These changes will apply beginning with the December 1999 meeting.
The new procedure for Certification in Adult Psychoanalysis consists of a two-part process, i.e., a review of psychoanalytic work presented in both written and oral form, at the same meeting. The applicant submits two reports, of no more than twenty pages (see format requirements), on the analytic treatments of an adult male and female, at least one of which ended as a result of significant analytic progress. There is an oral presentation of a third patient. A brief summary of the analysis of this patient (no more than five pages), including information pertinent to the material to be presented at the interview, accompanies the application. The applicant should be prepared to present process (session) material on this third patient at the interview, enabling the committee to see how he or she works analytically.
The written work is reviewed by the committee prior to meeting with the applicant. This way any questions that may arise about the written work can then be discussed in person with the applicant during the interview. Sufficient time is allotted to the interview so that these questions can be addressed and the clinical material presented can be discussed. After the interview, the committee meets again to review the total application.
Analysts applying for Certification in Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis, and combined applications, also have a two-phase process, i.e., a review of written work and an interview, with a two-part interview for the combined application. Two full reports are submitted with the Child and Adolescent application, even if it is part of a combined application. One of these reports should be of a child who passes from prelatency into latency or begins in latency. The other report should be of a treatment begun in some phase of adolescence. An adolescent is defined, for the purpose of certification, as someone in the second decade of life who is in a psychological phase of adolescence when treatment is begun. The written reports need to be about the analyses of a male and a female patient, at least one of which ended as a result of significant analytic progress. A brief report, about a third child or adolescent patient who will be discussed in the interview (see above), is also submitted.
While it has been the experience of the committee that reporting recent work is more useful, the work submitted for evaluation can be any work which the applicant feels best shows his or her capability as an analyst, including the current ability to think about older work.
In order to allow the maximum degree of fairness, each application is reviewed “blind,” i.e., there is no information to identify the analyst or his or her institute on the face sheets accompanying the reports to be reviewed by the committee members. So that assignments for the review procedures are made in a way that protects the anonymity of the applicant, it will be necessary for the chair of the committee to know the identity of the applicant. Applicants are encouraged to communicate with the chair to answer any questions they may have prior to the application and for guidance during the entire certification process.