Psychoanalytic training, retrospective assessment by practitioners in the field

grantor: University of TorontoThis thesis asks the question: do psychoanalysts who have practiced for ten years or more reassess their training experience as a result of encountering professional challenges and vicissitudes? To answer this question, six practitioners in practice ten years or more were interviewed concerning their education. The formal requirements and educational challenges of psychoanalytic education are described. Complexities of the training experience are illustrated by examples from memoirs written by analysts looking back at their education and careers. Literature on psychoanalytic education is also reviewed. What emerges is the infinite variability and psychological complexity of the task of becoming a psychoanalyst, and the nature of likely obstacles to total educational success. The research reveals that analyst's do reassess their education but retain their original basic impression. Excerpts from the interviews to support this are given with a discussion of their implications.M.A