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At the first meeting of the Discussion Group on Problems in the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Young Adults in May 1981, some questions were posed about assessing young adults in respect to their suitability for analysis, about communicating the recommendation when analysis seemed indicated, and about commencing the analytic undertaking. Emphasis was placed on attempting to identify the special features relevant to those tasks which stem from the age, developmental stage, and life situations of young adults, as distinguished from considerations that are a function of the specific character structure and psychopathology of an individual patient. A number of participants both at that and at subsequent meetings contributed accounts of their clinical experiences and the conclusions they drew from them. What follows, therefore, represents not my own ideas alone, but rather a compilation of clinical impressions gathered from a group of psychoanalytic practitioners who have had considerable experience in analyzing young adults.
We agreed not to attempt to reclarify the general criteria of analzyability taken account of in discussions of assessment. We were prepared to assume the existence of a working consensus among us regarding the method of estimation of available ego