Psychoanalytic Education Center of the Carolinas
 

Psychoanalytic Education Center of the Carolinas
Psychoanalysis Training Program Curriculum
The two training programs of the Psychoanalytic Education Center of the Carolinas prepare clinicians to relieve human suffering and facilitate individual growth through their sophisticated understanding of human nature and their disciplined approach to a therapeutic relationship. The psychoanalytic training program prepares practitioners to practice psychoanalysis, a treatment that enables those patients who are able to utilize an insight-oriented, self-exploratory approach to work at a greater depth and achieve fuller change than is generally possible in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
Psychoanalysis is a discipline that studies human development, human relationships, mental health, and mental illness as outcomes of the unique interaction among each individual's thoughts, feelings, behaviors, culture, and environment. Psychoanalysis is also a treatment method that focuses upon a systematic exploration of unconscious phenomena, as well as on the conscious, neurobiological, and social phenomena upon which other treatment modalities concentrate.
The training program in psychoanalysis teaches this practice of psychoanalysis through an extensive study of theories of mind and of the interplay between these theories and the clinical situation. Psychoanalytic training consists of three parts:
  • classroom study
  • having one's own psychoanalysis
  • treating patients in psychoanalysis under close supervision

    • The didactic portion of the training involves approximately 500 in-class hours divided between courses on the Conceptual Basis of the Psychoanalytic Understanding of Mind and courses on the Application of the Psychoanalytic Understanding of Mind in the Clinical Setting.
  • Most courses will be one-semester (16-week) courses that meet for 1.5 hours per week, although some elective courses may meet for a shorter period.
  • There will be about 17 required courses and 4 (or more if some are shorter) electives.
  • In addition, candidates will participate in a clinical case conference. The minimum hours of clinical case conference will be 48 prior to graduation, but we expect most candidates will participate during the majority of their educational program.
    • Required Coursework:
    The required courses as currently visualized are listed below. This curriculum is under development, however, so the details can be expected to change.
    It is our goal to offer each of these core courses every other year, though some may be offered more or less frequently. Please consult with your advisor or the Administrative Director if you have questions about upcoming course schedules.
    • Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy: Overlap and Distinctions ( 1 semester )
    • Psychodynamic Assessment (1 semester)
    • Normal Development (2 semesters)
    • Pathological Development (2 semesters)
    • Development of the Field: The History & Current State of Psychoanalysis ( 4 semesters)
      • Each of our current ways of conceptualizing how mind is organized emerged from an attempt to solve clinical problems found in prior theories. This course will examine the clinical and cultural/historical zeitgeist in which each theory arose and the application of the resulting model to treatment of patients.
    • The Analytic Frame: Analytic Attitude and Listening, Free Association, Neutrality, and Ethics (2 semesters)
    • Transference, Countertransference, and Resistance (1 semester)
    • Working with Defenses and Unconscious Fanatasy in Current Practice ( 1 semester )
    • Theory and Use of Dreams in Psychoanalysis (1 semester)
    • Trauma (1 semester)
      • The spring 2011 course, "Transforming Destructiveness: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy with the Difficult-to-Treat Patient," will satisfy this requirement.
    • Termination of a Psychoanalysis (1 semester)