Theoretical and Clinical Training
The duration of the main psychoanalytical course of the Institute is five years. It comprises two interrelated parts according the internationally recognized standards for classical psychoanalytical education: a) theoretical part and b) clinical part. The personal analysis is integral part of the course but independent of it as it is stressed below.
1. Theoretical Part
The course has a purely theoretical part centered on the classic psychoanalytical concepts and their meta-psychological parameters. It is closely linked to the clinical part. The five-year course attempts to cover the extensions, interrelationships, historical development and enrichment of psychoanalysis as a whole over the years and always under the prism of Freud’s classical positions. Special attention is paid to the understanding and embodiment of the reasons that led Freud to consider “the unconscious” as being something that can never be studied by academic psychology due to its idiosyncratic way of functioning.
2. Clinical Part
The clinical part of the course starts after the expressed readiness of the candidate, with the approval of his/her tutor, and the Educational Committee of the Institute being in agreement. Then, a candidate may proceed to the stage of the course during which he/she undertakes two (or three) clinical cases.
The personal analysis of each candidate is independent of the theoretical and practical parts of the course. The Personal analysis has no temporal minimum or maximum limit.
The course although purely Freudian nevertheless has a broadly speaking unifying character of the five main psychoanalytical schools which often comes under terms like Kleinian, British, French, Independent and American. The spirit of the course always remains under the aegis of classical psychoanalysis. This is addressed at all theoretical, clinical and technical level of education.
Training Psychoanalysis
Personal analysis of the candidates is the cornerstone of their education. The analysis is systematic four to six times weekly and its duration depends upon its fullness. Candidates have the right to state in the Educational Committee of the Institute his/her decision to change analyst. The Educational Committee accepts without any further examination the candidate’s desire. This can happen not more than twice. The Educational Committee must be informed in writing about the conclusion of the training analysis of a candidate by the candidate himself, his/her tutor and finally his/her analyst.
Criteria of selection of candidates to the Five-year Course in Classical Psychoanalysis
Candidates fill in an application form provided either by the Institute’s secretariat or downloaded from the Institute’s webpage. The selection procedure includes evaluation of the application form and two or three interviews conducted by members of the Educational Committee of the Institute
The selection of candidates is made by the Educational Committee of the Institute with purely psychoanalytical criteria.
Factors considered for the acceptance of a candidate are:
- Total appearance of psyche structure and defenses
- His/her prior clinical experience
- The potential for psychological thinking
- The knowledge of foreign languages
Factors like the socio-economic status or previous academic performance of the candidate are not considered of primary importance in the evaluation procedure of candidates.
The outcome of a candidate’s application is communicated to the candidate by the Educational Committee and can be either final of conditional. In the later case there will be well defined preconditions for the final acceptance of the candidate which are usually relevant to his lack of clinical experience.
Candidates who have become accepted for training and they are not already in personal analysis of at least four weekly sessions are asked to start their analysis before the beginning of the theoretical part of their training.
For the application form in English please send us a request via email at info@psychoanalysis.gr