Psychoanalytic Association of New York (PANY)
Twenty-Ninth Annual Melitta Sperling Memorial Lecture
Meeting Summary
Monday, November 10, 2003, 8:15 pm
Einhorn Auditorium, Lenox Hill Hospital, 131 E. 76th Street, NYC

On Analyzability

Samuel Herschkowitz, MD

Dr. Herschkowitz is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, New York University Medical Center, and Training and Supervising Analyst, NYU Psychoanalytic Institute. He is the Chair of the Institute's Education Committee.

Educational Objective

The delineation of analytic suitability has always been a vexing problem within analytic literature. Freud himself never dedicated a paper specifically outlining the selection criteria of patients for psychoanalysis. Moreover, within the last 20 years few analytic writers have focused their attention on the choice of psychoanalysis compared with the choice of psychotherapy. The selection of patients for analysis has been further complicated by the divergence of theoretical platforms within our field, the concomitant technical divergences and the ensuing controversies as to what constitutes therapeutic action. This paper will focus on the presentation of clinical data and theory concerning the selection of patients for psychoanalysis. Three "Borderline" patients will be presented. These three patients will represent three categories of patients: those who should be in therapy; those who are suitable for analysis; and those who require psychotherapy before beginning psychoanalysis.