Letter from Melbourne

Recently, an article in a major newspaper, The Age, extolled the expansion of exciting architectural developments in Melbourne paralleling the development of psychoanalysis as increasingly exciting and relevant. This has come about in reaction to what was thought to have been a crisis, seizing the opportunities offered in Freud's 150th year.

I will describe that part of the Australian Psychoanalytic Society (APAS) with which I am most familiar – Melbourne – with occasional references to Sydney and Adelaide. With psychoanalysis already practised in Sydney, a Melbourne Institute was established in 1941. Presently, there are 32 analysts in Melbourne, 34 in Sydney, 9 in Adelaide, with other members of the APAS in Canberra and New Zealand. The vast distances and the need for three Branches of the federal body, the APAS, have helped shape the Society. Much that is innovative and creative in the training and outreach programs of the three Branches and Institutes is shared, through a cross-fertilization of ideas.

The APAS had not grown as much as other Societies in recent years. Some queried the prevailing culture as not conducive to psychoanalysis, with fewer people entering analysis or applying for training. Certainly, psychoanalysis faces many competing paradigms in Australia. Yet psychoanalytic thinking continues to be of interest and is well regarded in some university departments, such as political science and English. However the media have reported comments about the irrelevance of psychoanalysis at a time when psychological treatments are expected to fix things fast. There have also been pressure in the mental health public sector to prioritize work with the more seriously mentally ill, and difficulty in getting the message across about the growing evidence base for psychoanalytic treatment. While there is a lot of interest in the analytic and wider community in working therapeut-ically with more disturbed or more psychotic patients, in the public sector there have b