II Psychoanalytic Education

The Annual of Psychoanalysis, by establishing a section devoted to psychoanalytic education under the editorship of Joan Fleming, hopes to provide a forum for the exchange of opinions, experiences, queries, attitudes, and positions on all aspects of psychoanalytic education. The paper which follows describes one aspect of psychoanalytic education as it is utilized in one institute for faculty development. As Joan Fleming has noted to me in a letter, faculty need to learn their special jobs, but this also involves the process of teaching them. Even though the goal is operational and functional with the specific procedure the point of focus, involvement in psychoanalytic administration and education can be used as an opportunity for educational learning and teaching.

Weiss and Fleming, addressing the issue of the selection process, illustrate for us the how and the why of this basic educational activity as it is used at the Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis. The procedures and processes are similar to those utilized at the Chicago Institute, a not surprising finding since Joan Fleming was a pivotal figure at the Chicago Institute where she was instrumental in developing and augmenting many aspects of the selection process, and where she and Therese Benedek undertook their classic studies of the psychoanalytic supervisory process. In this essay that follows, the enrichment of theoretical statements with clinical data enhances the value of the contribution and illustrates the actual applications of these in the operations of an institute. In Chicago we are now engaged in a follow-up study of selectees and selectors. This provides a test of the “prediction” of selection and enhances the educational value of this educational task (see Pollock, George H. [1961], Historical perspectives in the selection of candidates for psychoanalytic training. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 30:481-496).

We hope other institutes and colleagues involved in psychoanalytic education and administra