OVERVIEW

The Community Psychoanalysis Track and Consortium (CPT&C) began in 2016 when a group of psychoanalytic clinicians from community mental health and institutionalized psychoanalysis convened to explore the possibility of developing a training track (CPT) and an affiliated network of community mental health and analyst members (Community Psychoanalysis Consortium).

The CPT&C is a ground-breaking educational opportunity that allows eligible candidates at PINC (the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California) to substitute one of three required psychoanalytic training cases with a Community Project under supervision. The program operates on the principle that psychoanalysis can be practiced in different ways and settings beyond the traditional dyad in a consulting room.

Each CPT&C Project offers experiential training and situationally-sensitive, integrated education to psychoanalytic candidates. This fosters the development of an analytic attitude represented by humility, tolerance of uncertainty, curiosity, capacity for reflection and respect for difference. Engagement with a Community Project aims to promote sensitivity to the impact of the larger sociopolitical, historical, and cultural elements on individuals and groups in a community setting.

The vision of the CPT&C is to bring about reciprocal learning for both candidates and the community, to forge collaborative bonds between psychoanalytic training institutes and community agencies, and to increase inclusion and equity in psychoanalysis.

CPT&C is an innovative program that challenges the formal definition and scope of psychoanalysis; it marks a sea change by broadening how psychoanalysis is defined, who benefits from it, and what is deemed teachable at a psychoanalytic institute.