Hazards of Long-Term Psychotherapy During Psychiatric Residency

When he laid the groundwork for modern standards of training psychiatrists, Freud (1937) asked, “Where and how is the poor wretch to acquire the ideal qualifications which he will need in his profession? The answer is, in an analysis of himself” (p. 248). Fromm-Reichmann (1950), an equally important influence on psychiatric education, echoed this sentiment when she professed that “any attempt at intensive psychotherapy is fraught with danger, hence unacceptable, where not preceded by the future psychiatrist’s personal analysis” (p. 42). Although most psychiatric residencies do not require personal psychotherapy (Pasnau and Russell 1975), many educators and their trainees still consider psychoanalysis or long-term reconstructive psychotherapy at least a valuable experience and at most a necessary step toward becoming a complete psychiatrist. In our experience, however, psychoanalysis and related psychotherapies can have adverse effects during the turmoil of residency training.