Considering Dallas's size and affluence, psychoanalytic training came rather late to the Texas city. Although by the 1950s a few dynamically trained psychiatrists and a very small number of trained psychoanalysts were practicing there, the development of analytic training received its real impetus only in 1963, with the arrival of Robert Long from the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute. His appointment as Geographic Rule Training Analyst out of the New Orleans Psychoanalytic Institute and The American allowed psychiatrists wishing to become analysts to remain in Dallas while commuting to New Orleans for classes, rather than having to leave the community entirely. The psychodynamic approach of Timberlawn Hospital, at that time devoted to the long-term intensive treatment of patients, and the Southwestern Medical School Department of Psychiatry, under Asa DeLoach, fostered an interest in psychoanalytic thinking. Clarence Parkers lectures to the community on psychoanalytic topics were also an influential force. Other analysts, such as Robert Webb, George Nicolaou, and Claude Nichols, exercised an important influence through their practice and teaching, while several others came and went, finding the atmosphere insufficiently hospitable. Long's untimely death in 1975 delayed the progress of most of his candidates, who had to find other analysts in the community to continue their analyses. Marian DeBolt, trained in New Orleans, was eventually appointed to succeed Long as Geographic Rule Training Analyst. Rhoda Frenkel, who had completed her analysis with Long, was the first Dallas-based graduate among the commuters to New Orleans.
The movement toward a psychoanalytic society and toward development of a training facility was given renewed impetus when in 1977 Kenneth Altshuler, a training analyst at the Columbia Institute, became chair of Southwestern's Department of Psychiatry. Altshuler advertised for analysts to relocate in Dallas, and either in response or for other reasons a number of analysts indeed moved to the area in the late seventies and early eighties. In May 1978 an officially recognized Study Group of The American was formed, and by May of 1982, with the arrival of several more analysts and the interest of a few analysts from outside the immediate area, most notably Harlan Crank, the Dallas Psychoanalytic Society had sufficient numbers of graduate certified analysts to be recognized as a constituent society of The American. The early arrivals who played a large role in this development included Max Soll, who trained at Downstate, now NYU; Thomas Sonn, trained at the Washington Institute; Sam Stein, trained in Montreal, who returned to Canada in the early 1980s; Herbert Gomberg, trained at the New York Institute; and Gerald Melchiode, trained at the Philadephia Association.
A study group at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute is looking for reports of completed or nearly completed analyses of women patients who had made primarily homosexual object choices. Please contact Dr. Michael Porder, 212 663-9479.
With the establishment of the Society, a psychoanalytic institute at last seemed possible. A number of Dallas analysts interested in developing one were invited to New Orleans to teach classes there on a regular basis, and eventually several of them—Altshuler, Sonn, Soll, Frenkel, and Gomberg—were appointed Geographic Rule Training Analysts. A first class of candidates was accepted in September 1984 and began formal full-time training at the Dallas Division of the New Orleans Psychoanalytic Institute. Soll was the Divisions first chair, and David Hershey was appointed a Geographic Rule Training Analyst by New Orleans. A number of Dallas analysts trained in New Orleans, whose progression had been delayed by Long's death, eventually graduated and became contributors to the Dallas faculty—Irving Humphrey, Frank Cody, Leslie Secrest, and William Pederson. Several later graduates of the New Orleans Institute also became contributing members of the faculty, including Larrie Arnold, Fred Griffin, Stephen Scherffius, and Sheryl Grove.
A second class of candidates was accepted and in September 1987 began classes. In early 1988, a site visit by The American led to the recommendation that the Dallas Division become a Provisional Institute, autonomous from New Orleans but under supervision of the Committee on New Training Facilities. In May of that year Dallas became officially a Provisional Institute, with Gerald Melchiode the first training analyst to be appointed there.
A third class of candidates was accepted and began classes in 1990. Hershey moved to Michigan that fall, having worked hard on revising the curriculum. Ronald Fleischmann, a graduate of the NYU Institute, and Humphrey, a native Texan and graduate of New Orleans, were appointed training analysts. In February 1992 The American sent a delegation on a four-day site visit to evaluate the overall functioning of the Provisional Institute, chaired then by Gomberg, and in May of that year the Dallas Psychoanalytic Institute came into being as a full-fledged affiliate of the national body. In December 1991 Dallas graduated Diane Fagelman Birk, the first analyst educated entirely within the local community. She has been followed by Jerry M. Lewis III and Larry Shadid. Later additions to the faculty were Richard Roskos from Topeka and Jeffry Andresen from North Carolina.
A new class began this fall which includes several nonmedical candidates. The first such candidate in Dallas—Myron Lazar, a clinical psychologist—was accepted under the now-defunct waiver rule for the class that matriculated in 1990.
Although psychoanalytic training in Dallas was late to develop, progress was fairly rapid once sufficient numbers of training analysts and aspiring candidates were gathered there, and conflicts, disagreements, and difficulties were far fewer than could be expected. The New Orleans Institute was very helpful and nurturing as a sponsoring institute. Dallas psychoanalysts, both those long resident in the area and those arrived more recently, share a common dedication to the further development of psychoanalytic education in their community.