Psychoanalytic training in the Eitingon model and its controversies: A way forward.

Psychoanalytic training has been an object of controversy for many years. Arguments have been intense about the details, sometimes called "requirements", and particularly over whether or not training institutes should have routine external validation. We describe these arguments and present preliminary conclusions about the core challenges psychoanalytic trainings face using a unique set of detailed observations collected during structured "conversations" inside nine European institutes. We conclude that whether a psychoanalytic training is "working" is not a matter of compliance with requirements. Rather, it is an issue of how candidates, training analysts, supervisors and committee members, confront within and between each other the consequences of the unconscious dynamics that psychoanalytic training must inevitably create. Institutional psychoanalytic capacity is to take itself as the object. Consequentially, we propose that training committees that seek to claim that their psychoanalytic training is genuinely and safely producing psychoanalysts would be ones that institute routine procedures to show to themselves, transparently, how they attend to the dynamics just mentioned and how they take a neutral inquisitive stance towards them. Fear of oversight, we suggest, is a symptom of deeper anxieties. They can be faced by creating an appropriate setting. Properly conducted visits from outsiders are welcomed.

Testes and brain gene expression in precocious male and adult maturing Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar).

BACKGROUND: The male Atlantic salmon generally matures in fresh water upon returning after one or several years at sea. Some fast-growing male parr develop an alternative life strategy where they sexually mature before migrating to the oceans. These so called 'precocious' parr or 'sneakers' can successfully fertilise adult female eggs and so perpetuate their line. We have used a custom-built cDNA microarray to investigate gene expression changes occurring in the salmon gonad and brain associated with precocious maturation. The microarray has been populated with genes selected specifically for involvement in sexual maturation (precocious and adult) and in the parr-smolt transformation. RESULTS: Immature and mature parr collected from a hatchery-reared stock in January were significantly different in weight, length and condition factor. Changes in brain expression were small - never more than 2-fold on the microarray, and down-regulation of genes was much more pronounced than up-regulation. Significantly changing genes included isotocin, vasotocin, cathepsin D, anamorsin and apolipoprotein E. Much greater changes in expression were seen in the testes. Among those genes in the testis with the most significant changes in expression were anti-Mullerian hormone, collagen 1A, and zinc finger protein (Zic1), which were down-regulated in precocity and apolipoproteins E and C-1, lipoprotein lipase and anti-leukoproteinase precursor which were up-regulated in precocity. Expression changes of several genes were confirmed in individual fish by quantitative PCR and several genes (anti-Mullerian hormone, collagen 1A, beta-globin and guanine nucleotide binding protein (G protein) beta polypeptide 2-like 1 (GNB2L1) were also examined in adult maturing testes. Down-regulation of anti-Mullerian hormone was judged to be greater than 160-fold for precocious males and greater than 230-fold for November adult testes in comparison to July testes by this method. For anti-Mullerian hormone and guanine nucleotide binding protein beta polypeptide 2-like 1 expression changes in precocious males mirrored mature adults (November) but for collagen 1A and beta-globin the pattern was more complex. CONCLUSIONS: Expression changes in the fish brain during the process of precocious sexual maturation were small compared to those in the testes. Microarray analysis suggested down-regulation of housekeeping functions and up-regulation of a small number of specific processes. Transcriptional changes in the testes were much more pronounced with anti-Mullerian hormone playing a major role. Expression profiles for mature parr and maturing adult testes indicate subtle differences in gene expression between these two related groups.