The author has presented a statistical appraisal of the growth rates of Societies in Latin America, as well as of the number of training analysts and a number of relevant variables. This permits an evaluation of the current state of the psychoanalytic movement from the standpoint of the activity of the training analyst. The study reported here is based in part on data obtained from two questionnaires, one from 1975, prepared by the author as Training Co-ordinator of the Committee of the Psychoanalytic Organizations of Latin America (COPAL), and another, distributed in 1980 by the Organizing Committee of the Helsinki Pre-Congress on Training. Use has also been made of the I.P.A. roster, 1970.

This paper deals with the different ways of selecting training analysts in the Latin American Societies. Problems linked with different processes of selection of training analysts are considered in relation to the local Society and the psychoanalytic movement in general.