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The three papers presented to the 4th Conference of Training Analysts in 1989 deal with the most controversial aspect of psychoanalytic education. When we discuss what the essence of a good enough training analysis is, most of us would probably think that it should fulfil the following aims:
1that the candidate should in due course be free of blind spots which may interfere with his work;
2that it should eliminate the need 'to use' the patients, and
3as Anna Freud often pointed out, that it would ensure that as far as the candidate's personal problems were concerned, s/he would never seek other than analytic means to solve them.
Any training analysis that fell short of these aims could be deemed to have failed. All analysts are, of course, well aware that there are times when we can do little to make candidates react as if they were patients. Furthermore, although it may be of value to speak of personal analysis in reminding a candidate of the reality of that need, it could also lead to denial on the part of the analyst that this is a very special situation.
Undoubtedly one of the most difficult problems facing a training analyst is that of syncretism, the combination of training matters and therapy, which has to be considered from many angles. For instance, to what extent do we teach or attempt to teach theory? Do we allow our candidates to seduce us to enter into a special relationship when they repeatedly bring material relating to their patients, when we know that this may be vital to the unravelling of their countertransference, whilst at the same time we know it's an attempt to divert our attention? There is also the issue of the candidate's final identification with the analyst, a paradoxical situation hardly acceptable in a patient. Some would say that there is a need to increase, as well as decrease, movements towards identification, according to the candidate's needs.
This brief outline of some of the possible aims of a training analysis was part of my re