In mid-1992, opportunities for an analytic practice in Miami were as good as anywhere in the country. Despite the national economic recession, tourism and Latin money buoyed the local economy. In addition, a newly certified training facility sponsored by the Baltimore-Washington Institute has a large and distinguished faculty that currently is in need of analysts eligible for status as training and supervising analysts. Also, with two-thirds of Miami's population now speaking Spanish as their native tongue, a need exists for increasing numbers of Hispanophone analysts.

Unfortunately, in late summer the roof literally collapsed on Miami. Hurricane Andrew turned the city and its suburbs into a facsimile of downtown Beirut, as 150,000 homes were totally destroyed and another 350,000 severely damaged. It has been reported that every home in Dade and Monroe counties suffered at least some damage, and certainly no house south of Coral Gables was spared. Additionally, many businesses were destroyed or extensively damaged. The widespread devastation and a lack of skilled construction workers and building materials have left much of Miami looking the same today as it did the day after Andrew struck.

Despite this situation, however, the new institute in Miami is functioning well. Classes have not been interrupted, and all candidates are proceeding with their training. Meanwhile, the economic impact on Miami analysts and the disruption of their practices have been varied. Some younger analysts report dramatically decreased case loads. Some have even had to seek jobs outside of mental health or medicine—in fields as foreign to psychoanalysis as real estate—just to make ends meet. Other analysts, however, report no change at all in their practices. One said the toll on his practice was limited to a single hour's cancellation by a patient calling from a car telephone while stranded in traffic.

John R. Macgregor