I write in response to the ‘Personal View’ published in the British Journal of Psychotherapy by Chris Whyte (1994). He writes of his fears about the current attempts by the UKCP to develop a competency-based assessment to qualify psychotherapists under the Government's National Vocational Qualifications scheme. I write to support his reservations and to add to his views in order to begin to explore some of the complexities of the current political/professional situation. I then want to explore some of the risks involved and to propose some first thoughts on what competencies in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy already look like, as I believe they can be seen in current training practice, if often unarticulated.