(A commencement address this fall to the new graduates of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute.)
When I entered the New York Psychoanalytic Institute in 1981, I would meet people at parties who would look at me quizzically when I told them what I was doing: “Are people still doing that?” It was as if I had announced that I was becoming a telegraph operator or silent film actor.
At times, we all wish that we lived in the Golden Age of psychoanalysis—when the institute was packed with students, senior analysts had two-year waiting lists, and Tuesday night speakers wore black tie because they were so very important. We must also remember, however, that in the legendary days of yore, analysts believed that the bedrock of feminine experience was the feeling of inferiority; that asthma, ulcerative colitis, and arthritis were caused by unconscious fantasy; that dyslexia was caused by the flight from taboo knowledge; that pregnant women, religious people, and homosexuals could not be analyzed, let alone become analysts; and that schizophrenia and autism were caused by special family dynamics or profound regression in the face of inner conflicts.
How did our predecessors hold onto the revolutionary discoveries of Sigmund Freud while helping us to discard the limitations, errors, and prejudices of their generation?
The answer is clear. The psychoanalytic method and the psychoanalytic attitude—which are open-minded, intellectually rigorous, and honest—are our best instruments for making sense of the bewildering and overwhelming variety of human experience, thought, and behavior.
As analysts in the new century, we will face the challenge of being engaged with explosions of information in the neural sciences, psychopharmacology, the developmental sciences, as well as the changing attitudes within psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and the philosophy of knowledge. If we doubt our own skills and experience, we become fearful. We, then, either isolate ourselves and become dogmatic and reverent, or we accept every new fad or enthusiasm uncritically. The best alternative is to engage the challenging new knowledge and ideas with creative dialogue and integrate them into our own discipline and practice.
Since my own graduation from this institute, our organization has established the Neuro-psychoanalysis Center, the Parent-Child Center, the psychology internship, the affiliation with Mount Sinai Medical Center, the scholars program, the Journal of Clinical Psychoanalysis, the fellowship program, and two psychotherapy programs. These are all designed to further psychoanalytic participation in the advances being made in the basic sciences, clinical disciplines, and the intellectual and cultural communities in the world at large.
There is no more exciting time to become a psychoanalyst than today, and there are no better qualified people to develop and advance the field than you. You have had the most careful and rigorous clinical education available. With that foundation of knowledge, experience, and judgment, you can lead the way to expanding and refining the psychoanalysis of the future.
Congratulations on your graduation. Your carefree student days are over. Now comes the hard part: You have to take charge of your own growth and development. Welcome to a vibrant and alive community, and to a profession which offers endless possibilities.
Steven J. Wein, M.D., chairs the Progression Committee at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, where he is a training and supervising analyst and supervisor for child and adolescent analysis.