Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program Curriculum

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The mission of the psychoanalytic psychotherapy training program is to provide advanced training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Students will learn to assess patients' levels of development and functioning on a continuum from understructured to normal and to apply corresponding interventions on a continuum from ego-supportive to insight-oriented.

The emphasis is on treatment that promotes insight into unconscious processes and the conscious use of relationship, including attention to transference and countertransference. Students will learn psychoanalytic theories including drive theory, ego psychology, object relations theory, self-psychology, attachment theory, trauma theory and relational theory.

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy training consists of three parts:

didactic coursework

having one's own psychoanalysis or psychoanalytic psychotherapy, either completed or concurrent with training

treating patients in psychoanalytic psychotherapy under close supervision

Required Coursework:
Below is the currently proposed list of didactic coursework needed to complete the psychoanalytic psychotherapy curriculum. As the curriculum is still in development, these courses may be modified.

The didactic curriculum consists of approximately 200-250 class hours, depending on whether you take Thinking Psychoanalytically: The Basics or meet the equivalency criteria (see course information below).

Most required courses are 16 weeks long and 24 class hours. Thinking Psychoanalytically: The Basics is 16 weeks long and 44 class hours. Electives are generally 8 weeks long and 12 class hours.

It is our goal to offer each of these core courses every other year, though some may be offered more or less frequently. For example, both Thinking Psychoanalytically: The Basics and Introduction to Psychodynamic Assessment are generally offered every year. Please consult with your advisor or the Administrative Director if you have questions about upcoming course schedules.

• Thinking Psychoanalytically: The Basics OR an equivalent exposure to and understanding of psychoanalytic theory and its application to the treatment of patients. This can be a combination of previous psychoanalytic coursework, training, and/or clinical supervision in graduate school, psychiatric residency, or post-graduation. This decision will be made as part of the admissions process.

• Introduction to Psychodynamic Assessment

• The Analytic Attitude, Parts 1 and 2

• Psychoanalytic Models of the Mind, Parts 1 and 2
  • These courses are an overview of how our current ways of conceptualizing how the mind is organized emerged from an attempt to solve clinical problems found in prior theories. The aim will be to examine the clinical and cultural/historical contexts in which each theory arose and the application of the resulting model to treatment of patients. Theories covered include drive, ego, object relations, self psychology, and relational.

• Psychoanalytic Theories of Normal Development and Psychopathology, Parts 1 and 2
  • These courses cover birth through later adulthood, including normal and abnormal development.
  
• Transforming Destructiveness: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy with the Difficult-to-Treat Patient
  • The 2008-2009 course, Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Borderline Personality: Theory and Technique, will fulfill the requirement for this course.

• Electives -any 12 hours of a variety of elective courses offered

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