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A little over two years ago, I (John Paddock) mentioned to Joe Lichtenberg that an interesting issue of Psychoanalytic Inquiry might be to have newly minted analysts write about their experience of birth into the psychoanalytic world. He looked at me with an expectant face and widened eyes, and together we had an “I know what we can do” moment. You have in your actual or digital hands the result of that discussion.
Others have written about the developmental process and results of forming an identity as a psychoanalyst (Carr, 2006; Hillman & Rosenblatt, 2018; Levin, 2006; Salberg, 2022), the different journeys candidates have taken to becoming trained (Rachman & Kooden, 2021), retrospective reports from the training trenches (Busch, 2021), the impact personal choices, past and contemporaneous life events have had on an analyst’s evolving identity (Gerson, 2009; Hyun, 2016; Kuchuck, 2014), the cross-cultural challenges of becoming an analyst (Bernardi, 2005; Eizirik, 2005; Gon, 2016; Hinojosa Ayala, 2005; Kitayama, 2016; Ogura, 2016; Okada, 2016; Okano, 2016; Okudera, 2016), and candidates reporting their struggles and triumphs while in training (Fabien, 2008; Harnden, 2008; Isenberg, 2008; Jacobson, 2008; Malo, 2008; Robertson & Turgeon, 2008; Terradas, 2008).
In this issue of Psychoanalytic Inquiry, our contributors explore how the personal became the professional, and the professional became the personal. We solicited manuscripts from a diverse group of analysts: African-American and Latina; female and male; early on in career and later in life; first post-graduate career as well as second career.
Sandra G. Hershberg, M.D., as Director of Psychoanalytic Training at The Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis (ICP+P), develops her paper from remarks she made over the years at the graduation of candidates completing analytic training. In her contribution, she focuses on the importance of the connection to one’s professional, relational home, the infl