ABSTRACT
The formation of a new society followed a sequence of stages. The first stage occurred when a sufficient number of training analysts, faculty members, and applicants were available to form a Study Group. The International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) President appointed a Sponsoring Committee of experienced analysts to monitor it. Two seemingly unrelated events–the development of the Equivalency Procedure in the 1990s, and the fall of Communism in Russia in 1989–led to the Direct Member route to IPA membership. This was an entirely new development that was necessary for the special circumstances in Eastern Europe. To understand how these two events became linked to the expansion of psychoanalytic training, it is necessary to place the development of the Equivalency Procedure in its historical context. A more complete understanding of the effect of the Equivalency Procedure on psychoanalytic education requires the consideration of a partial list of its effect on the tripartite system of requirements.
