The term ‘Eitingon model’ has become widely familiar. Quite apart from its negative connotations, it highlights the fact that the model of psychoanalytic training established in Berlin in the first half of the 1920s has spread over large parts of the psychoanalytic world. I want to sketch this development or, more precisely, the history of the institution which was originally founded to promote it - the International Training Commission (ITC).2

Before the First World War psychoanalytic training had been a haphazard and superficial affair. However, at that time there were no more than 5-10 people who earned their living as practising analysts. It was only after 1918 that psychoanalysis really became a profession. One essential step on this path was the creation of an agency of professional training. This was first achieved in Berlin between 1920 and 1923, mainly on the initiative of Max Eitingon who was, and remained until his emigration in 1933, director of the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute.