A Discussion of the Paper by Daniel Shapiro on 'The Training Setting in Training Analysis: A Retrospective View of the Evaluative and Reporting Role and Other "Hampering" Factors'

I want to express my admiration for Dr Shapiro's interest and industry in undertaking what, to my knowledge, is a unique study: an in-depth survey of all the graduates of the Columbia University Psychoanalytic Clinic for Training and Research.

The paper we have heard today is only the first of a series. I have had the opportunity and advantage of reading the others, so that some of my considerations will be influenced by that experience. Nonetheless, all are related, so that no extraneous material will be brought into the discussion.

The first paper is primarily a study of the evaluative and reporting role of the training analyst and the effects of these functions on the analysis of the candidate. This question of the training analyst's participation in the acceptance, progression and graduation of his analysand has had an interesting history and has been the subject of much discussion and many papers. This so-called 'syncretistic dilemma' has led many experienced analysts to the conclusion that participation of the candidate's analyst in educational decisions regarding his analysand made good analysis in training an impossibility.

This problem was seen as the major interference in the successful analysis of candidates in our Institutes. However, as Dr Shapiro notes, this dual responsibility is no longer required at his Institute and, to the best of my knowledge, this holds true in most American Institutes.

Nevertheless, those of us who are involved in psychoanalytic education still have many questions about the adequacy of the training analysis. As a result of further study and thought, I have greatly modified my previous proposition about the efficacy of the training analysis. I still hold that it has its special problems and difficulties, but as a result of extensive discussion with training analysts and with recent graduates who spoke about their training experience, I have come to believe the training analysis may be, in many cases, the best analysis we do.