Psychoanalytic Center for Training and Research

Robert A. Glick, M.D., Director
Stanley Bone, M.D., Associate Director
Elizabeth Auchincloss, M.D., Associate Director
Karen Gilmore, M.D., Associate Director, Head of Child Division
Susan Coates, Ph.D., Director, Parent-Infant Psychotherapy Division
Marvin Wasserman, M.D., Treasurer
Margaret Hamilton, M.D., Admitting Psychoanalyst

This past year saw significant attention paid to specific aspects of the Analytic Center’s educational, clinical, and research objectives. The Center’s didactic curriculum has been considered by the American Psychoanalytic Association as a ‘model curriculum’, offering core analytic education and innovative approaches to teaching psychoanalytic process and technique. Dr. Ellen Rees, the Chair of the Curriculum Committee, presented our curriculum at special subcommittee meetings on psychoanalytic education. The courses on ‘psychoanalysis and the neurosciences’ have received particular interest.

The Executive Committee of the Center has been conducting an internal review of the Center’s standards and criteria for candidate acceptance, candidate progression, graduation, faculty appointment and training and supervising analyst appointment. Several subcommittee presentations have focused on the need to clarify and refine appropriate guidelines. This process is expected to continue for much of the next year.

Dr. Robert A. Glick was re-elected Director of the Center, and will serve in that capacity until July 1, 2006.

Dr. Glick recruited Dr. Joel Whitebook from the New School to work with him in the establishment of a Psychoanalytic Studies Program at the Morningside Campus of the University. The goal of the program is to strengthen the teaching and discussion of psychoanalytic ideas where they intersect with the established disciplines of the humanities, social sciences and the natural sciences. The Center was awarded a prestigious University Seminar for this coming year; this seminar will bring together scholars from the university and Center faculty to address psychoanalytic perspectives on other disciplines and to explore the process of integration of psychoanalysis at the university. A series of meetings with the Dean of the College and with the Director of the Center for Comparative Literature and Society have explored the place of psychoanalysis and the Center faculty in the University.

Dr. Glick was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Center for the Study of Science and Religion at Columbia University.

The Center’s Child Psychoanalytic Program, chaired by Dr. Karen Gilmore, has undergone rapid development. The Center is currently accepting applications for training in child and adolescent psychoanalysis as a primary area of specialization. This program is part of a multi-center pilot program endorsed by the American Psychoanalytic Association to study the outcome of primary child analytic training. The Child Psychoanalytic Program has five candidates who are seeing children in intensive psychoanalytic treatment under supervision. These candidates, all of whom are child psychiatrists, participate in an academic program and also present case material to the candidates in the adult division. An Admission Service for Children, modeled on the adult service, is in development to screen children appropriate for psychoanalytic treatment.

The Center’s successful Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Division has expanded from a one-year program to a two year one. The program currently has 5 candidates who have completed their first year of classes and supervision and ready to begin the second year in the fall. This course, open to psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and Psy.D.s aims to increase the clinicians’ knowledge and skill in engaging patients in dynamic therapy.

The Parent Infant Program, under the auspices of Susan Coates, Ph.D. as Director, is designed to offer services to families of children under three. This program is composed of two components: the Parent Infant Psychotherapy Training Program, and the Research Unit. The research unit, still in its early stages, is hoping to study the impact of our programs on the parent infant relationship.

The Parent Infant Psychotherapy Training Program trains professionals from the field of child mental health in the evaluation and treatment of parent infant dyads who seek professional guidance for difficulties in parenting and/or significant concerns about the infant's development. The training is based on psychodynamic principles, a thorough knowledge of infant development, and an understanding of family systems. This is structured as a two to three year program with clinical placements in therapeutic nurseries and pediatric settings.

On November 3, 2001, the Center’s Parent-Infant Program, in collaboration with the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, sponsored a symposium, “When the Bough Breaks: Perspectives from Psychoanalysis, Attachment Theory and Psychobiology on Primary Prevention of Psychiatric Disturbances in Children and Implication for Public Policy.”

The research efforts of the Psychoanalytic Center are expanding in terms of number of projects and people involved. The Center’s Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Skills Test, whose principal investigator is Linda Mullen, M.D., was administered to more than 900 residents at 37 programs last year and to about 900 residents at 34 programs this year. The test is revised yearly by experts at the Center. Continued revisions ensure that the test is a valid measure of psychotherapy skills. There are plans to develop a Psychoanalytic Skills test, with experts at the Center working on the theoretical framework and clinical vignettes/questions that will be used in this test.

Data has been returned and entered in our study of post-termination contact, conducted by Suzanne Yang, M.D. This study will be the first systematic study of the nature and frequency of contact after formal termination. The results of the study are likely to reshape current thinking and teaching about the termination phase.

A study being conducted by Dr. Sylvia Emereich is being undertaken to study the psychotherapy and/or medication use prescribed for residents receiving treatment during their psychiatric residency. We are specifically interested in whether or not there is a stigma attached to receiving psychotherapy or medication by other residents, and if there is any benefit associated with being in treatment in terms of a learning experience.

Data for a study on Post-graduation Career Paths has been collected. The primary researcher, Sabrina Cherry, M.D. is interested in studying the factors that lead analysts to choose different career paths after graduation. Among the factors she is considering are pre-post graduation motivations, and thoughts, experiences in treating, experiences in the field, etc. She is interested in measuring how the candidates/graduates change their motivations, ambitions and career paths over time, and what factors affect these changes.

Finally, the number of post-graduate fellows, Glass research fellows, and residents doing electives at the Center is continuing to increase, and this is the most important asset for the future of research work at the Center. Our first Glass Fellow, Dr. Linda Mullen, continues her project on the psychodynamic psychotherapy competency test. The second Glass Fellow, Eric Fertuck, Ph.D. will continue his work on borderline personality research.

Dr. Glick continues his development and outreach program for the Center to increase the Center’s visibility in the community and to increase public awareness.

Our Admissions Service reports that during 2000/2001 academic year, 46 applications were received in the Clinic, of which 11 resulted in training cases and have begun analysis. 11 private cases were evaluated and accepted for analysis through the Admissions Service.

In January and June 2001, the following candidates graduated from the Center: Carrie Barron, M.D., Kaia Heimarck, M.D., Laurence Saul, M.D., Anna Schwartz, M.D. and Daphne Simeon, M.D.

During the year, numerous awards and honors were given by the Center to its faculty. In June 2001, Steven Roose, M.D. was presented with the George S. Goldman Award for Achievement in Clinical Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Education, and Gloria Stern, M.D. was the recipient of the Howard Klar Award for the Outstanding Teacher of the Columbia Psychoanalytic Center, chosen by the candidates. The John F. O’Connor Award for the teaching of psychodynamic concepts to medical students was given to Janis Cutler, M.D. The Alexander Beller Award in recognition of a significant scholarly study in the area of psychoanalytic theory was given to Hilary Beattie, Ph.D.

In May 2001, Burton Lerner, M.D. received the George Daniels Award from the Association for Psychoanalytic Medicine, for distinguished service in the field.

At the New Candidates Dinner in September, 2001, this year's Lionel Ovesey Award, sponsored jointly by the Association for Psychoanalytic Medicine, was presented to Daniel Schechter, M.D. for his work on the intergenerational communication of trauma. This award is given to a current candidate who has been significantly involved in original research, has made an important contribution to the psychoanalytic literature, or has been the primary person responsible for developing an innovative teaching or treatment program with psychodynamic theory.

Candidates and faculty members of the Columbia Psychoanalytic Center continue to be very active in the American Psychoanalytic Association and the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, serving as committee chairs, and discussants and presenters at the annual meetings.

The Psychoanalytic Center is sad to report the deaths of a number of our faculty members during 2000: Stuart S. Asch, M.D., Charles C. Hogan, M.D., and Josef H. Weissberg, M.D.