By ALEX NOWAKOWSKI
On October 17th the
School of Medicine and Health Services (SMHS) and the Washington Center for
Psychoanalysis (WCP) announced a formal educational and research affiliation,
affirming the long-standing partnership between the two programs.
For many years the
WCP has supervised and taught SMHS residents and several GW students have
trained at the WCP following their residency. A formal affiliation between the two groups
has failed several times, but more recent changes made the affiliation
possible. David Cooper, president of the WCP, said that the affiliation would
create new possibilities for both parties involved.
“The formalization of
our affiliation will expand opportunities for WCP members to participate in
training and research activities in the SMHS and, hopefully, in the university
at large”, said Cooper. “There is the opportunity for psychoanalysis to be
represented in interdisciplinary dialogues throughout the GW community.”
James Griffith, the chair
of GW’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, discussed the
teaching offered by WCP professionals and the implications to the department of
psychiatry’s future.
“They work with
students to help them learn how to listen empathically to their medically ill
patients and to be curious and interested in each patient’s unique experience
of illnesses” Griffith said. “Most of all, the presence of the WCP helps
establish a national identity for our Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences as a center for excellence in psychotherapy practice, training, and
research.”
The affiliation
between the two organizations also has important consequences on a larger
scale.
“This will not only affect the
local scene for training in DC but may well have national implications, as the
nature of our affiliation, in which a free-standing Psychoanalytic Center
retains its autonomy within a university setting, is unique and may well serve
as blueprint for other such pairings in the future,” Cooper said.
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