Introduction. The Oregon Psychoanalytic Institute (OPI) is the Center’s formal psychoanalytic training program. OPI is supported within the organizational structure of the Oregon Psychoanalytic Center, and offers psychoanalytic training to mental health specialists such as psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, pastoral counselors, and other qualified clinicians with graduate degrees and expertise in their fields. This rigorous training deepens and strengthens clinical psychotherapeutic work, as well as competence to teach, consult, and work in various other capacities with community groups and programs. OPI was established in 1995, has graduated eight psychoanalysts to date, and will be starting its fifth class in September 2008
For information on applying to the next institute class, please contact OPC at 503-229-0175 or email us.
You may also want to attend the upcoming Institute Open House, where you will get the chance to talk in-depth with the candidates and faculty about psychoanalytic training.
Duane Dale, MD
OPI Director
The Oregon Psychoanalytic Institute is accredited by the American Psychoanalytic Association.
Institute. The Oregon Psychoanalytic Institute is an educational program of the Oregon Psychoanalytic Center and is accredited by the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA).
OPI’s mission comprises two main elements:
- to educate mental health professionals—psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and selected other professionals—in the theory and practice of psychoanalysis and its many applications. These applications include the various psychotherapies, child and family development, and many other scientific, humanistic, and sociocultural disciplines important to contemporary life.
- to support the mission of the Oregon Psychoanalytic Center to enhance the psychological growth and emotional well-being of Oregonians through its community service and information programs, through consultation and collaboration projects with other organizations, and through providing direct services, including psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.
Psychoanalysis is a systematized body of knowledge about psychological development and functioning. It is also a method of research designed to advance our understanding of the human mind. Most importantly, psychoanalysis is a method of treatment which alleviates human suffering.
Educational Philosophy. Psychoanalysis began with Freud’s discoveries of unconscious mental life. The past lives on in the present, but the person is not fully aware of the fantasies, conflicts, symptoms, and self-defeating patterns in relationships and commitments that constrain present life—that create dissatisfaction, and thwart potentials in love, work and self-esteem. Our training program emphasizes the evolving nature of psychoanalysis, and therefore includes the many new developments in theory and technique of recent years. Course work integrates the study of early contributions with contemporary views, emphasizing the diverse clinical problems that therapists treat in today’s complex world. Object relations, self and intersubjective theories, developmental points of view, and attachment theory, as well as feminist and interpersonal perspectives are part of the working knowledge of every competent modern analyst.
All psychoanalysts, regardless of theoretical preferences, share a deep respect for the uniqueness of each individual life. They appreciate the power of the irrational in limiting human potential, and therefore are skeptical of the easy answer or quick cure. They believe that psychoanalysis provides the most sophisticated tool for greater self-awareness and personal growth.
Many who are interested in psychoanalytic training are psychotherapists seeking ways to deepen and expand their work with others and on themselves. In the demanding intimate partnership of a good therapeutic relationship, psychoanalytic training can provide important tools: an ability to work in depth with unconscious intrapsychic and interactional phenomena; a surer grasp of transference and countertransference; an ability to use one’s empathic and relational capacities more effectively; and a greater and more precise array of understandings and effective interventions. Applicants often also seek the intellectual excitement, emotional profundity, and immersion in relational and humanistic values that such training provides.
While psychoanalytic training is rigorous, it is often the most satisfying and effective path in preparing a therapist for the difficulties and rewards of the therapeutic professional life. It also provides a community of professional colleagues that shares interests and values.
Historical Background. The Oregon Psychoanalytic Institute (OPI) was established in 1995 as a new training facility under the auspices of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and the sponsorship of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute. In 2005 the Institute was granted status as a provisional institute, the second step (of three) in becoming a freestanding APsaA institute. Although San Francisco is no longer administratively responsible for OPI, our invaluable collaboration with them continues in the areas of teaching and consultation.
Course of Studies. A psychoanalytic education is experiential as well as educational. Tools are needed to increase self-awareness and personal growth, not merely to gain objective knowledge of others or factual knowledge of abstract theories or clinical strategies. Creating a therapeutic relationship and learning its proper use on the patient’s behalf is central. This relationship is the setting where the psychoanalytic process unfolds. The psychoanalytic process provides the necessary human connection and therapeutic interaction that generates the feelings, thoughts, new experiences, and understandings that can ultimately heal the patient and lead to growth and new development.
Traditionally, there are therefore three components of a psychoanalyst’s education— components that combine to provide opportunities for both experiential and didactic learning: the student’s own personal “training” analysis, the supervised analysis of at least three adult patients, and the four-year academic curriculum. The Oregon Psychoanalytic Institute is committed to flexibility in its approach to the needs of individual students in the context of their unique and sometimes demanding lives in a complex world. Every attempt is made to make it possible for motivated students to undertake and complete their analytic education.
The personal analysis is conducted four times per week by an approved training analyst. Ideally, the analysis is firmly established (usually 6-9 months) before the student begins classes.
The academic curriculum is a four-year program of seminars. There are three seminars on Fridays over a thirty-week academic year. Approximately once per month, there is a Saturday mini-course instead of Friday classes, to maximize the use of visiting faculty. Four tracks run through the four years: conceptual-theoretical, developmental, psychoanalytic technique, and continuous case conferences. Advanced candidates are expected to participate in academic activities under the auspices of the Institute until graduation.
Supervised analysis can begin during the first academic year. Student and supervisor usually meet once per week. With second and third cases, supervisors from outside Portland are available through some flexible arrangement combining use of the telephone with occasional in-person contacts.
Given the diverse backgrounds of those seeking analytic education, the Oregon Psychoanalytic Institute is committed to flexibility in its approach to the needs of individual students in the context of their unique life priorities and to making it possible for motivated students to undertake and complete their analytic education.
Faculty. Learn more about our faculty on this page.
Candidates. Learn more about Institute candidates on this page.
Eligibility for Training. The Institute welcomes applications from psychiatrists (MD and DO), clinical psychologists (Ph.D. or Psy. D.), clinical social workers (MSW; Ph.D. in Social Work; Doctor of Social Work [DSW]), and other doctoral level mental health clinicians (e.g. Doctor of Mental Health [DMH]). Applicants with a master’s degree from an accredited mental health degree program are eligible if they have at least two years of post graduate didactic and clinical training and experience in psychodynamic psychotherapy.
Personal Qualifications. The Institute accepts applicants for training on the basis of their education, intellectual interest, psychological aptitude, and emotional suitability for the practice of psychoanalysis. In particular, the applicant should demonstrate personal integrity and maturity, a broad interest in human motivation and in the vicissitudes of human life and psychological growth. Diverse backgrounds may prepare a person to study psychoanalysis. In addition to experience in mental health, abiding interests in such things as science, the arts, and the humanities, as well as many other life experiences, deepen and prepare one for therapeutic work.
Admissions Procedures. This process takes a few months and the deadline for submitting an application is usually the March prior to a new fall class. The application form includes a written autobiography. Three letters of recommendation are required, along with a series of interviews to access personal suitability and clinical aptitude and experience.
Fees. There is a one-time nonrefundable application fee of $300. Tuition is $3,000 per academic year. Fees for the personal psychoanalysis and supervision are negotiated on a private, individual basis between student and analyst. Our training and supervising analysts are mindful of the overall financial commitment required of students when negotiating these fees.
Last updated
08/29/2007
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