Empty Heart Disease: Teaching and Learning in China.

Drawing on 15 years of experience teaching psychoanalytic theory and therapy primarily from an object relations perspective to Chinese psychotherapists onsite and online, the authors present their learning about Chinese culture, social history, and philosophy, and the Chinese way of communicating about emotional experience. Their essay is imbued with the Chinese use of metaphor and psychosomatic symbolization, particularly involving the heart. They elaborate on the Chinese concept of Empty Heart Disease, comparing and contrasting it to Western concepts from literature, sociology and psychoanalysis, namely spleen, anomie, dead mother, and schizoid, empty, false, and narcissistic self-states. They expand upon and extend the empty heart concept to various age groups and symptom presentations in China, illustrated by a vignette from individual psychoanalysis with a woman and three vignettes from applied psychoanalysis of a couple with no intimacy, a child with an obsessive psychosomatic symptom, and an adolescent school dropout who was self-harming and suicidal in response to academic pressure. Having emphasized the connection between symptom presentations and social life and times, they discuss the impact of trauma, its transgenerational transmission in China, and the impact of unprecedented economic growth and social change on individuals, couples and families.

Teleanalysis Does Not Have to be "Muted": On the Crucial Role of the Analyst's Internal Frame in any Setting.

Given that practicing teleanalytically is relatively new and more widespread than ever, questions about how to practice and teach it effectively have increased and are more pressing than ever. To contribute answers to these questions, this paper addresses long-standing and persisting negative views of teleanalysis as an inherently muted, remote, and pale experience with reduced therapeutic effectiveness. I propose that this view of teleanalysis as inherently inferior to in-office analysis limits or even precludes its therapeutic usefulness because it allows analysts to avoid making analytic use of the disturbing feelings hiding within the experience of practicing teleanalysis. Through case examples, I suggest that when analysts do not take our negative views of teleanalysis at face value but instead consider them as symbolic expressions of our and our patients' anxieties, we can improve our understanding of our analytic functioning within the tele-setting and enhance our capacity to think and engage analytically effectively in any setting. I maintain that these considerations have important implications, not only for how experienced analysts practice, but also for how we treat and teach future analysts.

The deleterious impact of idealization and fanaticism and their underlying causes in psychoanalytic education.

Acrimony, dissension, and controversy have characterized psychoanalytic education from the beginning. The usual scapegoat for this situation has been the training analyst system. But this system is seen as just a symptom of deeper, underlying conflicts about our field and preparing for it. In particular, the tendency toward authoritarian dogmatism amongst psychoanalysts is a prime contributor. This inclination derives from the defensive idealization and fanaticism characterizing many psychoanalysts. Such idealization helps us to manage the many uncertainties that characterize our theory, our practice, and our pedagogical efforts. Various methods to address these uncertainties more directly are suggested as a way to counteract the negative effects of fanaticism.

Challenges for the Future of Psychoanalysis.

This paper summarizes the current crisis of psychoanalysis in its relations to the scientific and cultural environment. It proposes tasks to assure the survival and contributions of psychoanalysis as science, profession, and humanistic discipline. It proposes emphasis on empirical research in the boundaries with the neurosciences and social psychology, and the development of an infrastructure for research linked to its educational program. It proposes renovation in training, abolishment of the training analysis system, and systematic teaching and research on the psychoanalytic psychotherapies focused on specific pathologies. This overall proposal stresses the need to collaborate and potentially integrate psychoanalytic institutions within university settings, and the development of active interdisciplinary engagements with other sciences and the community at large. Finally, it stresses the role of contemporary object relations theory to reunify the presently diverging schools of psychoanalytic theory and technique.

Our Unconscious Relationship with Psychoanalytic Theory.

The author explores the role of the unconscious in relationship to psychoanalytic theory. Using clinical material, the author argues that we have an important bidirectional unconscious relationship with theory. Theory allows us to have experiences that contain important unconscious thinking, which in turn contributes to new understandings about theory. The author uses John Dewey's concept of experience as a vehicle to elucidate how theory is used unconsciously.

What Use is Freud?

More than a hundred years into our field's development, examining Freud's place in psychoanalytic education is timely. What authority does he hold for psychoanalysts in 2021? Is he still the architect, or overseer, of psychoanalysis? Freud has been a metonym for psychoanalysis, yet the history of Freud's identification with the totality of psychoanalysis has had important unfortunate consequences. Negative aspects of this identification subtly linger, interfering in our collective appreciation of post-Freudian theoretical innovations. Too much of psychoanalysis has been "bought at the company store" of Freud's ideas. Though part of this problem is created by idealizations of Freud, much of it stems from Freud's precocious emphasis on psychoanalytic findings within his tripartite definition of psychoanalysis. As a result, many of his theoretical accounts were taken prematurely as definitive building blocks for a comprehensive psychoanalytic theory, when in fact they were only provisional formulations. Presently, portions of Freud's theories are silently withering on the psychoanalytic vine. Data from the PEP-Web archive reveal the declining use of a set of once important, closely linked conceptions-Freud's psychosexual theory and his characterology-and illustrate the kinds of Freudian ideas that have lost their usefulness. The indispensable and enduring elements in his work are identified.

Combined Training of Candidates, Scholars, And Psychotherapists: A Model of Psychoanalytic Education for the Twenty-First Century.

A new model of psychoanalytic education is proposed that will meet the challenges of educating candidates in a new century. Prospective candidates have varying opinions about the value of analytic training, opinions that reflect economic and cultural conditions different from those facing previous generations. Overall, today's graduate-level students hold less favorable attitudes toward psychoanalysis than did their counterparts in the past. The proposed model calls for combining analytic candidates, psychotherapy students, and academic scholars for two years in a Psychoanalytic Studies Program (PSP), after which candidates take their subsequent years of training in a cohort made up exclusively of analytic candidates. A curriculum that focuses on the core concepts in psychoanalysis allows students in all three categories to learn the foundational knowledge of psychoanalysis that once was widely taught in graduate mental health programs. The philosophy that underlies the model and the structure and orientation of the course sequences are presented. Implementatiion of the model having shown positive results, its strengths and limitations are evaluated against the traditional model, in which candidates and psychotherapy students are educated separately.

Beyond Progression: Devising a New Training Model for Candidate Assessment, Advancement, and Advising at Columbia.

Research over several decades has identified significant problems with the progression model-the traditional approach to assessment and advancement of psychoanalytic candidates-including candidates' anxiety and uncertainty about the methods and fairness of their assessment, avoidance of conflictual issues with patients in order to keep cases, and reluctance to share their challenges with supervisors and advisors. In light of these findings, the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research restructured its psychoanalytic training programs. The progression committee, the progression advisor role, candidate application to advance through the program, and routine committee discussion of candidates were eliminated and replaced by confidential mentorship and a clear and predictable system of trainee advancement. Analytic competency-a requirement for graduation-is now determined solely from detailed written feedback regarding the candidate's achievement of the Center's learning objectives. The number of months of supervised analysis required for graduation has been reduced, as has the required length of the candidate's longest case; in addition, three-times-weekly analyses are now accepted for credit. These changes are meant to increase the transparency, objectivity, and predictability of the training experience and reduce the pressure on clinical decision making and communication between trainees and faculty. An extensive evaluation of the impact of these innovations is currently under way.

Emergency Remote Training in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy: An Initial Assessment from Columbia.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the social distancing required to combat it have set in motion an experiment in psychoanalytic education of unprecedented scope. Following an abrupt shift from in-person study to remote classes, supervision, clinical work, and training analyses, the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research polled its psychotherapy and psychoanalysis trainees to assess their initial experience of remote training. Most candidates found the technical aspects of online learning easy and were satisfied with remote training overall. Across all programs, most trainees considered class length and reading load about right and felt their class participation was unaffected, though they found it harder to concentrate. Most found it no harder to start a training case, felt the shift to remote supervision had no negative effect, and were satisfied with seeing their training analyst remotely. Most trainees preferred in-person classes, clinical work, and training analyses to those offered remotely, yet in light of the health risks they said they were less likely to continue training in fall 2020 if in-person work resumed. Trainees suggested several modifications of teaching techniques to improve their participation and concentration in class. These findings' implications for the debate regarding remote training in psychoanalysis are explored.

Psychoanalytic training experience and postgraduate professional development - Part II.

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%. As with the first survey, graduates were invited to assess, among other training experiences, their training analysis, classroom work, and supervision, and to tell of their post-graduation involvement in teaching, supervising, study groups and other professional endeavors. They were also asked to rate their satisfaction with themselves as psychoanalysts and with their analytic career. The questions added to the previous survey related to the graduates' theoretical orientation, the influence on their training experiences of the change in gender distribution, and of the diversity of professions now represented in the analytic training program. They were also encouraged to provide spontaneous narrative data. The data from our second survey showed important differences when compared with our first. In the first survey male respondents were in the majority; in the second, women held the majority. Of the professions represented in the training program, psychiatry was the majority in the first survey, psychology and social work held the majority in the second. Most respondents claimed an object-relation theoretical orientation. Analytic immersion continues to decrease, with most respondents having two patients at the time of graduation and one at the time of the survey.

Psychoanalytic Teaching by Video Link and Telephone.

In this era of global connectedness, there is great interest in using distance video platforms such as Skype and VSee, as well as the telephone, for conducting psychoanalysis and psychotherapy across geographic distance. Little, however, has been written about the use of technology for psychoanalytic education. The International Psychotherapy Institute has extensive experience in the use of videoconference and telephone technology in the teaching of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy, including didactic teaching, infant observation, and individual and group supervision, with individuals and groups across the United States and overseas. Use of this technology for tele-education has facilitated the spread of psychoanalytic ideas, recruitment of psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic trainees, and ongoing training for members living at great distances from one another and from the institute. This work is in many ways similar to ordinary psychoanalytic teaching and supervision, and yet presents significant differences in technique, opportunity, and group dynamics. Further implementation and study of this methodology can greatly aid in the dissemination of psychoanalysis in the digital age.

A questão da formação psicanalítica na SPPA / La cuestión de la formación psicoanalítica en la SPPA / The question of psychoanalytic training at SPPA

O autor reflete sobre o ensino na SPPA e aprofunda o exame de sua formação psicanalítica. Propõe uma discussão aberta e dialética sobre aspectos evolutivos, conflitivos e ideológicos que caracterizam sua história. São estabelecidas três fases do seu desenvolvimento e fatos marcantes que as delimitaram. Por ultimo, o autor conclui ser a existência de duas correntes opostas de opinião – conservadora e progressista – a responsável por distintas formas de conceber/executar o ensino e seus inevitáveis conflitos. Ensino psicanalítico de psicanálise versus ensino de psicanálise, eis a questão! (AU)

The author reflects on the education at SPPA and deepens the examination of his psychoanalytic training. He proposes an open and dialectical discussion about evolutionary, conflicting and ideological aspects, which characterize his history. Three phases of its development and milestones are established. Finally, the author concludes that the existence of two opposing currents of opinion – conservative and progressive – are responsible for different forms of understating and fulfilling the education and its inevitable conflicts. Psychoanalytic education of psychoanalysis versus education of psychoanalysis, this is the question!(AU)

El autor reflexiona sobre la enseñanza en la SPPA y profundiza el examen de su formación psicoanalítica. Propone una discusión abierta y dialéctica sobre los aspectos evolutivos, conflictivos y ideológicos, que caracterizan su historia. Son establecidas tres etapas de su desarrollo y hechos memorables que las delimitaron. Por ultimo, el autor concluye ser la existencia de dos corrientes opuestas de opinión – conservadora y progresista – la responsable por distintas maneras de concebir/ ejecutar la enseñanza y sus inevitables conflictos. Enseñanza psicoanalítica del psicoanálisis versus enseñanza del psicoanálisis, esa es la cuestión!(AU)

A questão da formação psicanalítica na SPPA / La cuestión de la formación psicoanalítica en la SPPA / The question of psychoanalytic training at SPPA

O autor reflete sobre o ensino na SPPA e aprofunda o exame de sua formação psicanalítica. Propõe uma discussão aberta e dialética sobre aspectos evolutivos, conflitivos e ideológicos que caracterizam sua história. São estabelecidas três fases do seu desenvolvimento e fatos marcantes que as delimitaram. Por ultimo, o autor conclui ser a existência de duas correntes opostas de opinião – conservadora e progressista – a responsável por distintas formas de conceber/executar o ensino e seus inevitáveis conflitos. Ensino psicanalítico de psicanálise versus ensino de psicanálise, eis a questão!

The author reflects on the education at SPPA and deepens the examination of his psychoanalytic training. He proposes an open and dialectical discussion about evolutionary, conflicting and ideological aspects, which characterize his history. Three phases of its development and milestones are established. Finally, the author concludes that the existence of two opposing currents of opinion – conservative and progressive – are responsible for different forms of understating and fulfilling the education and its inevitable conflicts. Psychoanalytic education of psychoanalysis versus education of psychoanalysis, this is the question!

El autor reflexiona sobre la enseñanza en la SPPA y profundiza el examen de su formación psicoanalítica. Propone una discusión abierta y dialéctica sobre los aspectos evolutivos, conflictivos y ideológicos, que caracterizan su historia. Son establecidas tres etapas de su desarrollo y hechos memorables que las delimitaron. Por ultimo, el autor concluye ser la existencia de dos corrientes opuestas de opinión – conservadora y progresista – la responsable por distintas maneras de concebir/ ejecutar la enseñanza y sus inevitables conflictos. Enseñanza psicoanalítica del psicoanálisis versus enseñanza del psicoanálisis, esa es la cuestión!

Os Grupos de Trabalho na América Latina: minha experiência pessoal e breves reflexões sobre suas possibilidades na América Latina / Los Grupo de Trabajo en América Latina: mi experiencia personal y breves reflexiones sobre sus posibilidades en América Latina / Working Parties in Latin America: my personal experience and brief thoughts on their possibilities in Latin America

O autor, a pedido dos editores da Revista Brasileira de Psicanálise, relata suas experiências pessoais com os Grupos de Trabalho (GT - Working Parties) que, criados na Federação Europeia de Psicanálise (FEP) como proposta para avanços na metodologia de investigação em psicanálise, com base eminentemente clínica, estão agora sendo implementados na América Latina, atraindo a atenção de um grande número de colegas. Apresenta também algumas reflexões sobre a contextualização desses grupos na realidade latino-americana e sobre suas possíveis aplicações em outras áreas da prática e da formação psicanalítica.(AU)

El autor, por solicitación de los editores de la RBP, narra sus experiencias personales con los Grupo de Trabajo (GT - Working Parties), creados en la Federación Europea de Psicoanálisis (FEP), como propuesta para avances en la metodología de investigación en psicoanálisis, con base eminentemente clínica, que están siendo implementados en América Latina, llamando la atención de un buen número de colegas. También presenta algunas reflexiones sobre la contextualización de estos grupos en la realidad de América Latina y sobre sus posibles aplicaciones en diferentes áreas de la formación y la práctica psicoanalíticas.(AU)

The author, upon a request from RBP editors, narrates his personal experience with the Working Parties which, created in the European Psychoanalysis Federation (FEP) as a proposal for the advancement of the methodology of psychoanalytical investigation, with an eminent clinical basis, are now being implemented in Latin-America, catching the attention of a good number of colleagues. He also presents some reflections on the contextualization of these groups in Latin-American reality and on their possible applications in different areas of psychoanalytic training and practice.(AU)

Os Grupos de Trabalho na América Latina: minha experiência pessoal e breves reflexões sobre suas possibilidades na América Latina / Los Grupo de Trabajo en América Latina: mi experiencia personal y breves reflexiones sobre sus posibilidades en América Latina / Working Parties in Latin America: my personal experience and brief thoughts on their possibilities in Latin America

O autor, a pedido dos editores da Revista Brasileira de Psicanálise, relata suas experiências pessoais com os Grupos de Trabalho (GT - Working Parties) que, criados na Federação Europeia de Psicanálise (FEP) como proposta para avanços na metodologia de investigação em psicanálise, com base eminentemente clínica, estão agora sendo implementados na América Latina, atraindo a atenção de um grande número de colegas. Apresenta também algumas reflexões sobre a contextualização desses grupos na realidade latino-americana e sobre suas possíveis aplicações em outras áreas da prática e da formação psicanalítica.

El autor, por solicitación de los editores de la RBP, narra sus experiencias personales con los Grupo de Trabajo (GT - Working Parties), creados en la Federación Europea de Psicoanálisis (FEP), como propuesta para avances en la metodología de investigación en psicoanálisis, con base eminentemente clínica, que están siendo implementados en América Latina, llamando la atención de un buen número de colegas. También presenta algunas reflexiones sobre la contextualización de estos grupos en la realidad de América Latina y sobre sus posibles aplicaciones en diferentes áreas de la formación y la práctica psicoanalíticas.

The author, upon a request from RBP editors, narrates his personal experience with the Working Parties which, created in the European Psychoanalysis Federation (FEP) as a proposal for the advancement of the methodology of psychoanalytical investigation, with an eminent clinical basis, are now being implemented in Latin-America, catching the attention of a good number of colleagues. He also presents some reflections on the contextualization of these groups in Latin-American reality and on their possible applications in different areas of psychoanalytic training and practice.

Os grupos de trabalho na América Latina: minha experiência pessoal e breves reflexões sobre suas possibilidades na América Latina / Los grupo de trabajo en América Latina: mi experiencia personal y breves reflexiones sobre sus posibilidades en América Latina / Working parties in Latin America: my personal experience and brief thoughts on their possibilities in Latin America

O autor, a pedido dos editores da Revista Brasileira de Psicanálise, relata suas experiências pessoais com os Grupos de Trabalho (GT - Working Parties) que, criados na Federação Europeia de Psicanálise (FEP) como proposta para avanços na metodologia de investigação em psicanálise, com base eminentemente clínica, estão agora sendo implementados na América Latina, atraindo a atenção de um grande número de colegas. Apresenta também algumas reflexões sobre a contextualização desses grupos na realidade latino-americana e sobre suas possíveis aplicações em outras áreas da prática e da formação psicanalítica.

El autor, por solicitación de los editores de la RBP, narra sus experiencias personales con los Grupo de Trabajo (GT - Working Parties), creados en la Federación Europea de Psicoanálisis (FEP), como propuesta para avances en la metodología de investigación en psicoanálisis, con base eminentemente clínica, que están siendo implementados en América Latina, llamando la atención de un buen número de colegas. También presenta algunas reflexiones sobre la contextualización de estos grupos en la realidad de América Latina y sobre sus posibles aplicaciones en diferentes áreas de la formación y la práctica psicoanalíticas.

The author, upon a request from RBP editors, narrates his personal experience with the Working Parties which, created in the European Psychoanalysis Federation (FEP) as a proposal for the advancement of the methodology of psychoanalytical investigation, with an eminent clinical basis, are now being implemented in Latin-America, catching the attention of a good number of colleagues. He also presents some reflections on the contextualization of these groups in Latin-American reality and on their possible applications in different areas of psychoanalytic training and practice.