother, but you become a father or a mother.  It is a long process and an important commitment.”
—Virginia Ungar, President of the International Psychoanalytic Association

The Psychoanalytic Training Institute of the Contemporary Freudian Society offers a variety of programs in both New York City and Washington, DC for students interested in psychoanalysis, child psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and parent-infant treatment.

The Psychoanalytic Training Institute of the Contemporary Freudian Society is a Component Institute of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) and is registered with the New York State Department of Education.

Those who complete the requirements for training with us are eligible to become a Fellow of the International Psychoanalytic Association (FIPA).  FIPA is a credential that indicates that the practitioner has been trained at an IPA Constituent Organization and, thus, has fulfilled rigorous educational and professional requirements.  For more information, click here.

Our Educational Philosophy

Psychoanalysis is based on the analyst’s capacity to listen. It is our most essential and powerful tool. Our curriculum is designed to develop this function, and was conceived with an understanding of how we learn and achieve the capacity to incorporate a contemporary psychoanalytic attitude into our thinking and into our work with patients. This plants us firmly in the clinical encounter and guides us in formulating effective interventions.

Continuously revising our academic program to keep abreast of contemporary research and psychoanalytic thinking, we are presently moving to a cutting edge approach in psychoanalytic training: an integrated curriculum. That is, we incorporate developmental concepts into every aspect of the coursework, which gives us a strong base from which to understand resilience, deficit, adaptation and dysfunction, and trains the clinician to tailor a wide scope of interventions to suit the unique needs of each individual.

We envision our curriculum as a spiral. Theoretical and technical material are introduced early on, continuously revisited, and gain deepening resonance as clinical experience is accrued. Concepts thus move from intellectual guideposts to clinically meaningful aids to listening and experiencing what the patient and analyst bring to the analytic space. This model of psychoanalytic education expands the skills and receptivity of the clinician and results in a superbly trained psychoanalyst who is ready and able to take on all the challenges inherent in 21st century treatment.

Eliza Griffiths, Untitled , 2013

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