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Marco Conci has written a very interesting article concerning the situation of psychoanalysis in Italy. It is fascinating to read about the way in which psychoanalysis is realized in different cultural and socioeconomical contexts. In Sweden in general psychiatrists belong to the national medical insurance system. Their patients get treatment paid by the public insurance if there is a medical diagnosis. It is left to the profession to decide and carry out the treatment. No restrictions are made regarding sessions/week or total number of sessions. Psychologists can sometimes get paid by the local health authorities or through the social welfare system. No connection is made between diagnosis and treatment time, even if such discussions are emerging. These circumstances make it necessary for us to constantly discuss problems connected with third party payment.
Conci describes the controversy between societies and analysts belonging to IPA and IFPS in Italy. Contrary to the situation in Italy we in Sweden have a very close and good cooperation on both an organizational and private level with our colleagues in the Swedish Psychoanalytical Society belonging to the IPA. Instead the controversy between IPA and IFPS takes place inside our own society. Many of our members find that IFPS is lacking in organizational strength, competence and vocation. Others including myself appreciate the freedom which is offered by the rules of IFPS and find it valuable to have access to a forum in which clinical and theoretical matters can be discussed. I also consider it to be of great autonomous value to have an international organization which is in a different position in relation to the psychoanalytical legacy than IPA, and in which new societies gain entrance through application and not through division.
In addition I consider it possible within the IFPS to discuss the relation between setting, process and the needs of the individual patient. These discussions are significant when clari