West Coast Regional Meeting: The first Regional Meeting of the West Coast Candidates and Clinical Associates was held on October 2, 1971 in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle groups participated in the one-day meeting, whose theme was “Psychoanalytic Education for the ′70's.” Dr. Robert Wallerstein, President of the APsaA, spoke at a luncheon attended by 85 Candidates and guests; his address was entitled: “The Futures of Psychoanalytic Education.” Workshops were held on a variety of topics: “The Effect of Student Status on Your Practice,” “Problems of Post-Seminar Students and Recent Graduates,” “Developments and Variations in Training,” and “Graduation Requirements.” The meeting was also addressed by Dr. Robert Nemiroff, President of the National Candidates Council (NCC).
This was the first regional meeting of Candidates in the United States, and plans are now underway to conduct similar regional meetings elsewhere in the United States in 1971–72.
Vienna Pre-Congress: The first international meeting of candidates in psychoanalytic training was held on July 23 and 24, 1971 in Vienna, prior to the 27th International Psychoanalytic Congress. The theme of the Candidates' Pre-Congress meeting was “Dependency and Autonomy in the Student Situation.” Dr. John McGrath delivered a paper to the Plenary Session as the representative of the North American delegates. 9 55491 Watkins E-4474 Dr. David Terman, North American Coordinator for the Pre-Congress, summarized the discussions of the Candidates for the Congress, and noted several areas of wide agreement:
Criteria for admission, course requirements, graduation requirements and other training procedures should be made absolutely clear to the Candidates. Leaving such matters unclear, as they often were reported to be, facilitates distortions of transference, and these distortions may interfere with the candidates' emotional and intellectual growth — i.e., foster his “regressive dependency.”
All wanted more active participation in the affairs of psychoanalysis at local, national and international levels. The spreading practice of including candidates in committees at these various levels was widely favored. It was felt that this would benefit candidates by further helping to dispell the “Kafka-like atmosphere” of some Institutes. It was noted that this practice allows us a more complete identification with the psychoanalytic movement and thus favors the growth of the student — and of psychoanalysis.
Candidates decried the practice of having the training analyst evaluate the student and affect his progress through the Institute. They strongly favored divorcing the training analysis from Institute evaluation procedures. They felt that this presents a great and unnecessary obstacle for the candidate to surmount in coming to grips with his neurosis.
Most felt that the student analyst should not have to endure undue economic deprivation as a result of his analytic training. In some countries candidates give up to 50% of their income and time to their Institutes. The consequent burden on the transference and counter-transference was discussed. It was suggested that if Institutes needed the income that clinic fees produced, they should raise the candidates' tuition rather than have this indirect ‘taxation’, but that in no instance should this become confiscatory for the candidate.
Dr. Joseph Hinchliffe, Past-President of the NCC, led the U. S. delegation in the organizational deliberations of the Pre-Congress. He observed that there was widespread consensus among Candidates for the establishment of some type of international Candidates organization, but that there was much disagreement concerning goals and purposes. Some delegates viewed the proposed organization primarily as a vehicle for communication, others, however, conceived of the international candidates' organization as a force for innovative change at national and local levels. European colleagues also did not agree with the American position in favor of proportional representation on the governing body of such a proposed organization (the European delegates represented approximately 400 candidates — in contrast to the 600 candidates of South America and 1,000 candidates of the U.S.A.). NCC delegates felt that European candidates were just now becoming involved in the more autonomous and independent candidate activity that began in the U. S. several years ago on both a national and local level. Many of the European and South American colleagues also seemed less involved in the clinical practice of psychoanalysis and more committed to the social applications of psychoanalysis. It was not clear whether these differences resulted in part from the heterogenious professional backgrounds of European candidates in contrast to the almost universal medical qualifications of the U. S. candidates. U. S. delegates were impressed with the relatively greater difficulty European colleagues have in establishing an analytic practice.
Further discussions are planned regarding the possibility of establishing an International Candidates' Organization.
Roster: The first membership roster will be printed this month and made available to candidates and members of the APsaA. Candidates and recent graduates are listed both alphabetically and by Institutes. The roster now makes possible, for the first time, direct mailing (e.g. of this Newsletter and the NCC Newsletter) to candidates.