Anxiety in Psychoanalytic Training From the Candidate's Point-of-View

Abstract

The effectiveness of analytic practice and technique essentially depends upon the personal capability of the analyst; indeed, it is only through this person in practice that analysis can have an effect. Therefore, the person, as a whole, is trained and evaluated. During the period from 1997 to 2003, the Transparency Commission of the German Psychoanalytic Association (DPV) carried out a comprehensive study of its own training institutions, which also included a survey of former candidates regarding their experiences in training. The results of this study serve as the basis for an overview of the anxieties experienced by candidates in training. With the help of the distinction in the theory of science between connotative and denotative theories (J. A. Schülein, 1999, p. 322f), it can be assumed that psychoanalysis, at the level of its practical application, is an abundance of person-related concepts. There are limits to the evaluation of such person-related competence on the basis of objective criteria. This has certain implications for psychoanalytic training, which, in spite of efforts to the contrary, inevitably leads to the development of specific anxieties. Suggestions are developed that can help to make unconscious structures and related unconscious acting out in the training, especially under the influence of idealizations, more transparent, and thereby alleviate the build-up of anxieties that hamper an optimal learning and development process. Application of the psychoanalytic method to the group process and organizational structures is especially useful. This article was presented at 18th–4th New Style-Conference of the European Psychoanalytical Federation, 17–20 March, 2005 in Vilamoura, translated from German by Linda D. Jones. A Hungarian version has been published in Pszichoterápia (Brodbeck, H. [2006]. A pszichoanalitikus képzés során fellépõ szorongás a épzésben résztvevõk szemszögébõl. Pszichoterápia, 15:26–36).