Journal of the American

Psychoanalytic
Association http://apa.sagepub.com/

Trends In The Selection Of Candidates For Psychoanalytic Training

Alfredo Namnum
J Am Psychoanal Assoc 1980 28: 419
DOI: 10.1177/000306518002800208

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 TRENDS IN T H E
SELECTION OF
CANDIDATES FOR ALFREDO
NAMNUM, M.D.

PSYCHOANALYTIC
TRAINING

-
S INCE ITS INSTITUTIONALIZATION in the 19205, psychoanalytic
training has become increasingly systematized, formalized,
and broadened. This is equally true for each of the three phases
of the training. Analyses are longer, the supervised work
requirements expanded and more exacting, and psychoanalytic
curricula more intensive and encompassing (Lewin and Ross,
1960). Selection, however, has not kept pace with the rest of the
training process. The interest in selection and the sophistication
of its methodology have undergone independent fluctuations and
developed their own trends. During the initial phase,' selection
was for the most part taken for granted. During the phase that
began in the late forties and extended to the sixties, the approach
to selection became generally more systematic, highly so in some
institutes. Also during this period, new selection methods were
adopted by many admissions committees. The current phase is
marked by a moderation of some of the highly systematic ap-
proaches and by the abandonment of the new selection methods
adopted during the earlierphase. The current trend is illustrated,
for instance, in the fact that some admissions committees have

.A shortened version of this paper was presented to the Workshop for Institute
Representatives, Dr. Invin Marill, Chairman, American Psychoanalytic Associa-
tion, New York, December 15, 1977.

419

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420 ALFRED0 NAhlNUhl

moved from a highly structured group interview back to the tra-

ditional less structured individual interview, and that others
have abandoned a systematic outline for interviewers. Psycho-
logical testing has also for the most part been abandoned by the
handful'of institutes that adopted it as a routine procedure dur-
ing the forties and fifties.
The source of applicants for psychoanalytic training is pre-
determined by the policy instituted in the Minimal Standards.
In this sense, applicants are preselected. The size of the pool
varies from institute to institute, in small institutes often from
year to year. Fluctuations in the size of the general pool corres-
pond primarily to the prevailing trends among psychiatrists and
psychiatric residents concerning the acceptance or prestige of
psychoanalysis as a profession and, to a lesser extent, to other
changing local conditions of particular institutes. The estab-
lished prerequisites for psychoanalytic training refer to the pro-
fessional qualifications of applicants, i.e. , their eligibility, the
selection process to their individual qualities, or their suitability.
An institute student body is ultimately determined by a com-
bination of the two factors. Ideally, an admissions committee
will select the most suitable from a large number of eligible ap-
plicants. However, local conditions, particularly the pool of
available applicants, will determine the relative importance of
each of these two factors. When the pool of applicants is small,
the professional qualifications which remain constant constitute
the major selection factor, while individual qualities by necessity
become of relatively lesser importance. Thus, under current
conditions the instituted prerequisites for training appear. to
have further-reaching consequences than they did in the forties
or fifties when, generally speaking, admissions committees
selected from larger pools of eligible applicants. This is one
reason for the recent increasing pervasiveness and controversy of
discussions about prerequisites and, correspondingly, for a di-
minishing interest in selection. A large pool of applicants cannot
be a guarantee against errors in selection, but a significant
reduction in the number of applicants increases the probability

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 SELECTION OF CANDIDATES 42 1

of the admission of unsuitable but eligible applicants, whereas a

suitable applicant cannot be admitted unless he is eligible. The
diminished number of applicants may unconsciously influence
the admissions committee and selection process, even where
there is no manifest change of requirements or standards. O n the
other hand, a smaller pool at a time of diminished popularity will
include a larger proportion of highly motivated applicants.
These considerations highlight the complexities of the issue, in-
cluding the question of a medical degree and the requirement of
psychiatric residency.
The consideration of applicants' motivation to become psy-
choanalysts particularly complicates the question of selection.
The elucidation of the factors that constitute this motivation
represents perhaps the single most vital question for considera-
tions of selection, but it is one that cannot be dealt with exten-
sively here. The recognition of motivation and self-selection as
decisive factors becomes especially important when considering
the problems that admissions committees are faced with today.
One of these is that institutes have for the most part failed to de-
velop dependable criteria of suitability for psychoanalytic train-
ing. This is true even of institutes that have devoted considerable
resources to research on selection. The other problem is the cur-
rent reduction in the size of the general pool of applicants.'
These two facts -the frustration of selection research and the de-
cline in the relative rate of applications-have contributed to a
loss of interest in selection in recent years. It should be empha-
sized, however, that a trend marked by a decline in the total
number of applicants and by the correlative liberalization of ad-
mission policies should not necessarily be considered a bad omen
for the interests and future of psychoanalysis. Certainly the op-
posite trend has not in the past represented an unequivocably
positive development for the profession.

*Evenif the total number ofapplicants remains constant or increases over an ex-
tended period of time, the critical figure for considerations of selection is not the total
number of applicants, but this figure relative to the number of institutes, i.e., the
number of applicants to a given institute.

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422 ALFRED0 NAMNUM

During the first twenty years of institutional training very

little interest was expressed in the selection of candidates,.for it
was then taken for granted that to opt for training required a
clear commitment to psychoanalytic work. The question of
suitability was not considered because no particular attention to
selection appeared to be warranted for a small group of ap-
plicants at a time when psychoanalytic training offered an op-
portunity for investigation and practice, but was not attractive as
a profession in terms of other rewards. This changed drastically
in the forties when, at the end of World War 11, psychoanalysis
gained high professional status and psychiatrists in increasing
numbers began to apply for psychoanalytic training for reasons
of prestige and academic, social, and economic advantage. The
question of motivation is a complex one. There are differencesof
opinion, and indications are not clear about whether one kind of
motivation is incompatible with another, or whether it might bi:
appropriate to say that.under the current conditions these moti-
vations may complement each other and thus contribute to satis-
fying and creative work. As the question of an applicant’s moti-
vation for a psychoanalytic career has become more complex
and can no longer be taken for granted, it has come to be one of
the principal areas of interest for admissions committees. The
pathology of applicants and its relation to their motivation has
become another primary area of interest.
The interest of admissions committees in selection was re-
flected in an impressive array of articles on the subject published
in the fifties and the sixties, including proceedings of panels and
symposia, international conferences, a general survey of selec-
tion reported in the Lewin and Ross book on psychoanalytic
education (1960), and many more. Reports have been published,
on extensive studies by the Columbia University Psychoanalytic
Clinic for Training and Research (Klein, 1965) and the Chicago .
Institute for Psychoanalysis (Benedek, 1976; Fleming, 1976;
Pollock, 1976). In addition, some institutes have carried out
follow-up studies which have not been published. But the phase
of great interest in selection which began at the end of World

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 SELECTION OF CANDIDATES 423

War I1 appears to have ended some time in the sixties as the rate
of applications, correlative to the prestige and pre-eminence of
psychoanalysis within the medical community, declined
(Moore, 1976, p. 271).
The size of the pool of applicants is also affected by chang-
ing trends in medical education, such as the relative number of
medical school graduates entering psychiatric residency, which
in recent years has also declined. The current pattern of selection
in medical schools, whereby those who are primarily interested
in the humanities are discouraged from applying, would appear
to be yet another factor that tends to reduce the pool of applicants
for psychiatry and psychoanalysis. The psychiatric resident is
exposed to a variety of therapies and role models. The current
biological organicist trend in psychiatric education and practice
attracts many residents, as do various forms of brief therapy.
The development of new training facilities may affect the
pool of applicants of neighboring institutes, even though these
facilities are developed only after careful assessment of the re-
quirements and demand for training in the area. Because of this,
even when the total pool ofappIicants remains fairly stable, some
admissions committees experience a reduction in their local pool
of applicants. Residents who have given consideration to the
idea of applying for training sometimes desist after they have had
some psychotherapy training and have perhaps entered a per-
sonal analysis or therapy. This dual opportunity, which resi-
dency programs can offer their trainees through their genuine
psychoanalytic orientation is, paradoxically, another factor that
depletes the pool of applicants to institutes, notwithstanding the
fact that psychoanalytic training is an important asset, if not a
necessity, for the competent practice of psychotherapy.
The decline of interest in selection during the sixties can be
seen in the fact that while the Lewin and Ross report included an
extensive chapter on selection, at the recent COPER Conference
of the Association (Goodman, 1977), selection was not included
among nine basic questions of psychoanalytic education. The
fact that interest in selection was all but lost becomes evident

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424 ALFRED0 NAMNUM

when one reads the reports of two major conferences on psycho-

analytic education convened by the Chicago, Pittsburgh, and
Topeka Institutes (Babock, 1969; Ramzy, 1973). Recently,
however, there have been indications of a reactivation of interest
in selection, such as the appointment of a post-COPER commit-
tee on selection, and the Workshop for Institute Representatives
(where this report was first presented). Although the reason for,
this revival of interest is not entirely clear, a general dissatis-
faction with the quality of scientific productivity and the increas-
ing complexity of the problems posed to the institutes by training
failures, including the accumulation of unresolved training
failures, appear to be factors. More importantly perhaps, some
have noted a general increase in the number of candidates in the
most recent years and foresee a new period of growth for psycho-
analysis (Cooper and Michaels, 1978, p. 190). It is too early to
say whether this is, in effect, a recurrence of the cycle or repre-
sents the result of liberalized admissions policies.2
Those who have approached the question in the last twenty
years agree that the 'great upsurge of interest in selection
methods resulted from the marked increase in the number of ap-
plicants at the end of World War 11. Greenacre (1961) has
pointed to the developments in ego psychology as a concurrent
factor. While interest in selection was greatly enhanced by the
increase in applicants, the ego psychology approach influenced
the focus and method of inquiry as well as the nature of the selec-
tion criteria developed by admissions committees and by those
who designed selection research. The selection studies carried
out by institutes in the fifties and the sixties naturally reflected a
primary concern with a design that was suitable for follow-up
studies. Criteria proposed for suitability for psychoanalytic
2In a recent letter (1978) to the membership of the American Psychoanalytic.
Association, Kaplan highlighted an increase of about 20 percent in the total enroll-
ment of institutes during the 1970's. This figure does not consider, however, the
number of applicants or the rate of acceptances. A true assessment of current in-
creased interest in psychoanalytic education, even on the part of physicians alone,
would perhaps need to take into consideration the figures from training centers out-
side of the Association.

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 SELECTION OF CANDIDATES 425

training were favored on the basis of the possibility for relatively

easy objectification and quantification. But, predictably, these
advantages were offset by the fact that most of these criteria were
of a general nature and often of limited relevance, referring
primarily to the manifest and conscious aspects of the person-
hlity. On the other hand, writers who do not feel bound by con-
siderations of objectification and quantification have proposed
more specific criteria for the use of interviewers (Eisendorfer,
1959; Waelder, 1962). These criteria, however, do not lend
themselves to follow-up studies.
I n recent years dissatisfaction and concern about a decline
in scientific creativity on the part of the profession have been ex-
pressed in various councils of the Association (see Kohut, 1970;
Goodman, 1977). The deliberations on this question have
touched both phases of the selection process- the policies of the
profession concerning prerequisites for psychoanalytic training
and the selection philosophy of institutes - and both aspects have
come under scrutiny concerning their possible contribution to a
decline in scientific creativity. Some have argued that the insti-
tuted policies tend to shape psychoanalysis primarily as a medi-
cal subspecialty of psychiatry, and therefore applicants are
selected upon the basis of an orientation and curriculum that
places excessive emphasis upon the development of skills for the
clinical practice of psychoanalysis. This does not address issues
of psychobiology and the question of theoretical medical knowl-
edge. Somewhat surprisingly perhaps, the question of pathology
as it relates to selection has also been considered within this con-
text. Some feel that when a broad range of pathology is exclud-
ed, applicants with a high creative potential are screened out.
However, this is true onIy in the most general sense, and no evi-
dence can be advanced, for no correlation between pathology
and scientific creativity has been established. In fact, the idea ap-
pears to be contradicted by the observation that the purported
trend toward diminished scientific creativity has not been re-
versed by the broadened range of pathology acceptable to admis-
sions committees today. The measurement of scientific creativity

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426 ALFRED0 NAMNUM

and the criteria of analytic creativity have not been clearly

articulated.
Most probably the conditions will never recur under which
almost any individual who was highly motivated was welcomed
to the ranks. Today, admissions committees select from many
more generally well-qualified, but ambiguously motivated ap-)
plicants. One would not expect admissions committees to en-
counter today the kind of motivation which was characteristic of
those who joined a psychoanalytic “movement.”But it should be
cause for serious concern if, as Eisendorfer proposes u. . .the
courage to seek the truth in the face of whatever opposition”
(1959, p. 376)- the motivation of applicants of earlier times-is
rarely seen today. If this motivation is indeed a thing of the past,
and this is open to question, psychoanalytic investigation would
be in a state of decline. What Eisendorfer highlights is not the
spirit of pioneering times but the everyday requirement of psy-
choanalytic work. Seeking the truth in the face of whatever op-
position (i.e., resistance), inner or outer, is certainly an apt
description of the psychoanalytic task. Paradoxically, strong
motivation for an analytic career would not of itself guarantee
the existence of the personal qualities that admissions com-
mittees today consider highly desirable. One may point out that
in spite of the accrued knowledge in theory and practice, the ex-
perience in selection, and the data of research, there is no evi-
dence that a systematic selection method, when assessed in terms
of its ultimate results (i.e., scientific development), is necessarily
more effective than the natural sFlection which was based upon a
strong motivation at a time when a career in psychoanalysis was
synonymous with psychoanalytic practice, although a com-
parison may not be entirely justified.
During the forties and fifties there was widespread dissatis-
faction among admissions committees with the unstructured.
nature of selection interviews because they favored subjective
judgments, and were thus criticized as resulting in analysts’
selecting candidates in their own image. The postwar years saw
a trend toward the systematic structuring and recording of

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 SELECTION OF CANDIDATES 427

interviews, a search for objectification and quantification of

selection data, and a surge of interest in selection research. It
may be noted that the unstructured conditions that were ques-
tioned are those that an interviewing psychoanalyst will tend to
promote, as they represent the essence of his method, if not his
technique; nor can psychoanalytic investigation dispense with
understanding and knowledge which result partly from subjec-
tive insights. This posed a dilemma for the investigators of selec-
tion, for research was not possible without the careful collection
and organization of data. Therefore, the most critical question
was the need to integrate a systematic approach without sacri-
ficing the unique interviewing skills of analysts. But many are of
the opinion that this is not possible. Moreover, some feel that a
systematically probing approach in selection interviews will ulti-
mately be detrimental to psychoanalytic training (Kohut, 1968).
After surveying selection methods and research and re-
viewing the deliberations on the question, the strong feeling re-
mains that a highly systematic approach to selection should be
encouraged only insofar as it does not interfere with the special
skills of interviewers. The importance of promoting these skills is
demonstrated by the findings of follow-up studies to the effsct
that interviews by experienced analysts are the single most relia-
ble selection method (e.g., Klein, 1965, p. 109). These inter-
viewers do not, on the whole, use a highly systematic approach.
O n the other hand, when admissions committees favor such ap-
proaches to selection, they tend to adopt the nonanalytic
methods of related social sciences, such as group interviews and
psychological tests, and to promote a socially broadened outline
of inquiry into the applicants’ personality, emphasizing areas
such as academic performance, social interaction, interpersonal
relations, community interest. Often the increased breadth thus
derived is offset by a diminished depth of psychological under-
standing. This partly explains why, in spite of its acknowledged
limitations, the individual interview by training analysts re-
mains the primary selection method in all institutes.
In the last twenty years the acceptance rate in American

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428 ALFRED0 NAMNUhl

institutes has increased sharply. The Lewin and Ross survey

(1960) showed that 35 to 40 percent of applicants were accepted,
and that this rate had remained fairly constant for approximately
fifteen years, following the sudden rise in the number of ap-
plicants in the 1940's. Available figures show that the current
rate of acceptances is nearly twice as high, although variations
are wide from one institute to another. The updated figures of a
special COPER committee showed that the rate of acceptances
in 1971-1972 was 60 percent (Goodman, 1977, p. 332)3. Figures
of 80 percent and higher were reported at the Workshop for In-
stitute Representatives, figures that appear to be common in the
smaller institutes. As the rate of acceptances has remained fairly
stable in the large institutes, the differential in the figures be-
tween 1958 and 1972 appears to result from a marked drop in the
number of applicants to the smaller institutes. It follows that the
trend of the forties and fifties was one of more rigorous selection,
as opposed to the current more liberal trend. The situation, how-
ever, is not a simple one. The broadened clinical application of
psychoanalysis has in turn increased the range of pathology ac-
ceptable to admissions committees and has thus contributed to
an increased rate of acceptances. While this broadened range of
pathology is per se a determining cause,* it also justifies an insti-
tute's pragmatic increase in its rate of acceptance. While its
causes may be complex, a trend toward an increased rate of ac-
ceptance, albeit more apparent in the smaller institutes, shows
that the conditions governing the selection of candidates for
psychoanalytic training are now similar to those of the earlier
phase, when self-selection was a dominant factor, although
3To understand these figures one must also consider the fact that a high rate of
acceptances (i.e., a liberalized admissions policy) at a given institute will of itself ef-
fect an increase in the rate of applications: it encourages potential applicants who
may otherwise have been deterred.
'It may be pointed out that a broadened range of pathology would appear to
place a special burden on the analysis as a condition for the progression o f a candidate
in training. At the same time, the reports of analysts have become less a factor in the
decisions of progression committees. Evidence of changes effected by the analysis is
followed in a candidate's performance and assessed by progression Committees,
rather than reported by the training analyst.

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 SELECTION OF CANDIDATES 429

the nature of motivation has become more elusive,

The rate of applications has a decisive impact upon the
selection process and this in turn influences aspects of the train-
ing. Some institutes have explicitly addressed these facts. But
while the sudden increase in the rate of applications to institutes,
and its marked effect on the selection process have been widely
recognized, the reverse trend, which has developed gradually,
has not been similarly noted, and it is rarely acknowledged in the
literature on psychoanalytic education. T h e idea of a general in-
crease in the rate of acceptances is often questioned, but has now
been ascertained by a COPER committee survey. A reason for
this questioning is perhaps the fact that in some institutes in the
large cities the rate of acceptances has remained fairly constantly
low. Joseph (1975) recognized the impact of current develop-
ments on the selection philosophy of institutes, and the trend
towards a relatively open admissions policy where the emphasis
shifts to the careful monitoring of training.5 In order to gain a
clearer perspective on the effects of a reduction in the number of
applicants, it should be noted that, within certain limits, irres-
pective of the size of the pool of applicants, the quality of a stu-
dent body will be determined by an admissions committee’s
orientation and philosophy, as reflected in its selection criteria.
A reduction of the pool of applicants effects a shift of em-
phasis from selection to recruitment, and this in turn results in
the emergence of the correlative problems of careful monitoring
of training and an easy-ideasy-out policy. Some of the smaller
institutes have addressed these questions. At the Workshop for
Institute Representatives, one small institute reported an 80 per-
cent admission rate and the completion of training by only 50
percent of enrolled candidates. While this appears extreme, an

5At the COPER Conference, Joseph, as a plenary discussant of the tripartite

system commission report, was again somewhat ofan exception in deploring the fact
that the question of selection had not been addressed (Goodman, 1977, pp. 49-51).
But here, by advocating more sophisticated selection methods, he appeared to have
shifted the emphasis of his earlier stance where he spoke for a more open admissions
policy. Unlike other issues of general interest to analysts, because of its uncertainties,
the question of selection does not usually elicit categorical and unqualified opinions.

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430 ALFRED0 NAMNUM

easy-ideasy-out institute policy will probably be reflected in fig-

ures such as these. A similar experience concerning a small insti-
tute was reported by Bird and cited by Levin and Michaels (1965,
p. 815). The problem of the drop-out candidate has been ad-
dressed for several years in the deliberations of the above- .
mentioned workshop (see Francis and Marill, 1977). These
deliberations have shown that in order that an easy-ideasy-out
policy be effective, the positive aspects and relative benefits of in-
complete training must be emphasized(Goodman, 1977, p. 180),
such as the admission of some of these candidates to a mem-
bership category, and recognition by official action on the part of
local societies. The stigma attached to incomplete training is thus
disavowed. O n the other hand, when rigorous selection pro-
cedures designed in the forties and fifties become inconsistent
with current reality, they remain merely as a matter of form and
are not heeded by the very committees that instituted them. The
inconsistency occurs when there is a failure to recognize the new
conditions. Keiser (1972, p. 529) emphasized that when the rate
ofacceptances at a small institute is substantially elevated because
of a reduced rate of applications, it is important that this fact be
given explicit recognition. Otherwise, an admissions committee
may tend to go through the motions of an elaborate selection
process and fail to institute the monitoring system and the facilita-
tion of termination of training which are the necessary com-
plements of a liberal admissions policy.6 A liberal admissions
policy without a complementary careful monitoring of training
and the corresponding facilitation of termination would ultimate-
ly be detrimental to the profession.
Selection procedures are not systematic methods uniformly
administered. They are utilized in various ways by selectors in
accordance with their individual criteria and philosophy. To be
meaningful, a survey of selection methods needs to highlight the
different objectives, attitudes, and criteria of selectors. In
61n Topeka the rate of acceptances is high, and the monitoring of training is
centered upon an advisory system. A training analyst is assigned as a faculty advisor
to oversee the progression of each candidate.

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 SELECTION OF CANDIDATES 43 1

most institutes a preliminary screening is usually conducted by

means of a preselection interview before the submission of a for-
mal application. This preliminary screening is designed pri-
marily to ascertain whether the applicant meets the minimum
academic requirements, and to ensure that he has made, or is
able to make the professional and practical arrangements which
would permit him to realistically undertake psychoanalytic
training. In general terms, a preliminary screening is instituted
to ascertain eligibility before an expensive selection process aim-
ed at assessing an applicant’s suitability is set in motion. A pre-
selection interviewer may elicit a gross disqualifying feature, but
determinations about an applicant’s suitability are usually left to
the admissions committee as a whole. However, when a high
proportion of eligible candidates are accepted, this preliminary
screening becomes decisive, much of the burden of selection fall-
ing upon it.
Admissions committees endeavor first to screen out those
applicants who are severely handicapped, and second, to elicit in
those not thus handicapped the personal qualities that are be-
lieved to contribute to making a successful psychoanalyst. An
applicant is viewed as being severely handicapped if he has
pathology which is considered not to be susceptible to change
through analysis (See Fox et al., 1964). A distinction is usually
made between analyzability, on the one hand, and suitability,
on the other. Analyzability, which may be viewed as the
minimal personal requirement of psychoanalytic training, is
usually taken for granted in a suitable candidate, but the ques-
tion of analyzability is explicitly addressed when pathology in an
applicant is under consideration. The consideration of pathology
is the negative criteria of selection, and in actual practice often
constitutes, along with the minimal professional requirements,
the major screening of the selection process. It involves the mak-
ing of a diagnosis and a prediction about the future clinical
course of the condition under analysis. Because of their training
and clinical experience, most analysts feel at home with this.
Even so, our understanding of the criteria for rejection is limited

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432 ALFRED0 NAMNUhl

by the uncertainty of prediction and by the fact that rejected ap-

plicants are not followed up.7 O n the other hand, there is little
data available concerning the qualities of applicants that cor-
relate with their ultimate success as analysts -positiue criteria.
This is partly because systematic research has been minimal due
to its special difficulties. Thus, the selection ofcandidates is based
largely on the impressions of interviewers, the reports and
recommendations of supervisors, and the academic record,
perhaps in that order of importance. The limited validity of these
universally held criteria has been pointed out, to the effect that
the first two categories of data- impressions of interviewers and
supervisors-are of a subjective nature; and the third-
academic record-of an interest often too general in scope. The
reports of residency supervisors who are members of the insti-
tute’s faculty are especially valued by some admissions commit-
tees. These reports provide valuable information concerning an
applicant’s personality, but the assessment of his performance in
the residency is per se of only limited value, because proficiency
in general psychiatric work, or even in psychotherapy, does not
necessarily correspond to a potential for psychoanalytic work.
This consideration is important where there may be a tendency
to a blurring of the distinction between psychoanalysis and
psychotherapy in terms of their technical and personality re-
quirements. Some writers emphasized the contrasting require-
ments for work in psychotherapy and in psychoanalysis (e.g.,
Waelder, 1962, p. 284). The limitation of the value of assess-
ment of applicants’ psychiatric proficiency is also highlighted by
the findings of the Columbia Institute’s long-term follow-up
study (KIein, 1965), to the effect that candidates who failed to
complete their training were not easily identifiable from their
performance during the residency. Another finding of this study
was that successful candidates were consistently identified

’FOX et al. (1964) investigated the criteria of unsuitability by the study of 100
decisions, including 54 rejections, at the Boston Institute from 1960 to 1963. They
recognized a range of criteria, many of which could probably be subsumed under the
general category of narcissistic character pathology.

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 SELECTION OF CANDIDATES 433

among those who reported an early (i.e., prepsychiatric)

commitment to psychoanalysis as a profession. Because of the
limitations of individual interviews most institutes have included
additional selection methods, such as group interviews, auto-
biographical essays, and psychological testing, and some have
carried out studies on selection for the development of objective
criteria, but many admissions committees appear to have been
disappointed by these supplementary procedures and aban-
doned them before publishing reports on their studies.
The individual interview, usually conducted by an exper-
ienced training analyst member of the admissions committee,
and occasionally by a faculty member who is not a training
analyst, is the traditional method for the selection of candidates.
Some have noted the need for a rigorous methodology and for
selection research and have pointed out the inadequacy of in-
dividual interviews, particularly when relatively unstructured,
as resulting in subjective and impressionistic evaluations of ap-
plicants. But the interview is still the principal method in all in-
stitutes; and this appears to be more universally the case today
than at any other time during the last 30 years. In many in-
stances these interviews have remained essentially unstructured.
A number of institutes have developed systematic outlines for
the reports of interviewers, and these outlines tend to structure
the interviews, but it should be pointed out that'an interview
may not be totally unstructured, since an interviewer will
organize his inquiry around at least a few well-defined areas
which represent his explicit or underlying selection criteria. I n
general, these criteria correspond to those set up by the Interna-
tional Psycho-Analytical Association, which are quoted in most
institute bulletins as including three qualifications- maturity of
personality, integrity of character, and aptitude for
psychological work.
The adoption of an outline structures interviews in the
sense of guiding the interviewer's inquiry along certain lines
while allowing him to report his observations and impressions in
ashobjective, standardized, and quantitative a manner as

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434 ALFRED0 ‘NAMNUM

possible. However, this innovation has not been adopted uni-‘

versally or unreservedly. In addition to what has been noted
about expanded criteria, it may be pointed out that when a
lengthy outline is involved, the approach has the disadvantage of
a lack of specificity, since, on the one hand, few of the qualifica-
tions listed may‘be said to apply specifically to candidates for
psychoanalytic training, while, on the other hand, the expanded
criteria describe an ideal individual and are not expected to be
fulfilled by any single applicant (Waelder, 1962).
In years past a handful of institutes adopted psychological
tests as part of their procedure; very few still use them. The tests
have been found useful in eliciting evidence of severe pathology
when this presents only subtle or ambiguous clinical manifesta-
tions. One important consideration that in part explains the cur-
rent trend in the use of psychological testing in selection, is the
fact that what they yield in the way ofpersonality assessment and
diagnosis, which is often considerable, is based on the talent and
cl.inical experience of the individual psychologist who admin-
isters the procedures and interprets the “projective” tests
(Rorschach, TAT, Word Association, etc.) which are usually
selected for the purpose.8 It follows from this that the tests’ high
potential value depends on their being in the hands of especially
competent clinical psychologists, something they share with
individual interviews. Under these conditions, psychological
testing is viewed as only a special form of interviewing and for
selection purposes of a value comparable to that of an interview
(see Schlesinger in Panel, 1961, p. 144), even though they in-
volve time-consuming procedures. T h e tests’ special sensitivity
to ego weaknesses and to subtly manifested pathology, which is
their primary asset in clinical practice, is not comparably effec-
tive when the tests are applied to the assessment of
8Holt and Luborsky (1955) elected to use the projective tests, because they were
most effective. The Columbia follow-up study (Klein, 1965) elicited generally
negative results for the use of psychological testing in selection, but the study is not
comparable to that of Holt and Luborsky, because while it included the Rorschach,
its results were primarily based on the use of a battery of tests and rating scales of the
more “objective”kind.

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 SELECTION OF ‘CANDIDATES 435

applicants, because they tend to overemphasize liabilities as com-

pared to resources. This is a characteristic common to “stressful”
procedures, which are thus especially useful for eliciting
pathology or the potential for it, but which tend in general to
underevaluate applicants. This consideration becomes especially
critical when admissions committees face a reduced pool of ap-
plicants, which may be one of the reasons these committees ap-
pear generally to be abandoning the stressful procedures.
In the face of a lack of specific criteria, investigators of selec-
tion may turn to writers who, based on dynamic and genetic
considerations, try to pinpoint subtle qualities in applicants
which are of special relevance and which may be elicited by an
interviewer. Eisendorfer (1959), for instance, proposed two cri-
teria. One is the “capacity for reciprocal indentification” (pp.
375-376) which is assessed in the rapport that develops between
the applicant and the interviewer. The other, which applies es-
pecially to the male applicant, may be described as the avail-
ability to him of a latent feminine core. That is, his potential
capacity to assume without conflict the passive attitude that
psychoanalytic technique will require of him.9 Waelder (1962)
described “depth” as a crucial quality in an analyst, which de-
velops as “a creative response to suffering endured in personal
experience or through identification” (p. 284). The qualities
pointed out-by these writers as being essential for psychoanalytic
work are examples of criteria that are more specific, but cannot
easily be stated objectively, nor lend themselves to reasonably
accurate quantification. It may hence be questioned whether
they have any value for selection interviewers, for they are not
often quoted in the literature, another example of the elusive
qualities that persist in the selection process.
9Psychoanalysis is overwhelmingly a male profession. At the last census in 1971
(Goodman, 1977), only 14 percent of the enrolled candidates were women. Not sur-
prisingly, this corresponds exactly to the percentage ofwomen amongpsychiatrists in
the United States. It may be of interest to note that in 1958, when there were 9 per-.
cent of women among candidates, 27 percent of training analysts were women
(Lewin & Ross, 1960). This reflected the larger proportion of women among Euro-
pean analysts, many of whom were not physicians.

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 436 ALFRED0 NAMNUhl

Summary
The changing methods and attitudes of admissions committees
are examined, tracing their trends to developments in theory
(ego psychology) and practice (a broadened range of clinical ap-
plication) and to extraneous factors, such as the size of the pool of
applicants, which is in turn primarily based on the relative ac-
ceptance of psychoanalysis by medicine and psychiatry. The
paper highlights the inherent difficulties of selection research
and it examines the implications for psychoanalytic training of
the changing approaches to selection.

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