Learning in an increasingly multitheoretical psychoanalytic culture: Impact on the development of analytic identity.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the analytic trainee's increasingly complicated learning experiences, the environmental and contextual challenges candidates face, and the unique internal battles often engaged throughout the development of professional identity. The method aims to chart the internal and external learning processes of the trainee as they interact and remain distinct. Students of psychoanalysis face a culture of exploding theoretical growth, ongoing intense debate, and decreasing popularity within the community at large. Furthermore, trainees are immersed within specific training contexts that inevitably shape their advancing understanding of analytic theory and technique. Clinical vignettes, developmental theory, and an examination of conviction are offered to further understanding of the current stressors influencing the trainee's pursuit for analytic identity. It is suggested that analysts need to better understand the ongoing nature of developing an analytic identity within specific contexts, and become more aware of how they affect this process.

Teaching on diversity: The mutual influence of students and instructors.

“…At times, I felt conflicted about my role as a psychodynamically oriented instructor who encourages individual growth through emotional learning, and a psychologist who acts as an agent of social justice. I struggled with a tension between the need to belong and the need to experience myself in an authentic way (Lhulier, 2005). I felt a contradictory sense of being disengaged from the students’ dialogue and at the same time at the very center of their conflicts with privilege.…”

Three Dimensional Treatment

“…Although such opportunities are more and more the norm in our "increasingly multitheoretical psychoanalytic culture" (Lhulier, 2005), my personal interest probably also reflected aspects of my character, shaped by my family background. As a child of divorce, as if hoping to bring disenfranchised parents together, I have often wanted to integrate opposing viewpoints, rather than commit to a single perspective.…”

“…Although much has been written about supervision, most is from the perspective of the supervisor, rather than the trainee (Lhulier, 2005;Rock, 1997). Even less literature exists on the influence of different supervisors at various points on the same treatment case.…”

The supervisor as witness.

“…Another important aspect of the supervisor's role in coping with the supervisee's emotional flooding and fluctuation in self-experience, is providing him or her with selfobject needs (Pegeron, 1996;Crastnopol, 1999;Gill, 1999;Lhulier, 2005). Selfobject needs, which include mirroring, idealizing, and twinship needs, refer to the use of the other for the purposes of development, maintenance and regulation of the self (Fosshage, 1997;Kohut, 1984).…”