Is Psychoanalysis in Danger of Being Judged Unfit to be Practised?

2 ..9

If regulation by the state comes into force for our profession, via the Health Professions Council, the overriding context and aim within which complaints will be dealt with, will be subsumed within this concept of are you fit to practise? There will arise an inevitable invitation to engage with all the myriad possible ramifications of the term fitness. It will not be a question of rien ne va plus; but rather one of a game of roulette that rarely stops rewarding any patient displeased with their analyst, for whom the chips will always be down.

In the light of these possible developments, we need to address urgently and seriously the vital question of how clinical psychoanalysis in particular might survive under such circumstances.

I am not for one moment suggesting that psychoanalytic practitioners should not be regulated. The public needs to be protected from unscrupulous practitioners. There is a need for effective codes of conduct and all practitioners should be subject to suitable sanctions when they are in breach of such codes. For many years, such regulation has been achieved very effectively by voluntary registration with bodies such as the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy. In my own professional organisation, The College of Psychoanalysts, we have our own code of professional conduct, with suitable sanctions that can be imposed on those who are found to be in breach of those standards.

The obvious shortcoming of such a system of voluntary regulation is the important issue of those practitioners who do not voluntarily register. However, that problem will not disappear with the advent of compulsory regulation. Some would inevitably avoid any need for registration; by not using professional titles regulated by HPC and so remain outside its jurisdiction.

It is within the context of all of the above issues that I raise the important question: Is psychoanalysis in danger of being judged unfit to be practised?

Some might reasonably ask why I am raising my question only in relation to psychoanalysis. Is it only psychoanalysis that is threatened by the concept of fitness to practise, rather than the wider disciplines of psychotherapy and counselling as a whole? For the reasons I will set out, my answer to this question is a resounding yes: that psychoanalysis is not only threatened by HPC and the concept of fitness to practise but is in danger of no longer being available as an effective form of psychological intervention; and this in a quite unique way that does not comparably challenge or threaten any other modality of psychotherapy or counselling.