I would like to use this month's column as an opportunity to alert our full membership to a significant change in our Advanced Program in Psychoanalysis. In particular, the Board of Directors and the Training Committee have together made a decision to revise the way we conceptualize the Final Case Presentation ("FCP").

 

The FCP historically has been the final hurdle in the 6-year program for candidates who have completed all the other requirements for certification as a psychoanalyst and as a member of our faculty and the institute. After long discussion and careful consideration, we have decided to change the emphasis of the FCP from evaluation as a pass/fail examination to feedback, personal development, and recognition of the candidate's personal academic and clinical achievement. What this means in practice is that any candidate who fulfills all the requirements of the Advanced Program, including personal analysis, required supervision, and coursework, and is therefore eligible to present a final case to their future peers, will graduate and be certified by the institute. In this sense, we are construing the FCP as something more like a doctoral dissertation defense, in which there is a commitment to a successful process and outcome, allowing for feedback, requests for specific and circumscribed changes and improvements in the final paper submitted, but no real question as to the outcome. The emphasis shifts from product to successful process that takes place over many years of learning, supervision, analysis, and feedback from instructors, supervisors, peers, and committee members.

 

While is not possible in this column to review all the factors that have been discussed and considered by members of the Board and our Training Committee, the working documents that formed the basis of our discussions can be made available to members who wish to review them. But one of the most important factors was a universal recognition that any candidate who had reached the level of FCP, having completed all program requirements of our 6-year advanced program (which in reality often takes many years longer than six) should not be denied the opportunity to graduate and receive a certificate of completion on the basis of examination by a committee. While there will be ample opportunity at the FCP as it will now be understood for feedback and requests for improvements, the emphasis will be on the FCP as a learning tool, as an opportunity for personal and professional growth, and on the celebratory aspects of this ritual of completion.

 

Our Training Committee has been busy during this entire academic year assimilating the impact of this shift, and what it may mean for the training program as a whole. I can reassure the membership that the committee has not eliminated or changed any of the other clinical or academic requirements of our programs. The committee has recognized the need for constructive feedback to our candidates throughout the training process, and will greatly appreciate that information provided to them in the form of instructor and supervisor feedback. We recognize the possibility that there may be some individuals who for whatever reasons are unlikely to be able to successfully complete all our 6-year requirements, and understand the need to address such problems and appropriately counsel such individuals early on in the training process.

 

My own personal view is that this change represents an acknowledgement of significant changes that have taken place in psychoanalytic training over the past five decades. The reality of psychoanalytic pluralism has reached the point where it has permeated virtually all psychoanalytic institutions, at least those that wish to survive in the long run. The "myth of the perfectly analyzed analyst" has given way to a recognition of our own inevitable participation in the therapeutic process, and so too we recognize the subjectivity of our institutional evaluations and choices. We cannot afford to assume that "we" know best, because the reality is that "we" are a diverse group of individuals, analysts diversely trained and with quite varied pathways through psychoanalytic development, and with different ideas about what is most essential about psychoanalytic work and thought.

 

This is not to say that we cannot maintain academic standards and expectations for clinical work. It is certainly not to say that "anything goes." It is my hope that we will continue to acknowledge personal growth and individual development in our candidates, academic achievement, dedication to our profession, the highest standards for ethical behavior, and devotion to our patients. As always, the best guards against the dangers of complacency and dogmatism are honest self-reflection, thoughtful dialogue, and the processing of personal and institutional defense mechanisms - all central features of an authentic psychoanalytic process.

 

with Charles McBee 

and Headliner Vince August 

a stand-up comedian and actor who performs on network television, and in New York City area comedy clubs (such as Caroline's on Broadway and Banana's in New Jersey). A former NJ Municipal Judge, he can be seen on ABC's Hidden Camera "What would you do?". He was featured in the film "Heckler" which premiered in the prestigious Tribeca Film and Arts Festival in New York City. His standup comedy concert "Vinsanity" earned a "Best Comedy" award at the New York International Film Festival.

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"There is something about the shame experience that often leads to it becoming embedded in our minds for a lifetime," stated Richard Chefetz as he opened his day long presentation on dissociative processes and shame toxicity on March 8 at Fairleigh Dickenson University.  According to Dr. Chefetz, the toxicity of shame is linked to the often hidden and persistent dissociative processes which establish and sustain a psychic homeostasis.  Shame is not  responsive to medication nor even, at times, to psychotherapy.  Dr. Chefetz is convinced that attention to shame dynamics is key to liberating the potential for healing.  He proceeded to define affect as embodied "protosensation" (unconscious), which becomes a feeling, or embodied sensing, which may lead to emotion or "named feelings".  He also described anxiety as the "leading edge of a not yet felt feeling or a not yet thought thought."  He discussed neurobiological processes relevant to affect theory, in particular the limbic system and the corpus callosum.