You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
One hundred recent decisions of the admissions committee of the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute were reviewed in an attempt to evaluate the personality characteristics essential for the functioning of a successful psychoanalyst. Special emphasis was focused on those personality patterns deemed to be serious impediments to psychoanalytic training. The qualities of rejected applicants were compared with a group of acceptable trainees.
Consistent qualitative and quantitative differences were found in the personality structure of those rejected when compared with the group of acceptable candidates. In the former there was an abundance of primitive pregenital defense mechanisms such as denial and projection. Many had a strong narcissistic core as well, whereas there was a striking absence of pregenitally rooted defenses in the accepted group. Cultural backgrounds and amount of previous therapy did not distinguish the groups. The authors concluded that there was a relatively consistent recognition of pathological ego patterns in the group of rejected candidates. Although many of these individuals would prove accessible to therapeutic analysis their difficulties were not deemed sufficiently alterable by training analysis to meet acceptable criteria.