My understanding is that until fairly recently one could only become clinically practicing member of the American Psychoanalytic Association if one had a medical qualification. However, this was sucessfully challenged in a legal action by clinical psychologists. Now people regularly become APsaA psychoanalysts at a number of APsaA centres throughout the country. In addition, there were then and are now other organizations where people who were not physicians could train to become a psychoanalyst, e.g., the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis - http://www.npap.org - which was founded to cater for and train non-medical practitioners who call themselves psychoanalysts. There is also a Section 39 of the American Psychological Association for people who practice or are interested in psychoanalysis. It is my impression that in America (unlike Britain where its exclusive use by members of the British Psychoanalytic Society is currently under challenge) the term is not particularly rigidly confined to people who have had full psychoanalytic trainings. I think people are referred to as doing psychoanalysis who actually do psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Indeed, the practice of most pukka psychoanalysts nowadays involves lots of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Lacanians freely use the term psychoanalyst to describe themselves worldwide. The distinction between psychoanalysis ands psychoanalytic psychotherapy is not clearly drawn, but it usually means 4-5 sessions of 50 mins per week for psychoanalysis and less for psychoanalytic psychotherapy. However, I have heard of a US trainng which produces graduates who have had and have given one session per week, but this is a very unusual situation. You will see that all of these categorizations are much-disputed in some quarters. Best, Bob >Can anyone tell me if it is legal in the U.S. for people other than >physicians to practice psychoanalysis, and if so, what are the >qualifications for such a practice. > >Thanks, > Larry D. Lyons > [log in to unmask] >_________________________________________________________________ >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com Robert Maxwell Young, Prof. Emeritus of Psychotherapy & Psychoanalytic Studies, Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies, Univ. of Sheffield, http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/ Co-Director, Bulgarian Institute of Human Relations & Honoured Prof., New Bulgarian Univ., Sofia. http://www.nbu.bg/bihr/psy.htm Home: 26 Freegrove Rd., London N7 9RQ. tel. +44 207 607 8306 Private Practice, Consultation, Supervision Web Site & Writings http://www.human-nature.com [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask] One must imagine Sisyphus happy.' - Camus P;ease put 'Message for Robert Young' in the Subject line.