ABSTRACT
I believe that psychoanalytic practice, like any other profession, includes skills that can be nurtured, if not taught. But unlike some fields, ours rarely spells out what these skills are, how analytic aptitude can be assessed, or how it can be developed. Medical training is often criticized for its failure to instill some of the qualities that being an effective doctor requires. Studies persuasively argue that prescribing medications is useless if the doctor has not adequately explained their benefits to the patient or has not made it clear how the drug should be administered. But although there is a long history of research on the ingredients of psychologically effective treatment, the application of this body of work to our training selection process remains vague and unexplored. In medicine there is, at least, an effort to isolate what makes an effective doctor and how medical training can nurture these skills and interpersonal qualities. Why isn’t a similar effort being made in our own field, where, it can be argued, interpersonal skills are even more essential to good practice?
