Discussion of Angel Garma's Article, Group Rivalry Between Analysts and Its Influence on Candidates in Training

Having witnessed several schisms between psychoanalysts in various analytic societies within the American Psychoanalytic Association,

I was particularly interested in Dr. Garma's paper. Although his comments are addressed more to different schools of thought among analysts, I believe it is equally valid to compare the rivalries as seen between analysts of a single large psychoanalytic group. As a matter of fact, it may add to our understanding of the dynamics if we accept that the basic psychoanalytic approach is the same among the rivals in the American divisions as Dr. Garma suggests exists among the Argentine analysts.

The superficial impression one gets of the cause for discord within the American group takes the general form of the “orthodox” versus the “liberal” conflict. This has included disagreements about such factors as the mechanics of conducting analysis, fraternization between analysts and students, and the handling of, and respect for, the transference and the unconscious. If one looks beneath this, however, there appears to be, at least in some instances, elements of power struggles between analysts, which are superimposed upon the needs of some analysts for rigidity and conservatism as against the rebellions of the “young Turks.” It suggests more the rivalry between father and son, or perhaps two fathers, with the students contending that each one's father is bigger than the other's. One sees this at two levels. The first occurs when the young psychiatrist is seeking advice as to which of two psychoanalytic institutes he should join. He will usually state that he has been told that one is more orthodox than the other, and he then generally makes his choice on this basis, suggesting that it was made on the basis of an ideological difference. However, at the second level, when the student is in training, he becomes concerned with whether he is getting the “true” analytic training, which in turn results in a desire to prove to himself that he is in t