The psychoanalysts trained in the Spanish Psychoanalytical Society follow the training criteria approved by the IPA (International Psychoanalytical Association). This international institution has the mission of preserving professional and training standards.
The Barcelona Institute of Psychoanalysis, founded in 1971, has trained generations of psychoanalysts, many of whom have an important involvement in the field of public mental health.
The Institute of Psychoanalysis offers training to obtain the title psychoanalyst as recognized by the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA).
The responsibility of training is shared with the Training Committee, the body in charge of evaluating and following the progress of the candidate and his or her supervised cases of psychoanalysis.
Aims of psychoanalytic training
The fundamental aim of psychoanalytic training is to enable the development of a psychoanalytic capacity and a nucleus of psychoanalytic identity. This entails an attitude of scientific curiosity, a spirit of enquiry regarding new observations, and a desire to acquire a global comprehension of psychoanalytic knowledge. It also requires a continued dedication to study and develop as an analyst, periodical consultations or supervision with colleagues and a profound commitment with the treatment of patients. Psychoanalytic training also aims to transmit to students indispensible attributes such as the guarantees of privacy, confidentiality and ethical conduct.
The aim of the Institute of Psychoanalysis is to offer a theoretical and clinical training leading to a fundamental and integrated comprehension, reflected by a way of thinking, understanding and working with patients. Becoming an analyst requires not only the application of a broad body of knowledge, but also the development of a critical and enquiring attitude towards this knowledge through experience.
For this reason, alongside the tripartite training described ahead, the candidate is also encouraged to participate in the scientific activities and meetings of the Society.
These aims are achieved through a tripartite model of training:
A) personal analysis;
B) theoretical and clinical seminars;
C) psychoanalytic treatment of two patients, seen 4 or 5 sessions a week, and supervised weekly.
Personal Analysis
A psychoanalyst must have solid theoretical and technical knowledge and also needs to know him or herself as best as possible, as he/she will display close relationships with patients and will in a certain way have to put him/herself ‘inside the patient’s shoes’ so as to envision and understand their points of view. Simultaneously, the analyst must be capable of maintaining a neutral observing standpoint to aid the patient in understanding his or her problems and the part in which the patient intervenes in them. All this requires discipline and personal training, reflected in the care that is taken to preserve the most adequate conditions of the analytic work frame or setting. Therefore, a thorough personal analysis is an essential requisite of training. The goals of a personal training analysis are the same as those of a therapeutic psychoanalysis. Its formative function includes freeing the candidate from those factors that can interfere with his or her ability to observe, feel, think and work as a psychoanalyst.
Theoretical and Clinical Seminars
The seminars are destined to help the candidate acquire the theoretical foundations and the clinical aptitudes necessary to promote an effective psychoanalytic process, and also to adopt a critical engagement with the theory underlying clinical practice.
This part of training consists in an exploration of the technical characteristics of the psychoanalytical setting, the nature of the commitment between analyst and patient, and the psychoanalytic attitude and stance that contributes to the development of an analytical process. All this requires the total use of one’s resources: knowledge, dedication, character, imagination, and integrity.
These seminars are distributed in two cycles. The first cycle of training includes seminars such as: Introduction to the work of Freud, Introduction to the work of Melanie Klein, Infant Observation, Technique, and Developmental Psychology. In the second cycle of training, once the candidate has been authorized to take on cases of supervised psychoanalysis, seminars deal with more specific issues related to technique and candidates also participate in clinical seminars.
