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.
Otto Kernberg needs no introduction. Throughout his career, now spanning decades, he has continued to make seminal contributions to
psychoanalytic education, theory, diagnosis, and treatment, as well as to psychoanalytic organizations and research. In this volume, he offers a compilation of his journal articles related to psychoanalytic education. He notes that the chapters unfold roughly in the same historical order that the articles were originally published, taking the reader through the process of his thinking over thirty years.
So this is much more than a mere collection of ideas; it is a thoughtful series of chapters that begins with an analysis of problems facing psychoanalytic education, and then transitions into proposed solutions and innovations. Thus, taken as a whole, the chapters not only give the reader a number of viewpoints; they also reveal a methodical approach to the study of psychoanalytic education.
Chapter 1 begins with an exploration of the nature of the psychoanalyst's identity in terms of both goals and hazards to its development and preservation. By making identity his starting point, Kernberg places it as a central consideration for psychoanalytic education. Unlike more typical references to analytic identity, however, Kernberg is addressing the identity of the psychoanalyst in broader terms. In his words, “I shall be speaking of identity in a broad sense that includes the psychoanalyst's convictions … vocation … personality as well as … technical skills” (p. 5).
Chapter 2 focuses on the general influences of regressive group processes on the operations of institutions and specifically on their leadership. Kernberg examines how regression impacts the running of institutes and their leaders and then emphasizes the qualities needed for effective leadership: high intelligence, personal honesty, the capacity to maintain mature object relations, healthy narcissism, and what he calls “justifiable anticipatory paranoia” (p. 32). He spells out the