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The aim of this essay is to present some socio-psychological considerations regarding the evolution of the psycho-analytic training system. Educational institutions and the principles by which teaching is carried out in them usually change rather slowly. Within the span of but a few decades, however, the educational system of psycho-analysis has undergone enormous changes. Analytic training began as a short period of apprenticeship and rapidly evolved into a complex social structure, the modern training system. In the latter, the system and its representatives have great power over the selection of candidates and their fate. It is held that the psychological implications and effects of this sociological change in the analytic training system have not received the attention which they deserve. Indeed, to focus on the content of psycho-analytic training (e.g., training analysis, seminars, supervised analyses, etc.) while disregarding the total structure of the educational system is grossly misleading. It is reminiscent of the traditional parental attitude about raising children, according to which parents 'tell' all the 'right things' to their child and are later full of indignant 'surprise' at the human end product which results.
'If you want to find out anything from the theoretical physicists about the methods they use, ' said Einstein 'I advise you to stick closely to one principle: don't listen to their words, fix your attention on their deeds' (17).