Reports on the 6th Pre-Congress Conference on Training, London, 1975—II. A. Commentary on the 6th Pre-Congress Conference on Training

Dr Wallerstein's masterful on-the-scene summary, which was so deservedly lauded at the time of its presentation, is confirmed in its excellence and comprehensiveness by study of the later submitted reports of the Discussion Groups and the transcription of the closing discussion from the floor. So successfully did Dr Wallerstein capture the substance and tenor of the proceedings that the usual reporter's report would, as such, be truly a case of 'gilding the lily'. I therefore requested and was granted the privilege of presenting a commentary on the Pre-Congress.

My comments are derived from two perspectives. The primary one is that of a participant-observer and the designated reporter of the Pre-Congress who has received and studied all of the reports of the proceedings. The second perspective is that of a member of the C.O.P.E.R. (Conference on Psychoanalytic Education and Research, of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Homestead, Virginia, October 1974) preparatory Commission on Child Analysis who participated in the writing of the Position Paper (1974) which was cited at the Pre-Congress. In this paper, the Commission addressed the topic under consideration and enunciated a developmental orientation and approach as a valuable frame of reference for psychoanalytic practice and training, currently and in the future.

My objectives in this commentary are to reduce what I perceive to be areas of misunderstanding and to emphasize what I feel to be the positive conceptual yield of the Pre-Congress. In so attempting, my aim is to further the important dialogue initiated at the Pre-Congress. Although I shall not attempt to credit the specific source for most of the herein presented issues and viewpoints, I will be drawing on the contents of the various reports of the proceedings, and I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to the individual contributors and to the Discussion Group Reporters.

The opening discussions by Dr Wallerstein, Miss Freud, and Dr Lebovici