A Prospective Study of Psychoanalytic Practice and Professional Development: Early Career Interviews

In 2003 the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research began a prospective study of graduates designed to both describe and understand their professional trajectory. The study has two components: a quantitative component based on an anonymous comprehensive questionnaire given analysts yearly starting with their graduation, and a qualitative component comprising analyst interviews beginning at the end of the first postgraduate year and repeated every two years. Analysis of the first six years of the qualitative study shows that analysts will talk openly about their practice and careers and that when they do, practical issues are a dominant concern. Analysts both immersed and not immersed in four-times-weekly analytic cases experiment with adapting skills developed in training to treat cases in analysis seen less frequently. Analysts without four-times-weekly case immersion are engaged in analytic careers, participate as faculty at the institute, and report a high degree of career satisfaction. The major findings of this study compel changes in psychoanalytic training programs. The field would do well to address actual clinical practice experience in institute curricula and training programs, thus making analytic training more relevant.