The Universities of Mainz and Leipzig, the Sigmund Freud Institute (SFI), the Deutsche Psychoanalytische Vereinigung (DPV), and the Deutsche Psychoanalytische Gesellschaft (DPG) are collaborating on a research project in Germany in an attempt to determine why students of medicine, psychology, and the human sciences decide for or against psychoanalytic training. The study is motivated by the continuing decrease of patients willing to do analysis and the number of candidates applying for full psychoanalytic training.
Specific questionnaires were designed to assess knowledge of different therapies (psychoanalysis, behavior therapy, client-centered therapy, and psychodynamic therapy), the choice of therapeutic treatment, and choice of therapeutic training amongst medical, psychology, and humanities students in universities all over Germany. In the pilot studies, researchers have found so far that there is a lack of knowledge concerning psychodynamic therapy, particularly among medical students. Psychology students ranked the highest in having interest in psychotherapeutic training, but psychodynamic and psychoanalytic training ranked the lowest in their interest. A high interest in psychoanalysis was found among humanities students; that reflects the current situation in Germany where private practices have many teachers as psychoanalytic patients.
Half standardized psychoanalytical interviews were designed in order to carry out in-depth interviews with students. Some of the results revealed that many interviewees feel that psychoanalysis is “outdated,” “not scientific,” “worn out,” “not intellectually challenging” (“always Freud” with the “strange concepts” of the Oedipus complex, penis envy, etc.), much too long a training and a treatment, not to mention expensive, and “part of a closed up, exclusive circle which is more like a church than a professional organization…”
The results of the pilot studies already indicate that effort is needed to increase the interest in psychoanalysis in the younger generation. Some strategies have already been put into effect. A working group with members of several universities and psychoanalytic associations was established to promote psychoanalytically informed psychology in the universities. Political interventions are in progress to pressure ministers of education and university psychology departments to address biased information given in psychology courses about psychotherapeutic training.
Many more strategies and proposals for improving psychoanalytic training and increasing interest will be put into effect after the research is done. The study is financially supported by the DPV, DPG, and by a Developing Psychoanalytic Practice and Training (DPPT) grant given by the IPA.
The Italian Psychoanalytic Society (SPI) has an ongoing project for the development of psychoanalytic practice for children and adolescents. In a survey done in 2004 by the SPI in collaboration with a market research organization, it was discovered that there are very few psychoanalysts conducting analysis with children and adolescents (4 percent). The project has set out to explore if the low number of analyses is caused by insufficient referrals and poor visibility of the SPI in the field of child development.
Since the National Health Service (NHS) receives a high number of referrals in the mental health field, the SPI is interested in commissioning a statistical study on the number of referrals from the NHS for psychoanalytic treatment. Also there is an interest in identifying attitudes and motivations of the staff in the NHS toward psychoanalysis, which will be done through focus groups with questionnaires.
The project aims to sensitize and inform staff working in facilities for children and adolescents about psychoanalysis as a specific form of treatment which helps in the prevention of later psychic disorders (chronic psychosis, anti-social disorder, drug-addiction, eating disorders, and personality disorders). Another objective of the project is to open training schools in analysis for children and adolescents, even decentralized ones with peripheral branches that are for IPA members.
The SPI wants to evaluate the overall benefits of the project, to measure the changes brought about by the project. Thus, the quantitative dimensions will be assessed to see if there has been an increase in the number of applicants to the child and adolescent analytic training programs, and in the number of patients for analysis. The qualitative dimensions of the project will be assessed to determine whether there has been an improvement in the attitude, motivation, and knowledge of professionals working in the public sector who are in a position to make referrals.
The new president of the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) is Lynne Moritz. She has served as secretary since 2001 and president-elect since 2004.
In addition to serving as director of the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute, Moritz has been delegate to the American Medical Association (AMA) and district branch president of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). As delegate to the AMA and district branch president of the APA, Moritz was influential. She painstakingly marshaled the forces that defeated False Memory Syndrome legislation that would have outlawed all psychotherapy across Missouri. She also spearheaded support for a Missouri law regulating managed care. It was a comprehensive law that brought state oversight to the regulation of insurance companies, prohibited certain managed care practices, provided for complaint processes, and for the inclusion of practicing physicians on insurance panels. Passage of this law took many years and was related to legislation which became law requiring insurance companies to cover mental health at parity with physical illness.
Christine Ury, D.Ps., is associate editor and international editor of TAP. She is a faculty member at the Canadian Institute of Psychoanalysis and has a private practice in Montreal.