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Astriking phenomenon in psychoanalytic literature is the relatively scant coverage of a process to which psychoanalysts are paying increasing attention: converting psychotherapy to psychoanalysis with the same treater. Only two articles have appeared specifically addressed to this topic and both have been recent (Bernstein, 1983; Levine, 1985). The reasons for the dearth of material on this subject are not entirely clear, but may be related to the relative infrequency of the procedure in the past. The last major survey of psychoanalytic practice (conducted by the American Psychoanalytic Association in 1976 [Shapiro, 1980]) revealed that 12 percent of the patients then in psychoanalytic treatment had seen their analysts first in psychotherapy. In contrast, 40 percent of this patient pool had had previous psychotherapy with a different analyst.
The recent proliferation of workshops, panels, and articles on this topic indicates that the 12-percent figure may be considerably higher today. Since the early 1980s the American Psychoanalytic Association has sponsored several discussion group on the subject, including a panel in 1983 (Panel, 1987), suggesting that the process of converting is a subject of much greater interest than it was heretofore and is unquestionably regarded as a boon to candidates and graduate analysts seeking psychoanalytic cases.