The aims of personal therapy in training

Abstract

Given the requirement of most, if not all, psychoanalytic/psychodynamic trainings that students should be in personal therapy, it might be forgotten that such was not initially seen as compulsory, and that it was only gradually that it became a sine qua non of analytic training. The author briefly considers the early historical evidence, and tracks the debate in the literature on the differences and difficulties of personal therapy contrasted with therapy for patients/clients, and asks, without proposing answers, some of the questions which students, training therapists and educators might want to consider.

Keywords:

• personal therapy
• training analysis
• psychoanalytic education

Notes

1. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly is acknowledged as the copyright holder of this material as originally published (© 1962, The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Inc.).