The Training in Psychoanalysis

The Institute of Psychoanalysis training equips the student to practice psychoanalysis. Students gain a fundamental understanding of clinical psychoanalysis as a way of thinking and working with patients. Becoming a psychoanalyst requires not only the application of a broad body of knowledge but the development of a critical and enquiring attitude toward that knowledge.

These aims are achieved through a tripartite education: a personal training analysis; theoretical and clinical seminars; and the psychoanalytic treatment of two patients, five times a week, under supervision.

All students have a personal psychoanalysis with an approved training analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society. This training analysis consists of a daily fifty-minute session, five days a week (Monday to Friday), lasting throughout the training. Students choose their training analyst, with whom they then agree a schedule and fee. A list of training analysts is available from the Institute.

The therapeutic goals of the personal training analysis are the same as those of a therapeutic psychoanalysis. Its educational goals include freeing the student from those unconscious factors that would interfere with his or her ability to feel, think, and work as a psychoanalyst.

After one year of a personal training analysis the student is eligible to start the theoretical training. Theoretical and clinical seminars take place up to three times a week during term time and are usually spread over a period of not less than three years.

The first year is largely devoted to introductory seminars, the study of Freud’s writings and psychoanalytic theories of human development. Students also attend seminars such as: Assessment for Analysability, Psychiatric Issues (of psychoanalytic practice), and Ethical Issues in Psychoanalysis. During the first year each student makes weekly home visits to observe a mother and baby; students also participate in a weekly seminar to discuss their observations.

From the second year until qualification as a psychoanalyst every student attends weekly clinical seminars; in these seminars students present clinical material and discuss their psychoanalytic work with fellow students and a senior clinician.

In addition, from the second year onward, seminar series are offered on a wide range of theoretical and technical issues. Students can attend seminars such as: Approaches to Depression, Clinical Studies of Perversion, Narcissistic and Borderline States, Character and Personality Disorders, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychoanalysis, The Effects of Sexual Abuse in Childhood, Understanding Trauma, and the Interaction of Neurotic and Psychotic Forces in the Neurotic Personality.

In the second and third years seminars are also offered on the three main schools of thought of the British Psychoanalytical Society - Contemporary Freudian, Independent, and Kleinian - as well as seminars on current American and French psychoanalysis. In addition, more advanced seminars are offered: Problems of Adult Psychoanalysis, Developments of Technique in the British Society, Conceptualising and Validating in the Clinical Process, Psychoanalysis and the Politics and Practice of Psychotherapy, and Writing a Paper.

The faculty of the Institute of Psychoanalysis is a diverse and experienced body drawn from the three schools of the British Psychoanalytical Society. All clinical seminars and clinical supervision are provided exclusively by training analysts. Just as important as the quality of the teaching staff is the unique experience of studying with accomplished and motivated students from around the world.

Supervised work with a first training patient is usually started during the second year of the training. Work with the second case may be started a year after the first. Training patients are seen fifty minutes each day, five days a week, Monday to Friday.

The first case must be continued for two years and the second case for one year before a student is eligible to qualify as a psychoanalyst. Students are expected to continue treating both their training cases for at least one year after qualifying.

Training cases are treated under the auspices of the London Clinic of Psychoanalysis. Patients may be seen at the London Clinic of Psychoanalysis or by arrangement in the student’s own consulting-room, or National Health Service place of work.
 

Beyond the training course itself, the Institute of Psychoanalysis offers educational opportunities that are unparalleled: students are invited to use the Institute library, receive the Bulletin of the British Psychoanalytical Society and the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, and are encouraged to attend the scientific meetings of the Society, as well as international conferences organised by the British Psychoanalytical Society, the European Psychoanalytic Federation, and the International Psychoanalytical Association.

The course is part-time and organised so that students are able to continue working during the training.

Student facilities at Byron House include: student common room with a study area, a kitchen, and showers.

The Institute of Psychoanalysis is committed to making psychoanalytic training accessible. Admission is based on achievement and promise.
Applicants are eligible for consideration if they have a university degree or equivalent and a suitable personality; crucially, an aptitude to think and work psychoanalytically.
There is no formula for gaining admission to the training. Typically, successful applicants present good academic and professional credentials. They also have an interest in others in which the wish to help is combined with a respect for the other’s independence, the capacity for establishing relationships on a deeper level and maintaining them over time, the capacity to recognise one’s own limitations and tolerate the tension arising from problems that are not readily solved, a capacity to bear personal problems and anxieties without dependence on denial, and a conviction as to the forceful nature of the unconscious.
 

Applicants should write to the Education Officer of the Institute of Psychoanalysis, including a short curriculum vitæ that sets out the applicant’s educational background and professional situation.

Prospective applicants requiring further information or guidance before applying should contact the Education Officer who will arrange an informal and confidential telephone conversation with a training analyst.

All prospective applicants who fulfil the prerequisites - or who wish to discuss their situation - are offered a preliminary interview. Following this interview, those who meet the required criteria are invited to complete an application form and to give the names of two referees. Applicants then have two or three personal interviews. Finally, the Admissions Committee evaluates the application.

Successful applicants begin to attend theoretical and clinical seminars after they have completed a minimum of one-year’s personal training analysis. Every student is allocated a progress adviser who provides guidance on all aspects of the training.

The Admissions Committee may defer their decision until the applicant has completed a further period of psychoanalysis with a training analyst followed by re-interview. If an application is unsuccessful reapplication may be made not less than a year after the previous application. In all, three applications may be made.

Applicants who are already in five times a week analysis with a training analyst, and who think that, if provisionally accepted, they may be in a position to start training in the following September, should submit the application form before 1 March. This also applies to applicants who, having been told that they could be re-interviewed (RI), are requesting re-interviews.
We cannot guarantee that applications or requests for re-interview received later than 1 March will be processed in time for training to start in September.