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Although academic disciplines ranging from the humanities to the neurosciences are readily stimulated by the depth and breadth of psychoanalysis and the ways in which psychoanalytic thinking captures the complexity of the human condition, the relationship between the clinical mental health field and psychoanalysis is strained, to say the least, and in many settings, psychodynamic treatments are no longer in primary use. Cognitive behaviorism and psychopharmacology now constitute the mainstream. Clinical trainees are increasingly nonanalytic in orientation and are even educated to vociferously denounce psychoanalysis. However, it is a striking fact that the professional rejection of psychoanalysis and acceptance of CBT contradicts what beginner practitioners look for in terms of their own therapy. There is a well-established record indicating that psychoanalytically oriented therapists demonstrate the strongest orientation loyalty when it comes to selecting their personal therapist, whereas practitioners of other theoretical persuasions are more perfidious and commonly see a personal therapist outside their chosen orientation (Norcross, Bike, & Evans, 2009). Regarding treatment for themselves, psychodynamic trainees have a confidence in their modality that is lacking for nonanalytic trainees regarding their chosen therapeutic approach.
In fact, psychodynamic training has been falling out of fashion for several reasons. An inhospitable academic climate for psychoanalytic thinking is clearly at play, in large part due to a vocal majority of psychoanalysts unwilling to embrace psychological science. The triumph of managed care, with its value on managing costs, valuing brevity over quality, also bears responsibility. However, it would be incorrect to blame the field's resistance to research and time-limited treatments as accounting for the entire variance of psychoanalysis's receding status within the mental health field. Also central in swaying graduate students from em