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This review presents the genetic developments that have occurred in the selection of candidates for psychoanalytic training and surveys the various papers that have dealt with the criteria for selection of applicants.
Prior to World War II, psychoanalytic training to a large extent was self-selected by the future trainees, following the voluntary tradition present since the start of the psychoanalytic movement. It was available to any qualified person. Immediately following World War II, the number of individuals applying for psychoanalytic training increased greatly, a trend that has continued to the present time. The overwhelming training needs of American psychoanalytic students just following the war were more easily met because of the migration of European analysts to the United States.
With the expansion of psychoanalytic training and better organization in teaching institutions, various problems arose which necessitated alterations in policy and procedure. Some of these changes have been instituted and some are still in various stages of resolution or discussion. Knight called attention to this situation in a paper in 1952 (31). Furthermore, present currents in psychoanalytic training and in other educational fields have brought reconsiderations and investigations of goals, teaching techniques, and of the problem of talent identification. All of these involve the question of selection.