Who is a Psychoanalyst ?
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version française de ce texte est disponible.
I.
Currently, in France, no legal regulations
limit the practice of psychoanalysis. In
addition, taking into account its social
and cultural success, one may question
the competence of those who present themselves
as psychoanalysts. One frequently hears
the question: why not create a legal status
which might protect patients, and psychoanalysis
itself? A partial response is that it would
be difficult to collect the necessary evidence
which would allow an objective evaluation
of who is practicing illegally as a psychoanalyst.
But there is also an argument of principle
against establishing a diploma; such a
certificate would imply an examination,
a grade which could be opposed by those
who are rejected. Such an examination is
conceivable, and exists, elsewhere, at
the university, in relation to theoretical
knowledge. It cannot guarantee clinical
competence.
Becoming a psychoanalyst occurs first and
foremost in a personal analytic experience
whose value depends on a freely undertaken
analytic adventure in which the future
analyst gives the most intimate part of
his being. Interference by an institution
empowered by the state is unwarranted and
incompatible. Thus, there is a fundamental
incompatibility between the public aspiration
for an official guarantee of competence,
and the menace to the most essential component
of the training that is entailed therein.
II.
A private association of Psychoanalysis
can provide a solution to this contradiction;
such an association can guarantee the competence
of its members without inflicting injury
on those not accepted therein. Such an
association provides a structure wherein
a future candidate can discuss his personal
analysis while preserving its extra-institutional
dimension.
But such a private institution presupposes
a number of conditions which are not always
readily met. These conditions include having
the means of providing an adequate training;
a rigorous and explicit definition of the
requirements necessary to fulfill the training;
a collective and democratic discipline
in the application of those requirements,
guided by experience and tradition in its
delicate and at times conflict-ridden application.
Responsible and well thought out training
requirements have always been of primary
concern to the Paris Psychoanalytical Society;
its two training institutes, in Paris and
Lyon
, train analysts in accordance with
the criteria developed by the I.P.A., founded
by Freud.
III.
Psychoanalytic training is composed then,
of a triad:
- a personal analysis which, through
its self-analytic function (developed
through one or several analyses), continues
throughout one’s life, brought
into the fore particularly by counter
transference experiences;
- supervisions, the future analyst presents
his analytic work with a patient, to
an experienced colleague. This is a
fundamental experience, an inter-analytic
cornerstone, which continues to be a
recourse for any analyst throughout
his career, who finds himself in difficulty
with a patient;
- the slow and gradual acquisition of
analytic knowledge, through lectures,
exposes in seminars, discussions with
colleagues, writing. The full value
of this knowledge can only be made in
connection with what was acquired during
his personal analysis.
Psychoanalytic training usually takes between
five and ten years to complete and is begun
after a preliminary university education.
Most psychoanalysts are doctors, psychiatrists,
or psychologists, ensuring an indispensable
clinical experience.
In fact, psychoanalytic practice is, by
its own definition, a state of permanent
research. The training granted by an institute
is not an end in itself. It allows the
natural fermentation of such research to
expand, and as such constitutes the fertility
and diversity of the scientific exchange,
the lifeblood of its association.
