An Empirically-Based Psychoanalytic Curriculum

Although psychoanalysts have been debating changes to psychoanalytic curricula for decades, including the incorporation of knowledge and practice of psychoanalytic research, surprisingly little has changed. This lack of change, and in particular the failure to integrate research into psychoanalytic training, has damaged the field in a number of important ways, by alienating more research-oriented clinicians and preventing psychoanalysis from keeping in step with current trends and evidence-based medicine. In this article, we provide the rationale and a model for an empirically-based psychoanalytic curriculum that will make psychoanalytic education more inclusive and more responsive to practical and ethical demands for evidence-based treatments.