▪ to train mental health professionals (psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers) and selected other professionals in the theory and practice of psychoanalysis.

▪ to provide courses, lectures, information services, and research opportunities to mental health practitioners and other interested persons in the community as well as to our own members.

▪ to provide a variety of services to the community, including affordable psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, and consultation to day-care providers.

The training program includes a training analysis, a required curriculum of study, and treatment of psychoanalytic cases under supervision.  These elements are performed concurrently, an arrangement which facilitates optimal learning of psychoanalysis. 

Psychoanalysis is a systematized body of knowledge about psychological development and functioning.  It is also a method of research designed to advance our understanding of the human mind and a method of treatment.  As a treatment it alleviates human suffering and leads to psychological growth through understanding of the developmental and unconscious impediments to the fulfillment of deepest wishes and highest aspirations.  It is the analyst's great privilege to work with patients to do the exploration that makes these outcomes possible. 

The Institute's Education Committee, which is responsible for training, is composed of the Training and Supervising Analysts, the President and President-Elect of the Baltimore Washington Society for Psychoanalysis, Inc., and two elected Institute Faculty Representatives. 

The Institute maintains a non-discriminatory policy with regard to race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation, as well as national and ethnic origin, in admissions, employment and access to programs.

Training Philosophy

Psychoanalysis has developed from its origins in Freud's pioneering discoveries.  Our training program emphasizes the evolving nature of psychoanalysis, which has resulted from ongoing revisions in theory and technique.  Course work includes the study of early contributions, contemporary views, and clinical problems.

Psychoanalysis is a young science with many unanswered questions.  It is anticipated that Candidates will critically consider and evaluate what is taught.

Historical Background

The Baltimore-Washington area has been hospitable to psychoanalysis from early in the 20th century.  The American Psychoanalytic Association was established in Baltimore in 1911.  The Washington-Baltimore Psychoanalytic Institute, founded in 1933, was the third such institute established in this country.

In 1946, with an increasing diversity of viewpoints about theory and technique, Baltimore and Washington established separate psychoanalytic societies, although the original Institute remained a joint training body for six more years.

The present Institute was founded in 1952 as the Baltimore Psychoanalytic Institute and was accredited by The American Psychoanalytic Association in 1955.  With many members in both Baltimore and Washington, the Institute consolidated its administrative and educational activities in Laurel, Maryland, in 1987.  At that time the name was changed to the Baltimore-Washington Institute for Psychoanalysis.

In the 1960s, the Institute began to offer training to non-medical, research candidates.  That practice grew into a tradition which now includes full training in psychoanalysis to all qualified mental health professionals and non-clinical training to Academic Associates.

Accreditation

The American Medical Association accepts a report of one year of full time training in an accredited psychoanalytic Institute for 50 hours of A.M.A. Physicians Recognition Award Category 1 education for each and every year of the physician's training.

The Institute's training programs in adult as well as in child and adolescent analysis are accredited by the Maryland Board of Examiners of Psychologists as continuing education activities.  The Institute is also recognized by the Maryland Board of Social Work Examiners as a sponsor of continuing education activities.

 Approved By

 Maryland Higher Education Commission.