Psychoanalysis and Training Residents in Psychiatry at Tulane Medical School*

An experimental program in medical education in which psychoanalytic training was completely integrated with the psychiatric residency program was initiated in 1950 at Tulane Medical School, and had been in progress for 10 years, when, in 1961, Robert G. Heath, Russell R. Monroe and Harold I. Lief published “A Ten Year Overview” of the program in the Journal of Medical Education (1961). To their knowledge no other teaching center at the time had attempted to carry out completely integrated training in psychiatry and psychoanalysis simultaneously. It was believed that the theories of psychoanalysis could contribute considerably to the field of psychiatry and that the scientific development of psychoanalysis could proceed more effectively in the university setting. Thus the experimental program. Many medical educators had noted with approval the incorporation of psychoanalytic data and theory into the psychiatric residency training (Whitehorn, 1953). However, similar incorporation of formalized psychoanalytic training with the usual residency program was more controversial. G.A.P. Report No. 31, “Trends and Issues in Psychiatric Residency Programs” (1955), summed up the problem as follows: “There is a definite trend toward the assimilation of psychoanalytic training into psychiatric residency programs. The committee notes with concern that the value of alternative possibilities of independent concurrent vs. integrated psychiatric and psychoanalytic training still rests on inadequately supported