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The Pre-Congress Conference of Candidates came into being in response to the activities of various groups in Europe and the growing interest in the problems connected with training among candidates from all countries.
At the Rome Congress in 1969 it was suggested that candidates have a conference of their own at the next Congress here in Vienna. It was agreed that the power to plan this conference should be delegated to the Committee organizing the Pre-Congress Conference for training analysts and that they in turn should form a Candidates' Committee to get in touch with representatives from societies all over the world. The purpose would be to collect suggestions and ideas for this meeting. Our Committee was therefore set up in London to coordinate European thinking and work in conjunction with a coordinator for the American continent. The machinery was evolved as the Committee's work proceeded and although it was fundamentally successful, several organizational mistakes were made. We hope we have learnt from them.
A Committee of European representatives met in London in October 1970 and subsequently in Paris in March 1971 with the American coordinator.
Taking 'Autonomy versus Dependence in the Training Situation' as our theme, we constructed a conference which could consider the many suggestions occurring to candidates and respond to the international nature of the meeting.
Early in the discussions it became obvious that the meeting in Vienna would be of limited value if it were not followed through by a continuing reassessment of the evolution of new ideas germinated here, and a continuing reappraisal of any implementation in practical ways which might stem from our interchange. Some form of organization was therefore necessary.
As it turned out, the Candidates' Pre-Congress Conference had considerable success, as did the informal mixing and discussions that have been taking place during this past week.
At this point, with the unanimous support of the Conference