Psychoanalytic training experience and postgraduate professional development: A survey of six decades of graduate analysts

Abstract

This exploratory study explored the training and post-training experience of graduates of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. All living graduates of the past six decades were invited to complete a survey that addressed their training analysis, classroom work, supervision and other training experiences as well as their degree of post-graduation involvement in teaching, supervising, study groups and other professional endeavors. They were also asked to rate their sense of themselves as psychoanalysts and their satisfaction with their analytic career. Further, they were encouraged to provide spontaneous narrative data. Our findings contribute to the current understanding of the careers of psychoanalysts--including that there is a difference in generational cohorts regarding professional satisfaction, identification as an analyst, and experience of training. We also found that there are no real differences between analysts who do and do not have analytic patients on some important variables: supporting analysis as a treatment method, identifying oneself professionally with psychoanalysis, and disillusionment with psychoanalysis--which is consistent with other studies. Also discovered were differences between male and female analysts' perception of certain aspects of their training.

Psychoanalytic training experience and postgraduate professional development – Part ii

“…Dramatic changes in the distribution of professions were evident in Round 2 data. Here again, the changes were so great that we analyzed data for the following three periods : 1952-20071987-20072008-2014. The year 1987 was selected as the dividing point in the first round of data, as this was the first year non physician candidates were accepted following the revision of national professional criteria for training.…”

“…Cette etude exploratoire porte sur l'exp erience de formation et de post-cursus de la promotion 2008-2014 des analystes diplôm es de l'Institut de psychanalyse de Chicago. Elle fait suite a notre pr ec edente etude recensant tous les analystes diplôm es vivants jusqu' a l'ann ee 2007 (Schneider et al, 2014). L'enquête d evelopp ee et utilis ee au cours de notre premi ere etude, a laquelle on aura ajout e quelques questions suppl ementaires pour elargir notre compr ehension de l'exp erience de la formation, a et e envoy ee a 38 analystes.…”

“…This survey of graduates of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis' from 2008 to 2014 (referred to in this paper as Round 2) is a follow-up to the former study (Schneider et al, 2014) of the training experience and postgraduate professional development of all living graduates through 2007 (referred to in this paper as Round 1). For this current study we used the previous survey instrument with some minor modifications and sent it to those 38 who graduated between 2007 and 2014 with a return rate of 58%.…”

“…We wanted to explore possible differences between how the first sample of graduates and the sample of current graduates experienced their psychoanalytic education. As this was a follow-up study, we are not repeating the literature review contained in the original study (Schneider et al, 2014).…”

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This exploratory study looks at the training and postgraduate experience of the 2008-2014 graduates of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. It follows our former study of all living graduates through the year 2007 (Schneider et al, 2014). The survey developed and used in the first study, with a few additional questions added to increase our understanding of the training experience, was sent to 38 graduates with a return rate of 58%.

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