Candidates now have a Committee on Psychoanalytic Education (COPE) Study Group on Challenges of Training. Our study group has a designated number of 12 members, who are expected to make a longitudinal commitment to attend group meetings and contribute to the work. Similar to every APsaA COPE study group, our group will focus on a topic relevant to psychoanalysis and will aim to make an educational contribution that advances the discipline and/or psychoanalytic education.
At our second meeting in January 2013, during the APsaA National Meeting at the Waldorf Astoria, we considered the objectives we were going to set for ourselves. We began our meeting by brainstorming for ideas inspired by the title of our study group. Specifically, what did we think were the “challenges of training” facing candidates today? Ideas candidates generated included studying the impact of age at entering candidacy; the pursuit of omnipotence or becoming an analyst to overcome childhood moments of uncontainment by a needed parent; the use of supervision, including impasses and the variety of supervisory experiences; the experience of and impact of boundary violations and boundary crossings in our development as analysts; how we chose our training analyst; the complexities of our relationships with our fellow candidates; and psychoanalysis as a Jewish way of thinking, including making meaning from miniscule bits of information. The idea of studying the development and/or acquisition of an analytic mind garnered the most enthusiasm among the group members.
The study group is chaired by Phoebe Cirio, co-author of this article and presidentelect of the Candidates' Council, who assumed her responsibilities in January 2014. Her goal is to facilitate the group members' efforts to design an approach to the topic and begin implementing a work plan that involves each member and results in an educational product.
Candidate members of the study group must make a commitment to attend the study group when it meets during the APsaA national meetings, usually twice a year—in January in New York and in June in changing locations across the United States. In addition, there may be scheduled conference calls during the year to exchange ideas and progress with the project. Any candidate interested in joining the study group or learning more is encouraged to contact the chair at or at 314-862-0345.
Navah C. Kaplan, Ph.D., is a graduate of the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. She is president of the APsaA Candidates' Council. Her private practice includes psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.
Phoebe A. Cirio, M.S.W., is in private practice in St. Louis. She is currently an advanced candidate in adult psychoanalysis at the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute and an advanced candidate in child and adolescent psychoanalysis at the New Orleans-Birmingham Psychoanalytic Center.