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The present paper was written in response to an invitation to participate in a panel on the training of psychoanalysts in Munich at the International Conference of the IFPS in August 1992. The general topic of the Conference was “Psychoanalysis Between Conformity and Opposition”, and that of the panel was “Explicit and Hidden Objectives in the Process of Training Psychoanalysts.” When I was told my paper might be published in the International Forum of Psychoanalysis I hesitated at first, since the form of the text was almost telegraphic, given the limitation of time for oral presentation and the purpose of presenting ideas in outline only, to give them final shape in a possible later discussion. It is important to note that at the time I wrote the paper I already knew that the agenda of the meeting of IFPS delegates, in which I was to participate, included a discussion of the reform of the bylaws relative to the necessary requirements for an institution to be recognized as psychoanalytic and the question of training.
I have decided to use the original text, written for oral presentation, adding notes I felt to be necessary in order to clarify the inevitable misunderstandings to be found in an extremely concise work. Though I am aware of the risks involved, I hope that this presentation, made up of no more than a few elements, will elicit a productive response from readers.
I will try to discuss here some issues which I believe to be of great significance to the training of psychoanalysts. It is my intention to discuss this topic by examining the psychoanalytic institution, for one cannot dissociate the training of analysts from the institutions in which they are trained.
We all agree that it is the institution that provides the necessary foundation to keep psychoanalysis productive and in constant development. Nonetheless, we cannot ignore what the experience of almost a century has demonstrated clearly—that psychoanalytic institutions are like other human institution