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Dear Editor
I write as a registrant of both the UKCP and BCP, because I am saddened and disturbed by recent developments within our profession, namely the founding of The College of Psychoanalysts - United Kingdom. I would like to express my concerns and discover whether these are shared by BJP readers.
Along with other UKCP and BCP registrants, I received a letter inviting me to part with £25 and apply for membership of the newly created ‘College of Psychoanalysts United Kingdom’ (logo CP-UK), which would entitle me to call myself a ‘psychoanalyst’. As the note on the British Psychoanalytic Society's web page points out, the new College's web domain (psychoanalysts.org.uk) is remarkably similar to their own (psychoanalysis.org.uk); and the CP-UK, using the same initials as UKCP, seems to invite the public's confusion. I understand that the UKCP itself is registering an objection to this.
I think it can be no coincidence that this College has emerged after the decision of the UKCP in June that it would not permit the label ‘UKCP-registered psychoanalyst’ to be used. The application to register psychoanalysts was made on the basis that ‘psychoanalyst’ and ‘psychoanalytic psychotherapist’ were interchangeable, and this was rejected. The decision was reached after a process of deliberations spanning several years; a decision that some, it seems, are now unwilling to abide by. Self-regulation, as attempted by our profession, is only possible if the membership respects decisions that have been reached democratically. (The ‘UKCP-registered