Psychoanalytic Education at the Crossroads

Reformation, change and the future of psychoanalytic training

Otto Friedmann Kernberg

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317400059
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychologie
• Subtopic: Psychoanalyse

Training in psychoanalysis is a long and demanding process. However, the quality of education available is hugely variable across the world. The structure of psychoanalytic education, centered on the hierarchical "training analysis" system, reflected a concerted effort to maintain a stable and high quality educational process. However, throughout time this system has become a major source of institutional contradictions that affect the training of candidates, the scientific developments within psychoanalysis, and the nexus of psychoanalytic theory and practice with the surrounding scientific, social and cultural world. Psychoanalytic Education at the Crossroads examines the ways in which group processes, the hierarchal culture in institutes, the influence of individual personalities, the lack of research and the faults in supervision can all stifle creativity and hinder candidates' progress. In this compelling work, Otto Kernberg sets out clear suggestions for how these issues can be addressed, and how he sees the future of psychoanalytic education across all psychoanalytic settings and schools of thought.

The first part of this volume is focused primarily on the analysis of the nature of these problems and their effects on the personal analysis and supervision of candidates; on theoretical and clinical seminars; on selection, progression, and graduation; on educational principles and requirements, developments of theory and technique and, in particular, limitation versus expansion of the realm of interests and applications of psychoanalysis. The second part of this volume deals with proposals of solutions to the problems encountered, and major suggestions for innovation in psychoanalytic education.

The author's work in this area has been hugely influential. Kernberg has made a substantive difference in the development of psychoanalytic institutes and education, and continues to do so. Psychoanalytic Education at the Crossroads will be essential reading to anyone involved in psychoanalytic education, whether as a psychoanalyst, psychoanalytic psychotherapist, trainee, trainer, or supervisor.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Psychoanalytic Education at the Crossroads
• Praise
• The New Library of Psychoanalysis
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 The Identity of the Psychoanalyst
• 2 The Couch at Sea: Psychoanalytic Studies of Group and Organizational Leadership
• 3 Institutional Problems of Psychoanalytic Education
• 4 Authoritarianism, Culture, and Personality in Psychoanalytic Education
• 5 Thirty Methods to Destroy the Creativity of Psychoanalytic Candidates
• 6 The Pressing Need to Increase Research in and on Psychoanalysis
• 7 Psychoanalytic Supervision: The Supervisor’s Tasks
• 8 Symptoms of Failure and Early Efforts to Modify Psychoanalytic Education
• 9 The Coming Changes in Psychoanalytic Education: Part I
• 10 The Coming Changes in Psychoanalytic Education: Part II
• 11 Psychoanalysis and the University: A Difficult Relationship
• 12 Suicide Prevention for Psychoanalytic Institutes and Societies
• 13 The Twilight of the Training Analysis System
• Index