Edited by Himanshu Agrawal
Routledge, 2025
”This book is a collection of commentaries by 40 psychoanalysts-in-training spanning across 29 different countries, shedding light on the state of contemporary psychoanalysis – its training, practice and relevance. The perception and landscape of typical psychoanalysis, the typical psychoanalyst and the typical psychoanalytic trainee have witnessed a tectonic shift since Dr. Sigmund Freud first introduced this technique over a hundred years ago. This book challenges and inspires us to think, at all levels, about reimagining how psychoanalysis should be taught in the 21st century.
Inspired by Fred Busch’s Dear Candidate (Routledge, 2021), chapters are written in the style of personal letters from candidates to their faculty and institutes. Each contributor shares a piece of their mind – and their heart – about the trials and tribulations of the process of psychoanalytic training – what they cherished, what they loathed, why they spoke up and why they dropped out. This book is an important read for both prospective candidates as well as veteran psychoanalysts and institutional leaders.”
Maria Lival-Juusela : A letter to the Finnish Psychoanalytical Society, Helsinki (1964)
Maria Lival-Juusela, one of the candidates studying at the Finnish Psychoanalytical Society at the time, wrote her chapter for the book. She describes the process:
”This beautiful book has been such an adventure – the brainchild of Himanshu Agrawal who a few years ago began sheparding 40 international candidates through the process of writing letters addressed to our respective training institutes. And braving the jungle of publishing.
Originally dreamed up as a response to the book ”Dear Candidate” edited by Fred Busch, Himanshu asked us to take our time, to be as honest and constructively critical as we could. Nonetheless, here are 40 loveletters about the art of learning the ”impossible profession” if I ever read them, full of all the conflicting passions psychoanalysis and psychoanalytical institutions can inspire.”
Himanshu Agrawal hails from New Delhi, India, and is currently an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (USA). He is a psychoanalyst-in-training at the Minnesota Psychoanalytic Institute (USA).