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Candidate : Vanessa Martinache

Home Institute: The Paris Psychoanalytical Institute (IPP) attached to the Paris Psychoanalytical Society (SPP), France

Hosting Institute: New Center for Psychoanalysis (NCP), Los Angeles, USA

Visiting Candidate Program (VCP) Period: Half a day on October 30,2019

 

I have been a French Candidate at the IPP since 2015. As I come to Los Angeles several times a year for vacation, I was recently starting to wonder how psychoanalytic institutes were working there. Because of the very rich experience from my young years spent achieving a master’s degree in the US, my curiosity kept growing and growing about what such a training program could be like.  

 

Knowing no one practicing psychoanalysis in the US, I had no idea how to get such information. Even though I am quite familiar with the International Psychoanalytic Studies Organization (IPSO) meetings and conferences, I didn’t know much about the Visiting Candidate Program (VCP).

 

I decided to give it a try and contacted the IPSO VP-Elect for North America located in California. I have to admit that it was with little hope because of the very last-minute demand and also for such a very short time period -- I only had one day available.

But the IPSO VP-Elect acted quickly! He proposed that I choose one of the three IPA institutes in Los Angeles to visit: The New Center for Psychoanalysis (NCP), The Los Angeles Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies (LAISPS), and The Psychoanalytic Center of California (PCC).  

 

As a very first step into the LA psychoanalytic arena I chose to visit his institute, the NCP, the only one that is part of the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA).

 

At NCP the psychoanalytic path is organized into four years of courses and in supervisions.

I was offered to sit in on two courses: 

 

 

Both were small classes of 4-5 candidates. In the “dreams” course we compared two texts, one from James L. Fosshage and one from Gary Grenell from the perspective of the psychoanalyst role when a dream is told in session. The Freudian, inter-subjectivist and Bionian perspectives were discussed. Then a clinical case was presented by a candidate from their own practice and we tried to understand how the dream was organizing the client's affects. In the “Intersubjectivity” course and based on a James L. Fosshage and Carol A. Munschauer text we discussed the analysts’ enactments and the theory of change. 

 

NCP is a nonprofit psychoanalytic center. To be eligible for an adult psychoanalytic training program one must hold a valid license to practice in the State of California. Most of the candidates are either social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists or have a license in marriage and family therapy. One also should be in a personal analysis throughout the training program. The first year must be 4-5 sessions per week; and may decrease to 3-5 sessions per week after that and may possibly be reduced to 2 sessions per week in the later years of training prior to graduation.  

 

There are three supervised training cases required, where the candidate has one session per week of 1-on-1 supervision for each training case. The first training case must be seen 4-5 times per week for at least the first year, and then may be reduced to 3-5 times per week. The second and third training cases may be seen 3-5 times per week from the beginning. One training case must be of the opposite gender, one may be an adolescent, and one must be a low-fee NCP Clinic case. There are separate requirements for the Child Analytic Program.   

 

The curriculum is pluralistic with an emphasis on Freud during the 1st year and then the evolution of theory going from ego psychology, object relations, and self-psychology to intersubjective and relational theory. Bion, Klein, Winnicott, attachment theory, and neuroscience are part of the program. 

 

Most often classes and clinical case studies emphasize the analytic relationship (from object relations to relational theory). Some classes are divided by a symptom approach or a relational approach: Couples, Addictions, Mood Disorders, Character Disorders, etc.

There are also specific classes on contemporary issues such as Gender and Sexuality, Psychoanalysis and Film, etc.

 

The main differences with the French IPP lie:

I sincerely appreciated this short visit to the NCP. I have been greatly welcomed by everyone. In the two courses in which I was involved, I found the atmosphere among candidates enthusiastic and friendly and the instructors greedy for candidates’ participation, which made the courses so alive. I hope to be able to make another visit to NCP in the future.

 

Finally, I would like to thank in particular:

Gerard Sobnosky, IPSO VP-elect for North America and Advanced clinical associate at the NCP, who organized my VCP in collaboration with Cheryl Difatta, the Institute Administrator and also the instructors Beverly Feinstein, Jeffrey Tropp and Kristen Melnyk.

 

I also would like to thank the IPP Director Ellen Sparer and Johanna Velt, a French IPSO Representative who encouraged me to ask for this visit.

 

Vanessa Martinache