At the May meeting of the Board on Professional Standards in San Juan, Dr. Samuel Abrams delivered his final report as Chairman of the Committee on Psychoanalytic Education. Retiring as Chairman after six years, Dr. Abrams commented on six impressions gleaned during his tenure:
There has been a relative failure to establish fundamental ground plans for the operations of institutes. Often, ad hoc solutions are offered, dealing with superficial problems, only to transform themselves into even more serious underlying problems.
Graduates of psychoanalytic institutes look back on their training in very different ways. Those involved primarily in clinical practice tend to describe flaws in their training analyses, while those who had become committed to academic or research work attend to the institute structure and its deficiencies, rather than to their own analyses.
Very different ideas are held about what constitutes supervision. Some see it as analogous to psychoanalysis or psychotherapy; other supervisors see it as a transactional bridge, i.e., learning in the context of an alliance; still others regard supervision more in terms of standard educational activities; finally, some see at least much supervision in terms of mere compliance.
More seems to go into the process of candidate selections than the qualifications of the candidate alone. There is the impression that, at least for a large number of candidates, the work of selection fails to match the future performance of the candidate.
When institutes function well, they seem to be grounded on five basic tenets: concepts of the dynamic unconscious, conflict, infantile sexuality, growth, and sequential development in transference. Difficulties seem to emerge when confusion develops between facts and theories.
It is apparent that child psychoanalytic practice is only marginally surviving in many communities. It thrives in certain areas where institutes clearly demonstrate the usefulness and distinctiveness of child psychoanalysis. It is virtually dead when the work of child analysts is not supported by the local Institute and where child psychotherapy is supported instead.