The Committee on Child Analysis, a standing committee of the Board on Professional Standards since 1952, has been a relatively small one until recently, when much of its prior work culminated in the formulation and detailed description of Training Standards in Child Analysis.
Prior to the Board's approval of these standards in December, 1966, the Committee on Child Analysis had systematically used its study and advisory functions to promote a responsive awareness amongst member Institutes of the characteristics of the established or developing training programs in child analysis. This included surveys of various curricula as well as a critical consideration of what constituted the principles of ideal training programs. The study and advisory functions over the years have been enhanced by periodic meetings of the Committee with representatives appointed by each of the Institutes.
The visible results of more than fifteen years of the Committee's work include the following:
An effective formulation of the contributions of a child analysis faculty to the curricular of all candidates.
The definition and recommendation of a course in psychoanalytic child development for all candidates. This work of the Committee was associated with a significant proliferation and elaboration of such courses at the member Institutes.
A report of a working conference on “Child Development Research in Child Analysis Teaching” that represents a joint venture of the Committee on Child Analysis and a Cope Subcommittee on Curriculum.
The formulation and preparation of documents that define Child Psychoanalysis, set forth Standards of Training in Child Analysis and provide the guide lines for implementing these Standards. (These documents are available on request from the Central Office.) After more than ten years of sustained study and discussion in the meetings of the Committee and two years of detailed consideration locally and nationally, the principle of these standards was accepted by the Board in December, 1965, and the definitive documents described above were approved officially December, 1966.
With the Board's acceptance of the principle of providing official recognition of approved training programs in child analysis the Committee on Child Analysis has been enlarged in order to provide problem-solving assistance to Institutes with established or developing training programs in child analysis. At the last two meetings of the Committee its study, advisory and supportive functions have become demonstrably clear. The Committee has invited requests for approval by established training programs and requests for assistance by those Institutes that either contemplate the establishment of a new or the elaboration of an existing training program in child analysis. Additionally, the Committee continues to consider the relationship of research and teaching resources in child analysis to the steady growth of child analysis training programs, curriculum innovations and clinical services.
The current members of the committee are: Drs. Grace Mclean Abbate (New York), William R. Adams (Cleveland), Herman S. Belmont (Philadelphia), Edith Buxbaum (Seattle), John J. Francis (Washington, D. C.), Irene M. Josselyn (Phoenix), Peter B. Neubauer (New York), Sydney G. Salus (Washington, D. C.), Calvin F. Settlage (Philadelphia).