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The American Academy of Psychoanalysis has had a very rich and productive history. Many may feel that speculation about the future is unnecessary. However, several current trends make it especially important for us to look ahead.
This is a time of great concern for psychiatry. The 25 years after World War II were a period of dramatic growth for American medicine, especially for psychiatry. It was during this era that The Academy began and prospered. In the last ten years, however, economic, political and social factors have contributed to the dampening of this growth. Along with these forces there has been a dramatic decline in the number of medical students going into psychiatry (Nielsen, 1979).
What is happening to psychiatry? This paper will examine this question and then look at how these changes affect the future of The Academy. Much of the focus is on education. This focus is a broad one for it involves the education of medical students, residents and nonpsychiatric physicians as well as the formal training of psychoanalytic candidates. For reasons I shall note, I believe that education is the key to the future for The Academy.
During World War II and throughout the 1950s and 1960s, psychiatry made great strides. There was increased interest in psychiatry as a medical specialty; NIMH was established and this