Selection for Admission to the Training Programme

It is recognised that different Societies and Institutes make their selection for admission to the training programme at different stages, i.e. in some, applicants are selected before undertaking a personal analysis and in others, only after a period of analysis. However, the following criteria apply whenever selection is made.

1. An applicant's previous academic training should include, at least, a University degree or its equivalent acceptable to the Society or Institute concerned.
2. Each applicant must have a minimum of two separate interviews with two different analysts who have been officially recognised by the Society or Institute as being competent to evaluate applicants.
3. The final decision on selection of an applicant shall be made only by a group officially given responsibility for this task by the Society or Institute. Such a group must include more members than just those who conducted the interviews. No decision on selection may be made by any individual or by any unofficial group.
4. Applicants shall be accepted for training only after agreeing neither to conduct analyses nor to represent themselves as psychoanalysts until they have been authorised to do so by whatever group is officially designated by the Society or Institute as being responsible for their training. (See Article 4 Section C of the IPA's Constitution and Byelaws)

Personal Analysis

1. The personal analysis of a candidate should be conducted by an analyst officially recognised by the Society or Institute in which the candidate is being trained as being sufficiently experienced and competent to carry out the analyses of candidates.
2. Candidates' analyses should be conducted 4 to 5 times a week, on the basis of no more than one session per day,  and each session should last 45 or 50 minutes.

Courses and Seminars

1. Courses and seminars should include the reading and discussion of the writings of Sigmund Freud and of other psychoanalytic literature covering theoretical concepts, clinical problems and techniques of psychoanalysis. Provision should also be made for discussions based on clinical experience
2. Courses and seminars should be planned by a group designated by and responsible to the Society or Institute.

Supervisions

1. Completion of at least two acceptable supervisions of psychoanalytic treatment of adults is required. (3 may be preferable in the case of candidates who have little clinical background and experience)
2. Permission to begin psychoanalytic treatments under supervision should be given by a group consisting of several analysts who have been officially delegated to carry out this responsibility by the Society or Institute in which the candidate is being trained. Members of such a group should themselves be recognised by their Society or Institute as being competent both to conduct analyses of candidates and supervise the treatment of adults in analysis.
3. Supervisions must be conducted by analysts other than the candidate's personal analyst. Each supervising analyst should be recognised by his Society or Institute as being competent to conduct supervisions of adult psychoanalysis.
4. In the analyses being supervised there should be sessions of 4 to 5 times a week, on the basis of no more than one session per day, and each session should last 45 to 50 minutes.
5. Each supervision should continue for at least 2 years with a frequency of supervisory sessions of once a week.

Qualification

1. Evaluation of a candidate's competence to undertake psychoanalytic treatments without supervision should be made by a group officially charged with this responsibility by the Society or Institute.
2. Recognition of qualification to practice psychoanalysis independently should be given by a group which officially represents the Society or Institute.
3. Only an officially designated body of the Society can grant the right to membership in the Society.
   1. Membership qualification necessitates an evaluation of the candidate's compliance with the formal requirements of training as established by the Society and of his/her aptitudes, capacities and personall ualities as well as his/her demonstrated understanding of and interest in psychoanalysis as a method of treatment.
   2. This evaluation needs to be made by a group which officially represents and is responsible to the Society.

Membership of the IPA is automatically granted to qualified Members of Component or Provisional Societies which were recognised by the IPA before 23rd July, 1975, provided that such Societies maintain those standards and critera for the qualification and admission of their Members that were in effect on that date.

A document from the International Psychoanalytical Association's Procedural Code.