“Dear Institute…” Candid commentaries from candidates in psychoanalytic training

1. A letter to the British Psychoanalytical Society, London, United Kingdom (1913) 

Antonella Trotta-Johnson

 

2. A letter to the Paris Psychoanalytic Institute, France (1915)  A letter to the Swiss Society of Psychoanalysis, Switzerland (1919) 

Mirella de Picciotto

 

3. A letter to the Swiss Society of Psychoanalysis, Switzerland (1919) 

Brigitte Dodge

 

4. A letter to the Indian Psychoanalytical Society, Kolkata (1922)

Gagandeep Kaur Makkar

 

5. Another letter to the Indian Psychoanalytical Society, Kolkata (1922) 

Ashis Roy

 

6. A letter to the Israel Psychoanalytic Institute, Tel-Aviv (1934) 

Naftally Israeli

 

7. A letter to the Swedish Psychoanalytical Society, Stockholm (1934) 

Eva Tillberg

 

8. A letter to the Czech Psychoanalytic Society, Prague, Czech Republic (1936) 

Jakub Kuchař

 

9. A letter to the Italian Psychoanalytic Society, Rome (1936) 

Valentina Palvarini

 

10. A letter to the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association, Buenos Aires (1942) 

Natacha Delgado

 

11. A letter to the Institute of Psychoanalysis of the Chilean Psychoanalytic Association, Santiago (1949) 

Gabriel Rivera

 

12. A letter to the Japan Psychoanalytical Society, Tokyo (1955) 

Naoe Okamura

13. A letter to Asociación Psicoanalítica del Uruguay, Montevideo (1961) 

Ximena Palabé

 

14. A letter to the Psychoanalytic Society of Porto Alegre, Brazil (1963) 

Rafael Mondrzak

 

15. A letter to the Finnish Psychoanalytical Society, Helsinki (1964) 

Maria Lival-Juusela

 

16. A letter to the Association Psychanalytique de France, Paris (1964) 

Samuel Lannadère

 

17. A letter to the Oregon Psychoanalytic Center, Portland, United States of America (1965) 

Cindi Palman

 

18. A letter to Institut für Psychoanalyse und Psychotherapie Freiburg, Germany (1965) 

Sebastian Thrul

 

19. A letter to the Mexican Association for the Practice, Research and Teaching of Psychoanalysis, Mexico City (1965) 

Susana Maldonado

 

20. A letter to Institut de Psychanalyse de Montréal, Canada (1969) 

Nathalie Bissonnette

 

21. A letter to Sociedad Psicoanalítica de México, Mexico City (1972) 

Erika Lepiavka

 

22. A letter to the Australian Psychoanalytic Society, Sydney (1973) 

Leticia Aydos

 

23. A letter to Asociación Psicoanalítica de Buenos Aires, Argentina (1977) 

Florencia Biotti

 

24. A letter to Asociación Psicoanalítica de Madrid, Spain (1981) 

Cecilia Caruana

25. A letter to the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California, San Francisco, USA (1989)  

Nicolle Zapien

 

26. A letter to Instituto de Formação e Terapêutica Psicanalítica do Porto, Lisbon, Portugal (1999) 

Liliana Correia de Castro

 

27. A letter to the Minnesota Psychoanalytic Institute, Minneapolis, USA (1999) 

Nicholas Flier

 

28. A letter to the Western Canada Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Vancouver (2005) 

Michelle van den Engh

 

29. A letter to Société Psychanalytique de Recherche et de Formation, Paris, France (2005) 

Muriel Gayet

 

30. A letter to Instituto Latinoamericano de Psychoanalysis, Guatemala City, Guatemala (2006)   

Liza Zachrisson

31. A letter to the Istanbul Psychoanalytical Association, Turkey (2007) 

Huner Aydin

 

32. A letter to the Korean Institute for Psychoanalysis, Seoul (2007) 

Chang Jeung Park

 

33. A letter to the South African Psychoanalytic Association, Johannesburg (2009) 

Zama Radebe & Siobhan Carter-Brown

 

34. A letter to the Estonian-Latvian Psychoanalytic Society, Tallin and Riga (2010) 

Rolands Ivanovs

 

35. A letter to Societatea Română de Psihanaliză, Bucharest, Romania (2011) 

Carla Pinzaru

 

36. A letter to the Taiwan Center for the Development of Psychoanalysis, Taipei (2018) 

Nancy Pei-Ling Yu

 

37. Another letter to the Taiwan Center for the Development of Psychoanalysis Taipei (2018) 

I-Ning Yeh

38. A letter to Asociación Panameña de Psicoanálisis, Panama City (2020)

Hildegarde Kochman

Biography

Himanshu Agrawal hails from New Delhi, India and is currently an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (USA). He is a psychoanalyst-in-training at the Minnesota Psychoanalytic Institute (USA).

"In “Dear Institute…”, Himanshu Agrawal brings together an international collective of analysts-in-formation who offer us informative, thought-provoking, courageous accounts of their experience of psychoanalytic training. Both the structure of the book and the individual contributions integrate past and present, internal and external, individual and institutional points of view. A short history of the contributor’s institute is shared at the beginning of each piece. The institute’s current contributions to, and sometimes interferences with, the formation of a developing analyst are portrayed. The sum of the book’s parts inspires a serious look at the ingredients of training, formal and informal, that contribute to the formation of curious, creative, rigorous graduates. This book is a must read for analysts involved in psychoanalytic training and an enticing roadmap for those who consider becoming a psychoanalyst."

Harriet Wolfe, MD president, International Psychoanalytical Association

 

“Dear Institute...” is a wonderful gift to the entire international psychoanalytic community and beyond. The letters collected here from 40 analysts-in-formation from almost all regions of the world continue an intergenerational dialog that began with 42 letters from older psychoanalysts to the younger generation in 'Dear Candidate' and is now proving extraordinarily fruitful. Each letter is fascinating in its very personal description of the changing experiences, the struggle with hopes, wishes, but also inner doubts and external obstacles in psychoanalytic training, such as problems with the time available, the costs of training or institutional conflicts. The opportunity to talk emerges as groundbreaking for all these questions: both with older psychoanalysts and within the younger generation, at the local Institute and internationally within the International Psychoanalytical Studies Organization (IPSO). Critical and grateful comments are in a creative interplay. The diverse suggestions in this partly poetic book are essential for the future of psychoanalysis in a changing world. My thanks to all contributors!"

Dr. med. Heribert Blass, president-elect, International Psychoanalytic Association

"More than an answer, “Dear Institute...” establishes a rich and truthful dialog with all those interested in psychoanalysis.
Following the success of Dear Candidate, this book presents a cartography of psychoanalytic training around the world. Here we find love, doubts, ideals, passions, gratitude and creativity, in short, a human and dreamy perspective on the future of psychoanalysis and a testimony to psychoanalytic formations.

With its unique wealth of images, “Dear Institute...” offers the reader dreams and distant lands, desire and thirst for knowledge, the past and the search for the unknown.
Happy reading!"

Thércio Andreatta Brasil, president of the Organization of Latin American Candidates

"The process of becoming a psychoanalyst evolves throughout our professional lives, but a critical phase of that journey is the deeply personal and immersive experience of training and education in our psychoanalytic institutes and centers. Motivated by his own self-reflection, courage, curiosity, creativity, and humor, Himanshu Agrawal, an advanced candidate at the Minnesota Psychoanalytic Institute, invited 40 candidates/analysts-in-formation from 30 countries to write about their experiences in the form of a letter to their institutes. The result is the revelatory edited volume, “Dear Institute...”, comprising intimate and illuminating narratives of the lived experiences of thoughtful, insightful individuals in psychoanalytic training programs around the world. “Dear Institute...” is the international, intergenerational dialogic partner of Dear Candidate, a seminal volume of letters, edited by Fred Busch, and written by senior analysts who share their reflections with candidates. Each volume stands alone, but together they provide complementary windows into the challenges faced by analysts at different stages of formation and into the complexities and contradictions of the institutional context of their professional lives. Wherever you locate yourself along the spectrum of analyst-in-formation, or if you are simply curious about contemporary psychoanalytic training and education, you will find “Dear Institute...” richly rewarding."

Wendy Jacobson, MD head, Department of Psychoanalytic Education, American Psychoanalytic Association

James Barron, PhD associate head, Department of Psychoanalytic Education, American Psychoanalytic Association

"Every future analyst has a home, a real "emotional residence" for his nascent Professional Self: that is, his Training Institute.  And he has his own "analytic family" in which he grows both scientifically and humanly, reliving at a deep level the complex path of intergenerational transmission of skills.

The achievement of technical maturity and work autonomy will never cause him to lose his deep inner connection with this original training environment.

Those interested in knowing how a psychoanalyst is really trained should read this very book: they will then be able to understand "from the inside," from the authentic testimony of its protagonists, the challenging human journey that leads to the practice of this "impossible," fascinating, adventurous profession."

Stefano Bolognini, MD former president, International Psychoanalytic Association

"This volume containing thirty-nine letters from analysts in training from different parts of the world is a crucial contribution to all of us who share a passion for the transmission of psychoanalysis.

Its diversity in terms of geography, time zones, languages and culture, is a remarkable testimony of the commitment to the analytic method and its practice around the world at difficult times following the pandemic, climate tragedy and wars.

The sincerity and honesty with which the writers of the letters share with us the positive and negative aspects of each of their formative experiences are really moving.

Together with Dear Candidate, the book that inspired the editor to compile these letters they produce an effect of beauty similar to what in music is called counterpoint:  the "art of combining, according to certain rules, two or more different melodies".

This book is a powerful contribution not only for those interested in psychoanalytic education but even more important for the sustenance of our discipline."

Virginia Ungar, M.D. former president, International Psychoanalytic Association

 

"Dear Institute…” is a remarkable book, inspired by “Dear Candidate” , edited by Fred Busch, with letters from 42 analysts from all over to world about their own personal and analytic experience. “Dear Institute” is written by 39  analysts in training from 29 countries across the world , candidly sharing their own experiences with their Institutes in the long process of becoming an analyst. As I was reading this moving and unique book, I relived my own analytic journey and had the double feeling of revisiting my past and listening to the thoughts and feelings of our younger colleagues. I strongly recommend this outstanding book that constitute , by its own merits or jointly with its inspiring one, a lively witness of the vitality and creative dialogue among minds, ideas, experiences and generations that are involved in the endless work of building psychoanalysis."

Prof. Dr. Cláudio Laks Eizirik, MD, PhD training analyst , Porto Alegre Psychoanalytic Society and former president, International Psychoanalytic Association

"This book is 'a must to read'! Reading the vast collection of letters written by analysts in training from all over the world will not only immerse you in the memories of your own training, but it will above all introduce you to the richness and variety of what transmission of psychoanalysis today represents.

Each letter in itself written with deep thoughtfulness, honesty, and emotion relates an idiosyncratic experience that is both personal and collective of what the complex path “of becoming an analyst” represents. The reader will have the chance to discover the variety of the different training models around IPA community, with its strengths and vulnerabilities to be taken in consideration.

This book will be of great interest not only for the next generation of candidates, but also for the training analysts, institutes, and whole members of IPA as becoming an analyst is a lifelong process, an unending Odyssey!"

Dr. Katy Bogliatto, MD, IPA vice-president elect.