About the Relation Between Psycho-Analytic Training and Psycho-Analytic Therapy1

The relation between analytic training and analytic therapy can best be studied if training is divided into three different parts as reflected in the three parts of this presentation:

• 1Special Aspects of Training or 'Preparatory' Analysis.

• 2The Timing and Meaning of Classroom Teaching.

• 3The Importance and Specificity of Analytic Supervision.

Part I. Special Aspects of Training or 'Preparatory' Analysis

A training analysis under our modern institutes for psycho-analysis is different—but should not be different—from a therapeutic analysis. The difference between therapeutic analysis and training analysis is comparable to the difference between a patient and a sick physician. The sick physician while consulting a colleague will announce that he wants to behave and wants to be treated 'just like any other patient'. This is easier said than done. The difficulty lies both in the sick physician and in the treating physician.

The sick physician cannot forget his medical knowledge, and the candidate in training cannot forget that he is in training and not 'only' in therapy. The realistic fact that his professional career and his analysis are combined influences especially the early stages of his training analysis; such aim influences profoundly the realistic and the transference relationship. When this is kept in mind, technical devices can be found and applied to bring training closer to therapy.

Training is conducted in an analytic atmosphere different from the transference situation as we know it in therapeutic analysis. We employ rules and regulations dictated by academic considerations but not necessarily indicated by therapeutic needs. Even more unusual and important, these rules are known to the candidate—in contrast to the average patient who knows little about 'minimal standards and the 300-hour rule'.

The length, or the approximate length, and the timing of interviews is determined by training standards and not always by therapeutic exigencies. Rules