(Accepted for publication 15 March 2018)

The paper aims to illustrate the issue of authenticity during the training as a psychoanalyst, first establishing a meaning for the concept of ‘authenticity’, and following the factors involved in the process of ‘authentication’ (a term used contextually as describing the process of acquiring authenticity). Three sources are considered to influence the candidate's interventions during sessions: their own analyst, their supervisor for the training-cases, and the theory (respectively, the authors of the articles most influencing the candidate's clinical and theoretical thinking). These three factors involved in the process of acquiring authenticity are addressed in the three sections of the paper, the conclusion being that all of them share the same fate, in a movement of authentication allowing in the end the debut of a life as an analyst in one's own name.