Program of Training in Psychoanalysis

Introduction

The Centre offers a comprehensive program of training in psychoanalysis comprising the three components of psychoanalytic formation (personal analysis, clinical supervision and theoretical and clinical studies) leading to registration with the Centre as a practising analyst. In conjunction with the Department of Psychology at Victoria University of Technology, the Institute offers a Master of Psychoanalysis. It is recognised by the Centre as part of the studies required by its training program. This four year, part time course offers a rigorous sequence of clinical studies and research in psychoanalysis at an advanced level. It is aimed at professionals and students in the field of mental health as well as students and workers in disciplines that incorporate psychoanalytic knowledge and methodology. A limited number of vacancies will be offered to students able to take only individual subjects, as well as those wishing to audit subjects. The Master of Psychoanalysis program is also offered in Sydney.

Psychoanalytic training

"A psychoanalysis, standard or not, is the treatment that one expects from a psychoanalyst".^[1] Jacques Lacan, in his seminar on The Psychoanalytic Act, pointed out that the tautology of this statement is only apparent since it refers the problem of the definition of psychoanalysis to that of the appropriate qualification of a psychoanalyst.^[2] It is noteworthy that Freud´s major text on the matter of the training and qualification of psychoanalysts, "The Question of Lay Analysis" is also a definitive re-statement of the principles of psychoanalytic treatment.^[3] The questions regarding the appropriate form of training for psychoanalysts always evoke the definition of psychoanalysis and vice versa.

The training of psychoanalysts is the direct condition of possibility for psychoanalysis. The psychoanalyst is that specific function in a praxis which isolates the specific object of psychoanalysis, the unconscious.^[4] In the dialectic between theory and practice the analyst is at the juncture of the two, meaning that psychoanalysis cannot be reduced solely to a technical application.^[5]

Each analyst develops his or her own practice by drawing on a coherent body of theory derived from the works of Sigmund Freud and by undergoing the experience of psychoanalysis both as analysand and as analyst. The Australian Centre for Psychoanalysis follows the specific orientation given to this work by Jacques Lacan. However the ACP also recognises the common origin of the various psychoanalytic movements in so far as they themselves recognise their point of departure in the experience that Freud created and in his writings.

The specificity of each analyst's position in relation to psychoanalysis implies two further responsibilities. The first is that an analyst is able to sustain the fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis in the development of his or her particular praxis. Secondly, this ongoing development requires that an analyst take on the responsibility for the transmission of psychoanalysis through his or her practice of it. This responsibility never ceases.

It follows that there can be no standardisation of the practice of psychoanalysis. Similarly there can be no complete standardisation of the training of analysts. The regulation of training by quantification of its procedures and content is of necessity minimal and somewhat arbitrary, and it bears only a pragmatic relation to the definition of psychoanalysis or the psychoanalyst.

The psychoanalyst's desire and psychoanalytic knowledge

The nature of the knowledge acquired in the psychoanalytic experience is particular. It is not a permanent knowledge; it cannot be accumulated like scientific knowledge, and it must be renewed in the experience which created it.^[6] Therefore training is not simply the acquisition of a qualification, but includes an encounter with unconscious knowledge which is by definition bound up with a process of repression and return of the repressed. Thus the acquisition of knowledge in psychoanalysis always calls into question the subjectivity of the practitioner, and the difficulty of specifying criteria for training rests on the impossibility of objectively assessing the subject s status with regard to his or her knowledge of unconscious desire.

While it is necessary for psychoanalysis to exist in a culture, to operate in its laws and to acknowledge its demands for legitimacy and guarantees, psychoanalysis is also in a unique position to submit the demands of its given culture to a critical analysis. This applies particularly to the demand for standardisation and the evasion of ethical responsibility by recourse to bureaucracy. Psychoanalysis brings the unwelcome knowledge that standardisation guarantees nothing but conformity and promises the extinction of creative thought. Rather than centering the training of analysts around conformity to a set of quantified criteria, the fundamental principle of the Lacanian orientation is that a psychoanalyst is defined by his or her desire. The psychoanalyst´s desire is an "experienced" (Lacan´s term was averti) and analysed desire which is at the heart of an analyst s pursuit of psychoanalysis.^[7]

The training function of a School of Psychoanalysis

The Lacanian orientation is characterised by an attempt to rethink the notion of training in psychoanalysis and by a number of concepts which aim to found an appropriate institutional operation. These concepts are derived from a critique of the effects of idealisation, homogeneity, standardisation and annulment of creativity which stem from group transference, as described by Freud.^[8] Of particular relevance is the concept of a School which aims towards working on the essential problems of psychoanalysis and its relations with other fields of inquiry. In line with the Lacanian orientation, the School "intends to accord its space not only to a labor of criticism: to the opening up of the grounds of our experience, to the questioning of the manner of life to which it leads."^[9] The form of this labour cannot be pre-determined but its effects become apparent in an analyst s analytic thinking and in the testimony she or he gives of his or her clinical practice. What guides our training is the knowledge that although "The teaching of psychoanalysis can be transmitted from one subject to another only by way of the transference,"^[10] it is not the teaching which creates psychoanalysts but a transference that becomes a transference to work in all areas of the School.

Self-authorisation

The Lacanian precept held by the ACP, that psychoanalytic training is never complete, is not contradicted by the notion that at a certain point of his or her personal psychoanalysis a trainee passes to the function of psychoanalyst. Since it is produced within the experience of analysis, this passage cannot be regulated from without, but is an act for which each analyst bears responsibility, and is to be arrived at according to the logic of each treatment. For this reason Lacan said that "the psychoanalyst derives his authorisation from himself"^[11], to assert, not that the assumption of the role of psychoanalyst is unregulated, but that it must be regulated by the ethics derived from the analysis of an analyst´s desire. The self-authorisation which follows completion of this task of analysis is the first logical moment of the analyst's function.

The passage from psychoanalysand to psychoanalyst, marked by an analyst s self-authorisation, is a moment derived essentially from the analyst s personal analysis but it is an act which, unlike others in the analysts analysis, has a direct significance for the psychoanalytic institution. The fact that self-authorisation is fundamental does not preclude that the institution provide a guarantee that the training it offers is reflected in the analyst it has produced. The responsibility for the analyst s self authorisation is his or her own, while the responsibility for any form of guarantee belongs to the institution. The guarantee of the institution testifies that an analyst has undergone a training and has presented his or her work to the scrutiny of supervisors and colleagues and is deemed to be a competent practictioner. Membership of the ACP's register of practising analysts requires that training in the forms of research and the presentation of work to peers continue beyond the act of self-authorisation and indeed for the duration of membership.

Cartel for Training

Lacan invented the concept of the cartel as a forum through which psychoanalytic work can be achieved.^[12] The cartel is a small group which meets for a limited duration with the aim of working on a crucial problem of psychoanalysis. The cartel has one member who functions as a "plus-one": partly outside the group, that member s role is to ensure that the cartel works to its designated aim. The training procedures of the ACP will be handled by a Cartel for Training and a Secretary for Training.

The Cartel for Training has five members. It is composed of two members registered in the Register of Practising Analysts appointed by the Committee of Management (CoM) of the ACP, one member of the CoM and the Co-ordinator of the Institute for Training. The fifth member, the plus-one, will be elected by the four appointed members from amongst the list of registered practising analysts of the ACP. The cartel will continue with these members for a duration of two years, after which there will be a permutation of membership.

The Secretary for training will be appointed by the CoM, again for a duration of two years. The function of the Secretary is to administer the application and evaluation procedures of the Program for Training. This includes receiving applications, maintaining a data base and logbook of training activities, communicating decisions made by the Cartel for training, organising interviews and taking responsibility for all other administrative tasks.

The Cartel will be responsible for evaluating applications to the training program and the list of psychoanalysts-in-training. The Cartel for training will also be responsible for evaluating the progress of psychoanalysts-in-training annually by way of written report. In the course of the training period, candidates will also submit two written case reports chosen from amongst the cases which they have treated under supervision. The reports will be evaluated by the Cartel in accordance with the expected functioning of a psychoanalyst.

In conjunction with the Institute for Training the cartel ensures the provision of an adequate program of study for psychoanalysts-in-training. The cartel will be responsible for the annual production of a report to the membership at the Annual General Meeting of the ACP. In this way the transparency of the Cartel s function and its accountability to the membership, trainees and the psychoanalytic field will be ensured. The cartel s report will include a conceptual evaluation of the progress of the program, as well as any practical recommendations derived from such evaluation.

Procedures for training

Applications for candidature as a psychoanalyst-in-training can be made at any time by those actively participating in the programs of the Institute for Training, members of the ACP or others wishing to enter its training program. There are no restrictions to entry by profession or previous training.^[13] Registration as a candidate with the Institute for Training will be dependent on a candidate satisfying the Cartel for Training that he/she has in place adequate arrangements to pursue all three components of psychoanalytic training. Upon acceptance as a psychoanalyst-in-training, a candidate's name will be added to a list of current trainees and the trainee will be expected to fully participate in the training program. Those registered as psychoanalysts-in-training with the ACP Institute for Training will be required to agree to adhere to the ACP's Constitution and Code of Professional Conduct, and will be subject to its complaints procedure.

Application for candidature as a psychoanalyst-in-training is made in writing to the Cartel for Training outlining the reasons for the application and the candidate s history of training. Following receipt of the application a personal interview will be arranged at which the application and the training program will be discussed with a Cartel member.

The nature of psychoanalytic training in the ACP

The ACP adheres to a Lacanian conception of psychoanalytic training. Three basic components are regarded as crucial and indispensable: personal analysis, clinical supervision and study of psychoanalytic theory. As a rule and as it is feasible, given the differing duration of its components, these three activities will be carried out concurrently. The cartel for training will consider each trainee's training program in its own right and has the power to determine exceptions to the rule of concurrency.

The personal analysis must be carried to completion, but because of its nature its duration will vary from case to case and cannot be specified in advance. The other aspects of training are expected to continue beyond the duration of formal status as psychoanalyst-in-training, but the psychoanalyst-in-training is required to complete an agreed course of theoretical training which will normally be for a period of four years, and to report to a satisfactory level on two training cases, as described above.

The ACP is a member of Psychotherapy and Counseling Federation of Australia (PACFA). The program of training meets the draft guidelines and requirements for registration with the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy section of PACFA. It is therefore envisaged that analysts who successfully complete a training program will be eligible to register with this section of the PACFA register.^[#] In addition, applicants will be required to apply to the PACFA register individually. In accordance with requirements for registration, the date of commencement of training will be the date of acceptance for admission into the Institute s training program under the condition that the trainee has already commenced a personal analysis.

Personal Analysis

A candidate is free to choose his or her analyst so long as the work is clearly defined as psychoanalysis to the satisfaction of the analyst, the analysand and the Cartel for training. The duration of this analysis cannot be fixed: ". ...duration can only be anticipated for the subject as indefinite."^[14] Although the frequency of analytic sessions should not be taken as definitive of psychoanalysis, the typical practice recommended for training purposes involves a high frequency of sessions per week. The value of the personal analysis cannot be determined by the stature of the analyst who conducts it, and in this sense no category of so-called "training analyst" is recognised by the ACP. In principle, any analysis can come to have a training function, and its worth in this regard is determined by its results. The Institute for Training will not regard any analysis which has been rebated under Medicare or private health insurance as a component of training.

The value of a training can only be determined at the level of the analytic act of which the analyst becomes capable. This act commences with "self-authorisation". This is the means by which a Psychoanalyst-in-training signals to the analytic community that, in concluding their candidature, they are ready to continue the analytic act into the practice of psychoanalysis. That this analyst is so able can only be determined by what follows, in their practice and their demonstration to the analytic community of an ongoing transference to the work of psychoanalysis. Because of this, the ACP and the Institute for Training are structured around a sustained, critical and public presentation of psychoanalytic work.

The Institute for Training assesses progress in training in discussion with each psychoanalyst-in-training, but does not itself offer a guarantee or certification of the completion of training. This responsibility rests with the institution (the ACP), and is made when the psychoanalyst is included on the ACP Register of Practising Analysts. The act of self-authorisation leads to the possibility of this recognition as a practising analyst of the ACP. Such registration is pursued by application to the ACP Register Committee, and is dependent on the committee being satisfied that all the components of a training have been carried out to the extent that the candidate can be recognised as an analyst. The procedure is described in the document entitled "Register of Practising Analysts" which is available on request from the Secretary of the ACP.

Supervision of Clinical Work

The Psychoanalyst-in-training is free to choose his or her supervisors so long as that supervision is clearly defined as psychoanalytic in orientation, and recognised as such by the Cartel for training. It is required that the psychoanalyst-in-training seek supervision from at least two different supervisors over the course of his/her training. There is no prior definition of what constitutes a training case. Cases can only be determined as having a didactic function retrospectively, and this determination is made by the Cartel for training on submission of written reports of two cases.

In addition it is recommended that psychoanalysts-in-training regularly present their clinical work to the ACP s clinical seminar. It is highly recommended that psychoanalysts-in-training avail themselves of a wide and substantial clinical experience in the course of their training period. As stated above, two cases must be submitted to the Cartel for training in the course of the training period.

Theoretical Study

The theoretical component of training is made up of the formal program offered by the Institute for Training. Other means of studying psychoanalysis are possible and will be considered by the cartel for training and the Institute for Training. All psychoanalysts-in-training, practising psychoanalysts registered with the ACP and other members are expected to participate actively in the different forms of theoretical study organised by the ACP which include seminars, study groups, cartels, workshops and conferences.

The recognition of training

It is not possible to determine a priori that an analysis has a training function. There is no a priori guarantee of passing to the position of analyst from undergoing an analysis or working clinically under supervision. Personal analysis and supervision in themselves do not constitute a guarantee, and so cannot be used as a basis for any register of psychoanalysts. The ACP does not regulate the form and content of analysis and supervision, nor the qualifications of analyst or supervisor, since such regulation can only be justified if it can provide a guarantee of outcome. But this does not mean that the ACP's recognition of competent training and practice is without regulation. On the contrary, the ACP, through its Cartel and Institute for Training, requires demonstrations of the results of the training before it will confirm that the psychoanalyst-in-training has achieved a level of practice and theoretical formulation which can be regarded as analytic. The training offered by the ACP Institute for Training is assessed at an institutional level when its results, the effects of the analyst s acts, are put under scrutiny.

Further information

For general enquiries regarding the Institute's program, contact:
Leonardo Rodríguez Tel (03) 9349 3462 or Esther Faye Tel: 0408 733 738.

For specific enquiries regarding the Master of Psychoanalysis course contact:
Leonardo Rodríguez Tel (03) 9349 3462

^[1] Jacques Lacan "Variations de la cure typique", in Écrits (Paris: Seuil, 1966).
^[2] Jacques Lacan, Seminar XV, The psychoanalytic act, 1967-1968, session of 13 March 1968 (unpublished transcript).
^[3] Sigmund Freud, "The Question of Lay Analysis", SE 20.
^[4] Jacques Lacan, "Excommunication", in The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis(London: Tavistock, 1977), 2.
^[5] Jacques Lacan, "Founding Act", in Television: a Challenge to the Psychoanalytic Establishment(New York: Norton, 1990). On the concept of praxis see Louis Althusser, "On the Materialist Dialectic", in For Marx, (London: Verso, 1969)
^[6] Cf. Jacques Lacan, "Science and Truth", Newsletter of the Freudian Field3.
^[7] Cf. Jacques Lacan, " The demand for happiness and the promise of analysis", in The Seminar, Book VII, The Ethics of Psychoanalysis, 1959-1960 (London: Routledge, 1992), 300; and "In you more than you", in The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis (London: Tavistock, 1977), 276. [The French term averti could be translated as "informed", "knowledgeable" or "warned"]
^[8] Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, SE 18.
^[9] Jacques Lacan, "Founding Act", 104.
^[10] Jacques Lacan, "Founding Act", 103.
^[11]  Jacques Lacan, "Proposition of 9 October 1967 on the Psychoanalyst of the School", Analysis 6 (1995).
^[12] For a description of the structure and function of a cartel, see Jacques Lacan's "Founding Act".
^[13] "...one is admitted at the base [of a School] only with a work project and without any consideration being given to provenance or to qualification" ("Proposition of 9 October 1967 on the Psychoanalyst of the School", 1). The same position was held by Freud. Cf. Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud(London: Hogarth, 1953-57), 3:299)
[#] At the time of writing the criteria for registration with the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy section of PACFA had not been finalised.
^[14]  Jacques Lacan, "The function and field of speech and language in psychoanalysis", in Écrits: A Selection (London: Tavistock, 1977), 95.