“To awaken a profound understanding of human experience, promoting the art and discipline of psychoanalysis”

We at the Newport Psychoanalytic Institute affirm the practice of psychoanalysis as a reflection of the highest integration of art and science rooted in the intimate dialogue of analyst and analysand. The practice of psychoanalysis is pursued with the aim of alleviating human suffering and facilitating emotional maturation.

NPI seeks to develop the candidate’s awareness of the unconscious dimensions of human experience and to facilitate the integration of that awareness into one’s life and work. Training to become a psychoanalyst at NPI follows the tripartite training tradition established early in the history of psychoanalysis: a personal training analysis, supervision of the trainee by seasoned analysts over control or training cases, and didactic classes. The shared understanding at NPI is that the personal training analysis serves as the foundation for becoming a psychoanalyst, and that a candidate’s personal analysis becomes a training analysis because it takes place while a candidate is undertaking the challenge of working ever more deeply with patients multiple times a week under supervision. Both the personal training analysis and the supervision serve as avenues for the candidate to understand herself or himself in the working dynamic. The third component of training, the didactic coursework, includes courses in theory, technique, and topics of psychoanalytic import, as well as opportunities to participate in continuous case conferences. All of these experiences have been anticipated to take place in tandem: the candidate will have a rich personal experience of analysis and of analytic working through, an opportunity to learn by working with patients under supervision, and participation in classes of theoretical and clinical knowledge.

NPI’s curriculum offers instruction and mentoring in the major schools of psychoanalysis including Sigmund Freud and classical psychoanalysis, object-relations, the intersubjective and relational approaches, infant research, and neuropsychobiological findings. The curriculum both surveys and focuses in depth upon a philosophical and historical understanding of these major schools of thought and ways of working. It is designed to offer a wide array of concepts and modes of clinical presence from which to draw in the evolution of each candidate’s individual identity as a psychoanalyst. The philosophical similarities and differences among the schools of thought are examined and critiqued throughout the stages of the program, with the hope that the candidate will mine the rich diversity inherent in the body of psychoanalytic thought and practice.

As a part of exposing our candidates to a wide range of theoretical and clinical perspectives, we are committed to an open-system model of training. Candidates are not only allowed, but are encouraged to do their training and supervising analysis with any qualified psychoanalyst who meets with the Training Committee’s approval. This open system philosophy enables candidates to come from a wide geographical area and to choose a psychoanalyst who can truly meet their personal and training needs and interests.

NPI is dedicated to an educational atmosphere where candidates take an active part in the creation of their own learning experience and approach their training with open and critical minds. In keeping with this goal, candidates and faculty participate together on committees and are jointly involved in the ongoing development of the Institute.

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