Reaching a degree of consensus that had proved elusive during some six years of effort, the Board on Professional Standards, on April 28, 1971, approved a document entitled “Standards for Training in Psychoanalysis.” The composition of this document was the work of the Ad Hoc Committee on Revision of Standards, chaired by Dr. Leo S. Loomie. (Members: Drs. Victor Calef, Samuel Guttman, Haskell F. Norman, Calvin F. Settlage, Martin Stein, Arthur F. Valenstein; ex-officio members: Drs. Francis McLaughlin
and James McLaughlin.) This committee was appointed in 1965 with the charge of revising the Minimal Standards of Training, which had last been revised in 1955. The Committee found the Board sharply divided on many issues over the years. It submitted a series of revisions before achieving a consensus in the Board.
The highlights of the new Standards are as follows:
¶ The approach to evaluation of an applicant's training is qualitative rather than quantitative.
¶ The Standards are no longer labelled “minimal.”
¶ They are not specified as “for physicians.”
¶ There is a preface setting forth the principles of psychoanalytic education.
¶ The pledge not to practice before authorization, is eliminated.
¶ Requirements regarding number and kinds of supervised cases are increased.
A section headed “eligibility” notes that eligibility for training is in a state of flux, with the entire structure of medical education and specialty training being revised; this section of the report recommends that the problem of eligibility be referred to a new committee.
In its December, 1970, report to the Board, the Ad Hoc Committee noted that a Committee of Council, the Committee on Policies and Problems of Membership, (Newsletter, Feb., 1971) had been given a charge which overlapped the area assigned to the Committee on Revision of Standards, and pointed out that the two Committees were heading in divergent directions. Two Fellows of the Board (Drs. Stein and Valenstein) were subsequently assigned as consultants to the Policies and Problems Committee. Dr. Loomie and his Committee received the thanks of the Board for their lengthy labor.
Copies of the new Standards will be made available to the members in due time.