Candidates' Council: What Do Candidates Want and Need?

Abraham Flexner investigated social work in 1915, five years after he recommended revolutionary changes in medical education. He had advised the closure of most medical schools because they were mediocre; most were private ventures to make money for their faculties, places where anyone could be admitted. Flexner also advised an increase in the prerequisites for admission to medical college. It is Flexner we have to thank for the scientific thrust of American medicine.

…the rewards for both the teacher and the social worker “are in his own conscience and in heaven.”

Following the success of his investigation and report on medical education in America, he was invited to conduct a similar investigation of the then emerging profession of social work. In his report, which was delivered at the 42nd annual meeting of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections in Baltimore, Flexner stated six criteria that had to be met for a field of work to be considered a profession:

Let me now review briefly the six criteria which we have mentioned: Professions involve essentially intellectual operations with large individual responsibility; they derive their raw material from science and learning; this material they work up to a practical and definite end; they possess an educationally communicable technique; they tend to self-organization; they are becoming increasingly altruistic in motivation…

He concluded social work was much like a profession but not fully a profession, because social work was much like education; the rewards for both the teacher and the social worker “are in his own conscience and in heaven.” He was referring to the generally low levels of compensation for both professions.

You might wonder why I am citing this rather obscure bit of history for my inaugural column as president of the Candidates' Council. I have several reasons. One is a question I have about how candidates find it within themselves to enter into yet further professional training at this historical moment, in 2015, 100 years after Flexner's report on social work. Flexner's definition of a profession shaped changes in professional preparation, which produced an era during which professions flourished. This was one outcome of the early 20th century progressive movement. Professional education became a way to establish oneself as a member of a certain social class, but also it became a very practical way to make a good living. The fact that social workers had yet to find a good way to get paid for their work was a mark against their self-definition as a profession.

All psychoanalytic candidates already have a profession. They are social workers, counselors, psychologists and physicians. And, they embark on further training to become psychoanalysts. Why, we have to ask, does anyone do this?

I can answer for myself. I wanted to become a psychoanalyst because I regarded it as the pinnacle of mental health practice, and I felt honored to be allowed to embark on a psychoanalytic education. I wanted a rigorous and comprehensive education in psychoanalysis. I also hoped it would help me generate a good income. I suspect most of my fellow candidates, then, and candidates now have similar motivations. They feel the training is worth it because it will enhance them personally, and professionally, for the rest of their careers.

But the idea that psychoanalytic education offers those who undertake it something of tangible value means we demand that very thing of the profession. Candidates do not seek their rewards “in their own conscience or in heaven.” We are looking for earthly satisfaction.

And for this reason, I encourage candidates and graduate analysts to attend to the present condition of our chosen second profession.

There are significant decisions about the oversight and governance of our organization under discussion currently and a bylaw amendment to be voted on. I encourage candidates to become informed about the proposals under discussion, and for the faculties of institutes and members of societies to inform the candidates in their local organizations about these matters. Our entire organization has a lot at stake in the current climate, but I think it important to recognize the particular concerns of the candidates within the organization. They have invested significantly in their psychoanalytic educations, and it is incumbent upon the senior members of our profession to respect that sacrifice on the part of trainees and fulfill their duties toward the next generation, the future of the profession. For it is only because the quality of the education is so high, that so many are willing to sacrifice literally hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of a lifetime to attain it.

Editor's Note:

This column was adapted and updated from the recent Candidate Connection Newsletter.