From the late 1950s to the early 1970s, aspiring psychoanalysts from the Denver area who wanted analytic training, but wished neither to move nor simply to wait for the launching of the Denver Institute, had the option of commuting to Chicago for training. About ten local psychiatrists and two psychologists availed themselves of the option. The program at the Chicago Institute was set up to accommodate commuting candidates from Cincinnati and St. Louis, as well as Denver. It was a five-year curriculum, and courses met Fridays and Saturdays every other week, eighteen times yearly, for a total of ninety commuter trips for a five-year graduate. For those who did not graduate in five years, the commuting continued on a less frequent-basis until graduation. As might be expected, the candidates became as skilled and adept as travelers as they did as analysts. In fact, it was not at all unusual for a candidate, somewhere about the third or fourth year of training, to receive a small but elegant plaque from United Airlines proclaiming him or her a proud member of the 100,000 Mile Club.
Some case supervision was done in Chicago, but some could also be arranged in Denver, where several analysts had been granted training and supervising analyst status at Chicago on a Geographic Rule basis. Thus, it was not only candidates, but faculty as well, who were plying the air lanes between Denver and Chicago in those years—candidates for the psychoanalytic education, faculty to gain experience in teaching and institute administration, and to qualify as training and supervising analysts.
The last commuter class began training in 1967 and graduated in 1972. Since the Denver Institute began functioning as a provisional institute in 1969, this last group of commuters was used to “test market” certain courses being prepared for use in Denver; the group served also as case presenters to the early clinical conferences as the Denver Institute began its program. When these last commuting candidates graduated from Chicago, a fairly easy and informal transition to junior faculty status was accomplished, perhaps facilitated by these earlier experiences as collaborators.
Jacob G. Jacobson