A new relationship has been forged between the Candidates' Council and the Committee on Psychoanalytic Education (COPE). COPE co-chairs Harriet Wolfe and Robert Michels have invited a candidate to join COPE beginning in January 2012 and a candidates' COPE study group has been initiated.
At the June APsaA meeting, candidates enthusiastically supported the creation of such a study group with a unanimous vote to proceed. A vigorous discussion took place regarding what topic would be best as an inaugural focus. The candidates present expressed interest in supervision, boundary violations and their secondary effects on candidates, and the certification process. The decision was made to leave the initial focus broad and to call the group “The Challenges of Candidacy.” The plan is to allow more specific foci to emerge from discussions among candidates from around the country and at different levels of training.
The goals of the candidates' study group, as with all COPE study groups, will be to have an impact beyond the study group. This might be through publications and sponsorship of panels or workshops.
COPE invites graduate analysts as well as candidate members to identify trainees who might want to join this COPE study group and to encourage those trainees to make their interest known. The study group will have 8 to 12 members from training programs around the country and from different levels of training. Candidates will be asked to submit a CV that includes information about their interests, training, and experience to me, chair of the study group, at cbschorr@aol.com. If more candidates wish to participate than would be wise for a good working group, I, as chair, will select the first members in such a way as to insure the sort of geographic and experiential diversity described above. Initially, the members of the study group will all be candidates. Graduate analysts will be invited to participate as consultants and may be asked to join the study group in the future.
In summary, this new COPE study group will be an opportunity for candidates who have expressed strong interest in aspects of training to explore those interests with the goal of producing a product that enriches the profession.
Caryn B. Schorr, M.D., is the education chair of the Candidates' Council, a third-year candidate at the Florida Psychoanalytic Institute, and a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist in Broward County, Florida.