The origins of the Florida Psychoanalytic Group training program can be traced to the late 1960s and a series of all-day seminars led by Jenny Waelder-Hall and attended by a number of Florida analysts. From these beginnings, the late Gabriel Casuso and Joseph Gurri in 1970 became geographic rule Training and Supervising Analysts under the auspices of the Baltimore-Washington Institute for Psychoanalysis. In 1971, Peggy Hutson and the late William Nixon, the first candidates accepted, began commuting to Baltimore-Washington on alternate weekends as part of the 1971-72 first-year class. The following year they were joined by Lawrence Cohn, a transfer student from New York. Since that time, more than 20 candidates have gone through the Florida Group program. So far, 17 have graduated. Three are Training and Supervising Analysts; eight currently teach or have taught classes in Baltimore-Washington; and six are certified in adult psychoanalysis. Five candidates are currently in adult training, and one is in child training. In addition, one adult graduate is in child training.
The Florida Group has established a psychoanalytic library that contains the major psychoanalytic journals and approximately 1,000 books. The library, which has computerized search capability, is housed in a building in which a number of the analysts have offices. The library also functions as a classroom where continuing case and clinical conferences and other classes are held. Members of the Group have also helped establish the Florida Psychoanalytic Foundation, whose purpose is to support psychoanalytic education including the underwriting of a training facility and offering programs to the public.
Fifteen analysts are actively involved in the Florida Psychoanalytic Group; nine are certified in adult analysis; one in child analysis; eight are full teaching analysts; three are training and supervising analysts; and one is a training and supervising analyst emeritus. Many of the Group members are active in presenting and publishing papers. All have traveled to Baltimore-Washington to teach classes at the Institute. Members of the Group now are qualified to teach all of the courses offered in the Baltimore-Washington curriculum with the exception of one child course. The Group has obtained permission from the CNTF to begin a first-year class in Miami in the 1991-92 academic year.
Peggy Hutson, who trained through the Florida Group, is one of the training and supervising analysts. She is currently the chair of the Florida Psychoanalytic Group Committee, the liaison between the Group and the Baltimore-Washington Institute. The other two training and supervising analysts are Stanley Needell, who trained at Duke and at the New Orleans Institutes and I, who trained at the West New England Institute for Psychoanalysis.
Most of the candidates have come from the residency program at the University of Miami School of Medicine, where members of the Group are active on the clinical faculty in the Department of Psychiatry. There are also two nonmedical candidates. One of the Group members, Jon Shaw, is Chair of the Department of Child Psychiatry at the University of Miami School of Medicine. The other analysts are members of the full-time faculty. Another Group member is on the clinical faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of South Florida School of Medicine in Tampa. Hence, the Group is represented in Tampa as well as in Miami.
Many of the members of the Baltimore-Washington Institute for Psychoanalysis have spent considerable time and effort on behalf of the Florida Psychoanalytic Group training program. In recent years Boyd Burris, Alan Zients, and Paul Roberts have given generously of their time. The Florida training and supervising analysts participate in many of the Education, Faculty, Curriculum Committee and other meetings of the Baltimore-Washington Institute by way of conference telephone.
The training program in Florida is flourishing, and we are enthusiastic about its future.