Psychoanalytic Training Research Articles

Beginning the Treatment on a Personal Note: Creating Emotional Connection

Psychoanalysis reflects the minds of its creators and is an ethical practice in the sense that the theories with which we psychoanalysts identify are those that reflect what is most important in life to each of us. I present autobiographical material that points to the personal sources, even earlier than my psychoanalytic training, of my conviction that the creation of emotional connection between two actual persons lies at the heart of psychoanalysis and is the key element in the beginning of psychoanalytic treatment. I argue that the beginning of an interpersonal/relational treatment has more continuity with the beginning of non-psychoanalytic relationships than does the beginning of treatment carried out by analysts from other schools. I present what I believe are the reasons for this difference and offer comparisons and contrasts of these ways of establishing a psychoanalytic situation. The article ends with a brief clinical illustration.

Psychoanalysis of the unspectacular.

From the perspective of a poet and first-year psychoanalytic training candidate, this paper develops Jeremy Safran's ideas about the dialectic between psychoanalysis and Buddhism by drawing an analogy between their processes and those of a poetry practice to define an alternative to pathological dissociation under capitalist systems of value. The paper details the writer's experience of working a day job in an office and the pathological dissociation which she subsequently attempts to overcome and critique through writing poetry. Various poems written at work are shared and analyzed as evidence. Drawing from Safran's edited volume, Psychoanalysis and Buddhism, the author then identifies aspects of Zen Buddhist meditation practice and the psychoanalytic process that focus on connecting with reality, however conflicted, as opposed to escaping it. This paper was written under the mentorship of the psychoanalyst and Zen teacher Barry Magid.

War and Attacks on Thinking: Reflections on the Psychoanalysts’ Responses to the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine

ABSTRACT This paper presents the author’s considerations of how Russia’s war against Ukraine impacted the ability to think and the capacity to empathize among psychoanalytically oriented practitioners. She first describes and discusses the observed patterns among external psychoanalytic responses to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Secondly, she reflects on these patterns through the prism of her own reactions to the 2014 Russian invasion of Eastern Ukraine and the Crimea annexation. Lastly, she offers her considerations about the limits and possibilities of psychoanalytic thinking, practice, and training in the context of wars. Overall, the author proposes associating the psychic responses to war with (a) the war mode of psychic functioning and related defenses against it, (b) psychoanalytically informed propaganda influence, and (c) peculiarities of psychoanalytic training and practice, which set a specific type of thinking.

The Columbia Academy for Psychoanalytic Educators: A Pilot Program for Developing Analysts and Supervisors of Analytic Candidates.

The Columbia Academy for Psychoanalytic Educators supports graduate analysts' professional development at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. In 2018, a pilot program was launched for faculty interested in analyzing and supervising candidates, whose aim is to support and educate those interested in taking on these essential training functions. The focus is on educating the educators, which is a significant departure from the historical focus on evaluation, vetting, and faculty hierarchies. In the process of developing and piloting the program, complex and long debated issues in psychoanalytic education and development were considered that are relevant to many institutes, including training of supervisors and analysts of candidates, addressing problematic faculty hierarchies, creating safety for those presenting clinical work to colleagues, building professional peer relationships, and engagement of faculty in time consuming and nonremunerative activities. The authors report on their experience developing and evaluating this pilot program.

The Effectiveness of a Training Program Based on Psychoanalytic Theory in Developing Psychological Adjustment among Students with Motor Disabilities at Al-Balqa Applied University

This study investigated the effectiveness of a psychoanalytic theory-based training program in enhancing psychological adjustment among students with motor disabilities at Al-Balqa Applied University. A quasi-experimental design was employed, with 33 participants (male and female) from various faculties. A newly developed, 25-item psychological adjustment scale assessed five key dimensions. The program's impact was evaluated through pre- and post-application assessments in both the experimental and control groups. The results revealed statistically significant improvements in psychological adjustment within the experimental group (pre- vs. post-application). Additionally, significant differences were found between the control and experimental groups in the post-application assessment, with the latter demonstrating higher levels of psychological adjustment. These findings suggest that the training program based on psychoanalytic theory may be beneficial for promoting psychological well-being among students with motor disabilities.

Shame’s Value

ABSTRACT Shame we are told is as intense as it is unrelenting. Shame we are told, further still, is as contagious as it is transmittable. By fastidiously attending to clinical reports and theoretical depictions of shame’s totalizing character, I argue in this paper that we can notice something that has broadly gone unnoticed: shame assumes for itself absolute value. To bear this out, I contrast my view with that of the dominant one: that shame has an instrumental value. I show some limitations of the dominant view by reflecting on the role of shame in psychoanalytic training. The picture that emerges may seem quaintly commonsensical, and even commonplace, but it has, I think, vast clinical implications. I believe that it certainly has the potential to open some new horizons. The arguments for such a bold claim will occupy the concluding section of my paper.

Delinquent violence, criminal justice in Mexico, and Erich Fromm in real time

The efforts of the Mexican authorities to defeat insecurity, violence, and crime have not been successful. It seems that the prison system plays a major role in this. Delinquent violence forces us to look for different options and conditions. Proposals that emanated from the humanist psychoanalysis promoted by Erich Fromm, who lived in Mexico for over 20 years from the late 1950s to the mid 1970s, are therapeutic resources and paths of analysis. These allow us to identify both the productive and the creative aspects of the individual personality propelling the person to their social integration. The aim is to guide individuals toward a biophilic character and to the construction of a fair society provided with hope and liberty. The mission of the Instituto Mexicano de Psicoanálisis (IMPAC; Mexican Institute of Psychoanalysis), founded in Mexico City in 1963 by Erich Fromm, is to: spread Fromm’s intellectual legacy through psychoanalytic training; pay specialized attention to persons in need of psychotherapies and analytic psychotherapies; disseminate Fromm’s thoughts by publishing them; undertake professional research; plus, recently, collaborate with federal agencies for justice procurement and human rights defense. This has made it possible to convince us of the appropriateness, validity, and efficacy of humanist psychoanalysis to approach and become involved in benefiting Mexican society.

An interview with Howard Levine

In this interview, Howard Levine freely associates his life history, medical and psychoanalytic training and remembers inspirational encounters. Levine emphasizes the theoretical shift from the Freudian paradigm, to the Bionian model and then to Metabionian thought. He speaks about his encounter with European psychoanalysis and how this has enriched his thought and practice. Levine also evokes the importance of the social environment and his implications in social activities. He concludes the interview with comments on his relation to writing and editing the multiple voices of psychoanalysis.

Must the Reality of Death Be Unspeakable?

Attention to the manifestations of death anxiety in the clinical context is often absent in the discourse of psychoanalytic training. This exchange addresses some of the causes of such an absence: a fraught relation between privacy and secrecy, primacy of psychic reality and interpretation, and cultural underpinnings of sanitization of death.

Engaging Minds: Toward Developing Psychoanalytic Candidates

ABSTRACT The future and vibrancy of psychoanalysis rests on increasing the accessibility to training for early career clinicians. By recognizing and addressing the numerous barriers to the immersive experience of psychoanalytic training, we can foster strong candidate groups. This paper recounts one institute’s process of creating multiple points of access and substantive mentorship for new clinicians, aiming to nurture involvement over time with institute members and its professional offerings. Valuing both individual developmental trajectories and attracting diverse applicants across disciplines while attending to the significant obstacles many potential trainees face, generated increased interest and matriculation in both psychotherapy and psychoanalytic training programs.

Inscribing a new page in the history of Ukrainian psychoanalysis during the wartime: The call for contributions

AbstractThis correspondence introduces several distinct current efforts by Ukrainian psychoanalytic practitioners and researchers from various clinical, scholarly, and applied fields to support the sustainable development of psychoanalytic training and work in the context of the ongoing 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Among these developments are (a) the translation of the classic and contemporary psychoanalytic texts into the Ukrainian language, (b) the promotion of Ukrainian psychoanalytic contributions within Ukraine and abroad, and (c) the support of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy as an evidence‐based practice to be officially recognized in Ukraine. The initiatives were integrated with the launch of a scholarly peer‐reviewed online open‐access journal—the Ukrainian Psychoanalytic Journal—which has been confirmed by the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science as a scientific periodical. In addition to describing these initiatives, this contribution serves as an invitation to international psychoanalytic audiences to contribute to these processes, including via workshops on psychoanalytic writing and publication, joint panel discussions, or collaborative research projects with Ukrainian psychoanalytic professionals. We also welcome submissions of original previously published (with copyright permission) or unpublished papers to be translated and published in the Ukrainian language.

Transformative moments in an online China child therapy teaching journey

Over the past twenty-five years, the International Psychotherapy Institute (IPI) faculty has been honing its technique for distance learning by listening for unconscious themes emerging in the classroom that resonate with learning resistances or teaching concepts. This coauthored article describes an online, child, and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy training programme coordinated by IPI and Jiandanxinli, offered by Western faculty to Chinese psychotherapists-in-training. An IPI child analytic faculty member collaborated with two Chinese course participants to study the cross-cultural meanings of teaching, presenting, and consulting. This independent research project unearthed new understandings about the challenges, strengths, and limitations of online, translation-dependent learning. Additionally, the article underscores the importance of embracing an ethical stance and cultural humility when teaching child therapy to students from different cultures.

Empowering a feminist clinic

In the context of psychoanalytic practice, the relevance of challenging gender oppressions in modern subjectivities relies on engaging in meaningful dialogues with feminism. Drawing from our academic background in teaching psychoanalysis, gender studies, and feminism, as well as our experience as private practice analysts, this article presents ideas and reflections on an ongoing project—a feminist clinic in Michoacán, Mexico. The clinic’s goal is to uncover and challenge gender system oppressions that affect modern female subjectivities, with a particular focus on how gender-based violence shapes these experiences. The article is divided into three sections. The first section provides a historical account of the feminist clinic project, highlighting its social and political context. The second section explores the tensions and fluctuations between psychoanalytic theory and feminist activism, considering the contemporary struggles faced by women impacted by gender-based violence. It investigates how psychoanalysis and feminism can complement each other to create effective intervention strategies against women’s oppression. The third section analyses the potential of the feminist clinic project as a tool for both academic pedagogy and psychoanalytic clinical training, offering a new path to feminist activism called ‘subjective activism’.

MLADEN NIKOLOV - THE FIRST BULGARIAN PSYCHOANALYST

The article examines the life of Mladen Nikolov, a Bulgarian psychologist, whom I define as the first Bulgarian psychoanalyst. It is based on facts from preliminary studies, which may be supplemented subsequently. It describes his life and how his training in psychoanalysis came about. The report also discusses whether he can be considered a psychoanalyst, given the way he has been trained. A common mistake about his place of graduation in psychology is pointed out and corrected.

Liberation, not representation: Empty diversity efforts as colonial stabilization (and what we should [start to] do about it)

ABSTRACT The paper argues that in this “zero-gravity moment” we should resist the urge to rely solely on what is described as non-structural, and therefore, “empty” diversity efforts that focus only on representational politics. The concept of Diversity Ideology is explored and used to explicate why diversification efforts in psychoanalytic training programs and organizations are constitutively poised to fail.

The Reception of Lacanian Theory and Practice by American Psychoanalytic Training Programs.

This paper explores the principal reasons for the exclusion of Lacanian ideas from psychoanalytic training institutes in the United States. The history of Lacan's role in the International Psychoanalytical Association, from which essentially he was expelled, occupies a central place in this story. Significant issues arose also from his practice style and technical innovations, whose rationale remains controversial today. Another major obstacle for the reception of his work is the theoretical framework of Lacanian analysis, so different from that of other schools. Inclusion of its unfamiliar vocabulary and concepts poses practical problems for training programs. At a more fundamental level, the strong antihumanist evolution of Lacan's thought runs contrary to the increasingly relational and intersubjective orientation of American psychoanalysis. The incompatibility between the disparate languages of a scientific theory aiming at objectivity and a phenomenology of personal intentionality and meaning greatly limits the possibilities for dialogue. The tension between these perspectives cannot be resolved, but a productive exchange between them is possible if they are accepted as valid and complementary ways of speaking about human behavior.

Review of The analyst’s reveries: Explorations in Bion’s enigmatic concept; Dear candidate: Analysts from around the world offer personal reflections on psychoanalytic training, education, and the profession; and A fresh look at psychoanalytic technique: Selected papers on psychoanalysis.

Review of The analyst’s reveries: Explorations in Bion’s enigmatic concept; Dear candidate: Analysts from around the world offer personal reflections on psychoanalytic training, education, and the profession; and A fresh look at psychoanalytic technique: Selected papers on psychoanalysis.

To Be Human, This Intrigues Me

Eustachio Loperfido (1932–2008), known as Nino, was an Italian child neuropsychiatrist whose contribution to the historic reforms of 1970s led to “a peaceful revolution” in mental health services. In Bologna, Loperfido directed a major maternal-child agency service for many years and, with his psychoanalytic training, added political activism to the clinical programs that improved women’s and children’s mental health and well-being. He was Bologna’s Councilor for Mental Health from 1970 to 1980; in 1968, as the new director of the town of Imola’s children’s residential institute (a de facto mental hospital), Loperfido started to modify the institution which soon was closed down. This took place within a new political climate where the subsequent well-known Law 180, inspired by Franco Basaglia, replaced public psychiatric hospitals with innovative community-based mental health services throughout Italy.

The Development of an Analytic Mind, Analytic Identity, and Analytic Voice

ABSTRACT This article describes the process of development and discovery of an analytic mind, identity, and voice. This is seen through the author’s personal journey during psychoanalytic training and practice. That journey, like that of many candidates, begins with a sense of curiosity and “not knowing enough” which then propels the candidate into a search for certainty. Central to this process is the interaction of one’s personal analysis, supervised clinical practice, and didactic seminars. These become a backdrop that works to free the analyst’s mind in the service of one’s analytic work. The author reflects on her nascent concept of analytic mind and describes it as the potential space in the mind which becomes recognized and developed through analysis and training, giving rise to a new way of thinking, experiencing, and understanding the underlying ambiguous forces that determine human adaptation and distress. The author’s evolving concept of analytic identity is described as an inner sense of one’s self as an analyst, now represented in relation to a shared sense of mind and being part of a theoretical community with a shared history and approach to patient’s struggles. The developing idea of analytic voice is that voice in which we convey our work and express it to ourselves, our peers, and our patients. A voice with a new language that evolved from the analytic mind and identity, and is manifested in a greater capacity to show and communicate with patients and others.

Is This My Home? How Psychoanalytic Training Led to My Cultural Reawakening

ABSTRACT In this paper, I reflect on how cultural selfobject experiences shape one’s sense of identity and how contemporary psychoanalysis has evolved in order to recognize the impact of extra psychic factors on emotional development. I use my personal experience as a Jewish, first-generation daughter of immigrants to focus on culture, fantasied whiteness, intergenerational transmission of the trauma of immigration, and the role of dissociation in formation of identity. I also elaborate on how an expanded psychoanalytic theory and practice that includes the socio-cultural as part of the relational field has helped me to understand how these experiences become internalized.