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The Training Program

Enrollment

Those applicants who are accepted are eligible to enroll in the training program as candidates.  The current tuition fee is $3,000.00 per year for each of the first five years of course work. There is a charge for matriculation after completion of all course work, which is currently $1,000.00 per year.  Tuition and matriculation fees are payable in full at the beginning of each academic year.  Tuition and fees may be subject to change after consideration by the Board.  Fees for the personal psychoanalysis are arranged individually with the student’s psychoanalyst. The usual supervision fee is equal to the fee of one session that the control is charged and paid to the supervisor.

 

The institute reserves the right to make changes to the analytic training program and fees charged for tuition and classes at the institute’s discretion.

Personal Psychoanalysis

The goal of the personal analysis is essentially that of a therapeutic psychoanalysis with particular attention, however, to the realization by the student of his or her optimum potential as a psychoanalyst.  All candidates are required to begin a personal analysis with a Training Analyst of the Berkshire Psychoanalytic Institute. Candidates make their own arrangements with an analyst of their choice.  All training analyses are conducted with a minimum of four sessions per week.  Some training analysts may recuse their analysands from the classes they teach, in which case other arrangements are made.

A period of personal analysis must be concurrent with a substantial period of the student’s supervised psychoanalytic work.  The opportunity for the candidate to explore personal responses to the analytic situation (and the supervisory situation) while analyzing a patient is essential to his or her own development as an analyst.

The total duration of the training analysis is an individual matter determined by analyst and analysand as long as it is on-going during a significant part of training.  In the event that the training analysis is not proceeding satisfactorily, it can be interrupted by analysand or analyst.  In appropriate circumstances the training analysis may be undertaken with a different training analyst.  It is the explicit policy of this Institute that the Training Analyst observes the strictest confidentiality with respect to the content of the training analysis.

 

Supervised Clinical Psychoanalyses

As part of their clinical training, candidates are required to carry out psychoanalytic treatments under the supervision of a Supervising Analyst.  A minimum of three such treatments is required, but due to the unpredictable variations among candidates and their control cases, more may be required. Patients in supervised analyses must be seen a minimum of four sessions weekly, with weekly supervision.  Periodic written reports of all of a student’s clinical work is required.  Approval to conduct analyses without supervision is given when the candidate achieves a satisfactory level of competence.

The Education Committee, upon review of supervisors’ reports, progress in coursework, and other materials, determines if the necessary level of clinical competence has been achieved to meet the requirement for graduation.

 

Didactic Courses and Seminars

The program is planned to give the student a thorough grounding in psychoanalytic theory, psychoanalytic technique, and the writing and presentation of the clinical process of psychoanalysis. The program of courses currently includes a five-year curriculum of required and elective courses. Candidate participation and presentation in the courses are a critical aspect of the candidate’s education and progress toward graduation.  All candidates are required to present clinical process from their training cases in seminars.

Curriculum

The core curriculum is planned with respect to the following areas of psychoanalysis:  Psychoanalytic Theory, Development, Psychopathology, Clinical Technique and Clinical Process. These courses are complemented by a selection of electives, often taught by guest faculty and available from the first year of training.  The curriculum includes five years of courses, with a main term of 28 weeks (three classes).  Courses will be added for candidates who have completed the 4/5 year program as part of their education until they graduate.

Classes will generally meet on Wednesday 7:00 – 8:30 P.M. and Saturday 11:00 A.M. – 12:30 P.M.

If you have further questions regarding the curriculum, please contact Dr. Marie Rudden.

The full curriculum, described below, is currently being revised and will be held over a five year period starting September, 2012, with one class mid-week and one on Saturday mornings.

Below is the basic outline of the curriculum:

Year One:

Introductory Session

The purpose of this initial session is to provide an orientation to psychoanalytic thinking, discourse, and clinical psychoanalysis.

  •  Introduction to Psychoanalysis and Technique.
  • Developmental Psychopathology.
  • On Reading Freud (elective).

Fall and Spring Terms (September-June)

  • Foundation of Psychoanalytic Theory: Writings of Sigmund Freud.  Psychopathology; Hysteria, Anxiety, Obsessive-compulsions, Depression, Borderline and Narcissism
  • Development.  Infant Development
  • Theory of Technique I.  Overview of the essential elements of the psychoanalytic setting and process, using both readings and clinical presentation.

Year 2:

  • Ego Psychology and Object Relations Theory.
  • Theory of Technique II.
  • In depth consideration of the Psychoanalytic Frame, Unconscious derivatives, Defense analysis, Interpretation, Transference and Countertransference.
  • How Child Analysis Informs Adult Analysis.
  • Development II.
  • Preoedipal and Oedipal Development
  • Process . Faculty and candidate presentations.
  • Psychoanalytic Writing.

Year 3:

  • Professional Ethics II.
  • Theory of Technique III.
  • Psychoanalytic Theory III.
  • Theories of Self-psychology, attachment, and the interdisciplinary concepts of fantasy and representation, internalization, identification, and memory.
  • Severe Psychopathology.
  • Development III.  Middle Childhood.
  • Psychoanalytic Writing.
  • Process. Faculty and candidate, adult clinical presentations.

Year 4:

 

  • Psychoanalytic Theory IV.  Review and consolidation.
  • Theory of Technique IV:  Focus on issues of termination.
  • Development IV.  Adolescence.
  • Gender and Sexuality
  • Process:  Child Presentation
  • Process:  Candidate written and oral presentations

 

Although the Berkshire Psychoanalytic Institute does not offer training in Child Psychoanalysis at this time, the possibility of offering such training in the future is being explored. If interested, please contact Dr. Susan Sherkow.