Letter to the Editor,
New York Times:

Re: Frequency of Sessions

Psychoanalysis is now an independent profession with the passing in 2002 of the New York State licensing laws for psychoanalysts. Psychoanalysis cannot be dominated by the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, the focus of your article, nor any other institute or professional mental health group.

Freud said an analyst was someone who worked with resistance and transference. He was never as rigid as his disciples became in regard to frequency of sessions. The emphasis on frequency of sessions closed the doors to students (and patients) not able or willing to afford the cost of three or four sessions a week. No wonder there has been a decline in psychoanalysis!

The state law licensing psychoanalysts did not include frequency of sessions in its requirements for training. Now a more diverse group of patients can afford to be in psychoanalysis, and a larger group of students can afford training. Many psychoanalytic institutes now exist under the umbrella of the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis.

As a practicing certified psychoanalyst for many years, and as an analyst who believes it is possible for some patients to be in analysis and attend once a week, I feel that these changes are long overdue.

Mark Sehl
Greenwich Village

Dr. Sehl would be interested in hearing about therapists' and patients' experience around these issues. Contact him today!