The Selection and Functions of the Training Analyst in North American Institutes

This paper is based on a questionnaire sent to all Approved and Provisional Institutes of the American Psychoanalytic Association (A.Psa.A.) and to the four branches of the Canadian Institute of Psychoanalysis.1 All but one U.S. institute submitted responses in time for consideration for this paper. Responses were full, candid, and often generous with thoughtful personal comments. Answers conveyed an eagerness to share and a desire to learn from others about their principles and implementing policies. Virtually every institute perceived the necessity for careful selection and evaluation of its personnel, from applicant to training analyst, balanced by a belief that the individual who assumes responsibility for his own education in an atmosphere of personal and intellectual freedom will make his or her way, if the capacity is there, toward clinical analytic skill and a mature analytic identity.

In the selection of new training analysts, institutes are often confronted in a particularly painful way with the consequences of the inevitable fallibility of applying available criteria for 'knowing' human beings. In this process, peers must decide about the basic character of their colleague as well as his ability to analyse patients