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I.Marie Langer. Pp. 272-276.
II.Pieter J. van der Leeuw. Pp. 277-282.
III.The Selection of Candidates. Robert Waelder. Pp. 283-286.
Langer believes only two methods of selection are available to the psychoanalytic institute. 1. The interview serves to appraise those qualities of intelligence, empathy, and moral integrity which are assumed to be necessary as a matter of course and to eliminate obviously inadequate applicants. It also evaluates the applicant's 'vocation' which is defined as the feeling of being summoned by an inner voice, the superego, to the realization of a determination, and the degree to which he has so far been able to attain this goal. 2. Analysis is the only adequate way of recognizing the future analytic capacity and analyzability of the candidate, thus determining how far his 'vocation may be freed of its neurotic shackles'. Psychoanalytically oriented group therapy is recommended if therapeutic analysis is not feasible.
Van der Leeuw lists the following qualities as being desirable in an analyst: the capacity for introspection, identification, empathy, and self-analysis; insight into his own instabilities, 'blind spots', and limitations, and the ability to recognize his own illness; the capacity to experience the analysis as something new; integrity, maturity, and possibilities for further maturation; emotional warmth and kindness, sympathy for others, and the capacity for self-discipline.
The author feels the interview only partially determines how nearly a candidate meets these criteria. Van der Leeuw is interested mainly in the functioning of the healthy part of the candidate's personality rather than in his illness or psychiatric diagnosis. The extent to which pathological defenses are reversible largely determines the suitability of the candidate. Normal people are the most difficult to assess, and here the greatest mistakes in selection are made because many 'pseudohealthy' people hide a chronic depersonalized state.
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