Developing expertise in psychoanalytic couple and family therapy in China

The author traces the development of a collaborative psychoanalytic training programme for couple and family therapists in China, launched through the shared efforts of Drs David Scharff, Jill Savege Scharff, Janine Wanlass, Fang Xin and Gao Jun, enrolling more than 400 students over the past twelve years. The stressors of economic change, greater interaction with the West, legacies left by the Cultural Revolution, challenges associated with the one-child policy, and escalating divorce rates created a need for therapists to intervene with Chinese couples and families exhibiting distress (Scharff, 2020, 2021). A training programme was conceived, including didactic teaching from an object relations perspective, a live clinical demonstration of psychotherapy with a couple or family, and small process groups led by Chinese therapists to help trainees integrate affective, cognitive, and behavioural learning components. The author contends that the success of this programme was largely dependent on a collaboration of cultures and personnel, as American teachers learned about psychoanalytic thinking from a Chinese cultural lens and Chinese administrators, faculty, and students discovered effective ways to address the mental health struggles of Chinese couples and families.

Examining Racism in Psychoanalytic Training: Perspectives from a Psychiatry Resident

The author reviews pervasive racial biases in psychoanalysis, spanning from overt instances of racial judgement to the normalized tendencies of internalized racist societal structures on individuals. A personalized account is given addressing how such issues have led to a hesitancy in the author— a Black and Hispanic psychiatry resident—to pursue psychoanalytic training. Institutes can more appropriately acknowledge how racism has affected their patients and the theories of the mind that are commonly promulgated. Academic institutions need to actively engage in creating awareness of racial bias, microaggressions, and uncovering unconscious negative attitudes. This will aid in the development of educational approaches that strive toward racial equality and inclusiveness.

Future research from China on distance psychoanalytic training and treatment

We present three recent research projects from China on distance psychoanalytic training and treatment. The first study explored how the internet could influence the process of psychoanalysis in three ways. First, choosing to accept online psychoanalysis is itself meaningful to the patients. Second, the internet connection itself can also be an organic component of the psychoanalysis. Third, the patients could see the real-time images of themselves during the online psychoanalysis, which could influence the analytic process. The second study found that psychoanalysis provides an important support to improve the process of individualisation among Chinese people. The results indicate that Chinese people have been through many traumatic events in the past century, such as civil wars, colonisation, and the Cultural Revolution. Through therapy, these hidden pains are expressed, understood, and healed. Psychoanalysis brings about a new dialectic relationship model: on the one hand, it is a very intimate relationship, you can talk and share everything in your life with a specific person; on the other hand, it is quite different from the traditional Chinese relationship model. They see psychoanalysis as a bridge, enabling the participants to achieve their connection with Chinese culture by using Chinese literature, art, religion, philosophy, to find their own path of individualisation. The third study surveyed 163 graduates of a distance psychoanalytic programme and found that the graduates developed a strong identification with the psychoanalytic field, with private practice clinical hours increased and fees increased. Looking forward to the future, 92% of the respondents plan to be supervisors, 78% to be analysts, 73% to be teachers, 46% to be authors, and 36% to be speakers.

Mother-Infant Observations: A View into the Wordless Social Instincts that Form the Foundation of Human Psychodynamics

Mother-infant observations attune the psychotherapist to the nonverbal interactions that shape the child’s experience of the world. The origins of our interest in psychoanalytic mother-infant observations can be traced back to clinical work with adults, child analyses, ethology (the study of animal behavior), and theoretical questions about the development of the symbolic function in infancy. More recently, seminars and direct experience in mother-infant observation have been gaining popularity as components of psychoanalytic training. Indeed, mother-infant observations are a kind of human ethological investigation that offer a rare peek into the wordless social instincts that find their origins in the ancient evolution of our species.

Editorial: Contributions to Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Psychiatry by Richard C. Friedman (1941-2020)

As Interim Editor of Psychodynamic Psychiatry, I have the honor to comment on Richard C. Friedman's extraordinary career. At the time of his death in late March of this year, Richard C. Friedman (RCF) had been Editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Psychodynamic Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis for eight years. During that time, the journal was renamed Psychodynamic Psychiatry and became the first English-language journal in the world about psychodynamic psychiatry. At the time of his death, Dr. Friedman was Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Weill-Cornell School of Medicine and Lecturer in Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. He was also on the faculty of the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research and Research Professor at the Derner School of Adelphi University.