The Plight of the Imposturous Candidate: Learning Amidst the Pressures and Pulls of Power in the Institute

Psychoanalytic institutes are sometimes more or less “taken in” by candidates who suffer from imposturous tendencies of one degree or other. Supervisors, evaluators, Progression Committee members may constitute, for the candidate with imposturous tendencies, the “audience” that inadvertently heightens imposturous ego trends. Supervisors may unwittingly reinforce a candidate's “false self” because they are susceptible, as are we all, to identifying unconsciously with the wished-for omnipotence that the imposturous candidate expresses so obviously and ego-syntonically (see Gediman, 1985). What has been identified, often after a long-delayed recognition, as a form of pathological imposture may indeed resemble, phenomenologically, the first steps of the normal process of learning to become a psychoanalyst. In the beginning, we are not surprised if we observe a certain degree of unintegrated role-playing. In addition, the neophyte trainee is encouraged to assume, in a controlled and limited sense, multiple identifications with both patients and supervisors in order to develop empathy and analytic wisdom.