Notes on a Method for Teaching and Learning the Psychoanalytic Process

IN AN EARLIER COMMUNICATION, (Dewald, 1973) I called attention to the central importance of an integrated coceptionalization of the psychoanalytic process in the educational experiences of candidates in psychoanalysis. At that time I indicated some of the limitations in the traditional methods by which this concept is presented and grasped by most candidates in our psychoanalytic institutes, and that the synthesis in understanding the concept of a psychoanalytic process is frequently left to the individual candidate to develop on his own. I also suggested the need for educational experimentation and the development of more effective learning experiences for candidates.

In the position paper of Commission I (1974) of the COPER Conference, multiple references are made to ways in which the teaching and learning of the theoretical phase of psychoanalytic education needs improvement. Reference is made there to a number of issues in educational theory which are appropriate for us to consider in our institute teaching.

This brief communication reports my experience in introducing a new device into the teaching of an integrated concept of the psychoanalytic process. Although impressionistic and descriptive only of my own experience, and although there has been no systematic evaluation of change in rate or degree of learning, nevertheless, the consensus among all