ABSTRACT
The psychoanalytic profession is unique in the way it is structured, in that therapists and analysts become professional members of the body that trained them and then remain members of the same organization as long as they are practising. This chapter examines how all the issues come together in the training process and form a patriarchal belief system that is expressed as aggression towards the feminine. Training to be an analyst or therapist is an extraordinarily demanding process, both emotionally and financially involving an ongoing personal analysis, work with training patients, supervision of these patients, and regular weekly seminars. Analytic work can be very lonely and isolating, and the only colleagues available to interact with may be those from the analyst’s training body. Many talented people who have considered or have started training have given up the idea when they have experienced that the realities of training appear to be a form of indoctrination.
