Fieldwork Placement

The fieldwork placement offers direct contact with severely regressed patients in a mental hospital or agency setting, giving students the opportunity to observe extremes of psychopathology at the earliest levels of fixation.

Prerequisites for fieldwork placement include a minimum of 15 sessions of approved training analysis and satisfactory completion of PT 184 Primitive Emotional States.

While registered for PT 184 Primitive Emotional States, which deals with the psychoses and severe pathologies, students visit and report on three institutions for the mentally ill and begin the process of selecting a placement. To be assigned a fieldwork placement, students submit a written application to the Fieldwork Coordinator, who schedules an interview to discuss placement arrangements.

During their fieldwork placements students register for PT 185 Fieldwork Seminar and PT 111 Fieldwork Case Supervision.

The fieldwork placement consists of a minimum of 400 hours in placementrelated activities. Students should be prepared to devote ten or more hours weekly to the placement program. This includes time spent in case observation, meeting individually with patients, administrative supervision at the placement, case observation supervision at the Center, attendance at clinical courses, and preparation of process and seminar reports. After successfully completing two semesters of the fieldwork placement and PT 185, students may take PT 186 Beyond Psychosis: Conflict and Defense in the Neuroses and Character Disorders, focusing on the pathologies likely to be encountered at the Consultation and Referral Service.

It is recommended that students plan to take two human development courses, two history courses, four theory courses, and the first two research courses so that by the end of the second year they will have completed the core courses required for the Certificate Candidacy level. Psychoanalytic training is more meaningful when students participate concurrently in theory, development, history, and research courses while in the fieldwork placement.

To complete the fieldwork requirement, students offer a presentation of their work with hospital patients to fellow students and the clinical faculty. Also required is a letter from the hospital administrative supervisor recommending the student for advancement in the CMPS program.

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