Several years ago, the Project 2000 Commission of the Board on Professional Standards (BOPS) investigated the educational methods of our APsaA institutes. Among other things, institutes were surveyed about the inclusion of Freud's writings in the curriculum. Most institutes presented Freud in well-developed, specific courses, but no longer in the spirit of Talmudic scholarship. Some institutes organized courses around the historical development of Freud's thinking, others focused on basic concepts and topics, and a few sought to understand how Freud derived his theories from his clinical observations. In general, the trend seemed to be to read Freud more sparingly than in the past. While his writings were still considered to be essential reading at most institutes, the manner in which Freud's thinking and theorizing were included varied considerably.
Because the field of psychoanalysis continues to evolve, rethinking the curriculum in analytical training programs will be an ongoing effort. Deciding on the most effective ways to teach Freud's ideas will continue to be an important part of reworking that curriculum. The educational goals, pedagogical approaches, and faculty resources of an institute will influence choices about which of Freud's writings to include, when to include them, and in what ways. For example, a curriculum committee might choose to emphasize the historical development of Freud's thinking or to emphasize his way of thinking, how he derived his conceptual formulations from his clinical observations, or to emphasize his ideas and concepts that are considered essential to contemporary psychoanalytic thought.
Curriculum committees might use other criteria as well. Favorite papers by Freud might be chosen, or those deemed to be the most significant of his contributions, or those that best demonstrate the emergence of a model of mind, of a concept, clinical phenomenon, technique, or cultural observation. Whichever strategy is decided upon, the more candidates know about the thinking that went into choosing the Freud that they read, the better they will be able to understand his ideas, and the better they will be able to integrate Freud's ideas as they learn about psychoanalysis.
As an illustration, consider an educational strategy that emphasizes Freud's relevance for contemporary psychoanalytic thinking. While analysts may not share a consensus, some agreement is likely if we try to articulate Freud's essential contributions to current psychoanalytic theorizing. Compiling such a list could be of help to institutes in planning their curricula and their bibliographies, particularly new institutes and those with limited resources.
As a start, consider the following four contributions:
Freud recognized the primacy of unconscious mental life, of psychic reality, and unconscious fantasy.
He elaborated a theory of unconscious motivation and defense, developed the concept of a dynamic unconscious, and delineated its operational rules.
He discovered that dreams were motivated, had meaning and could be interpreted.
He also made the body integral to psychoanalytic theory.
To initiate this column, we are planning several articles that we hope will stimulate discussion about various ways to teach Freud's monumental contribution to psychoanalytic knowledge. We will present different points of view along with some examples of Freud's papers to illustrate a given approach. In future issues, we will cover other topics and share examples of curricula from various institutes.
Lee Jaffe, Ph.D., is senior faculty at the San Diego Psychoanalytic Institute, editorial associate for JAPA, a member of the editorial staff of TAP, and a member of the Project 2000 BOPS Task Force. Ellen Rees, M.D., is a training and supervising analyst and former chair of the Curriculum Committee at the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. She is on the Editorial Board of JAPA and a member of Project 2000.