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In recent years, there has been a thorough discussion in the International Psychoanalytical Association of what seems to be a crisis in the field of psychoanalysis, a discussion with its background in, among others, the following circumstances: (1) Reduction in number of patients who want to go into analysis. This has been especially the case in several places in the USA. The situation in Europe has varied, some places even claiming an increase in patients. (2) Reduction in number of candidates; psychoanalytic training seems less attractive to many competent, young colleagues who are lost to other disciplines. This trend also seems more marked in the USA. In the Scandinavian countries, there has in recent years been an increase. (3) A lack of documented results for psychoanalytic treatments, which is requested by those who finance psychotherapy and psychoanalysis; (in many countries only short-term therapies are paid for by public fundings). (4) Epistemological ambiguities and theoretical heterogeneity. (5) Strong attacks from practitioners of short-term therapies (psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, interpersonal) and biological psychiatry; many relate directly to Freud and criticize theories that psychoanalysts may have