The College of Psychoanalysts is a professional association. The aim of the College is to promote debate, to facilitate wider access to treatment and to promote a greater awareness of psychoanalytic ideas in contemporary culture and threats to its theory and practice. The College is not a training organisation charged with the task of accrediting or regulating the activity of our members.
It is the policy of The College that membership shall be open to as wide a group of practitioners of psychoanalysis as possible and is no longer limited to those who comply with the grandparenting provisions which were in force immediately after The College was founded. The College, in principle, now considers the following training criteria for membership:
- Personal analysis with an acceptable psychoanalytic practitioner for a minimum of twice-weekly for at least 4 years.
- Successful completion of a training course relating to psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice or the equivalent thereof.
- Sufficient psychoanalytic clinical practice under supervision during training.
- Written presentations, during training, of clinical work with one or more patients and/or presentation of a final paper relating to both theory and clinical practice.
The College does not apply the above criteria in a rigid manner and the application of each practitioner for membership of The College is considered on its merits.
Applications for membership of The College are now accepted from retired practitioners who meet the requirements of The College. The names of such retired practitioners who are accepted for this category of membership will not appear on the Register of Practitioners published by The College but may appear on a separately published Register of Retired Practitioners.