The December meeting of the National Candidates Council (NCC) was held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York during the 1971 Fall Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Thirty-three candidates representing sixteen Institutes were present. The quickening pace of candidate involvement at both local and national levels of the Association was readily apparent in the reports of the Executive Committee and of representatives of local candidate organizations. Dr. Robert Nemiroff, President of the NCC, announced that a total of twenty candidate representatives are now serving on all of the standing committees of the Executive Council of the APsaA. Two candidate observers have been appointed to act as liaison representatives to the Executive Council. At the request of Dr. John Frosch, Editor of the Journal of the APsaA. two candidate members will soon be appointed to the Journal's Editorial Board. Reports of Candidate involvement at the local level, in Institutes and Societies, are also encouraging.
It was announced that a National Roster of Candidates has been established and was first used early in December for a direct mailing of the NCC Newsletter to each candidate. The Roster is being made available to the APsaA to facilitate closer communication with candidates through the use of direct mailings.
The NCC also decided at its December meeting to hold its first election by direct mail-ballot. It is anticipated that the election will be held in March of this year.
Much concern was expressed by candidates around the issue of attracting qualified mental health professionals and scholars to Psychoanalytic Training. The following resolution, proposed by the Michigan Candidates' Organization, was passed by the NCC.:
Proposal: We propose to the Board on Professional Standards of the APsaA that the following be abolished:
The sub-category of research candidate
The clinical waiver necessary for “full training” for the sub-category of research candidate
Following this action, we propose that the following training guidelines be established.
Two categories of psychoanalytic training should be offered, “complete” and “partial”.
“Complete” training should include the following: personal analysis; coursework; supervised analytic work.
“Partial” training should include the following: personal analysis; coursework.
“Complete” and “partial” training should be offered to qualified candidates based upon the goals and aspirations of the candidate, rather than being dependent upon previous training or degree.
The evaluation of candidates for “complete” or “partial” training should be the function of individual training institutes, based upon the guidelines outlined above, and should be carried out under the direction of the Board of Professional Standards.
We recognize that this proposal implies that psychoanalytic education may serve a number of training functions (e.g. training for clinical, research, or theoretical applications in psychoanalysis). However, we feel that distinctions in the type of training obtained should not be made on the basis of the particular professional path which the candidate has taken to bring him to psychoanalytic training.