The Analyst’s View: David Dietrich, Ph.D.
28 Sep 2025 |
WHY I DECIDED TO BECOME A PSYCHOANALYST
David R. Dietrich, Ph.D.
As I think back about this question that over the years I have asked many
colleagues—why I decided to become a psychoanalyst—I realize curiosity has
always been a central aspect of my mind. Science, history, English literature,
anthropology and in university psychology were major interests. While in middle
school I wrote a paper titled “Analysis of the Cerebellum.” Later in high school in a
speech I gave I said I would become a psychoanalyst and at the time I of course did
not appreciate the journey involved in actually becoming a psychoanalyst. Looking
back I believe I spoke those words in part reflecting a nascent wish for a deeply
rewarding career that provided on the one hand a unique opportunity to help and treat
patients while on the other hand offering an almost limitless pathway to one curious
about the mind. My grandfather was an impressive individual who was a judge and
attorney who played college football in the late 1890s. He lived with us and he became
an early influence on my development. Medicine, and especially pediatrics and
psychiatry, was a field I thought of entering during college while at the same time I
considered pursuing a Ph.D. in anthropology or psychology. An older friend who was
in medical school at the time suggested I gain clinical experience in a hospital to help
me decide and so I worked on an inpatient psychiatric unit and decided my interests
were not in hospital based psychiatry. I found while a university student I fell in love
with the field of psychology and its many opportunities for clinical practice,
scholarship, research, as well as teaching and supervision. At the time I was drawn to
its overlap with neuroscience, anthropology, biology, mythology and psychiatry. When
I reflect back I was also attracted to its study of positive psychological issues in that it
was not exclusively focused on psychopathology. While at Washington University in St.
Louis I received an invitation from the professor Saul Rosenzweig, a Freud scholar who
corresponded with Freud about research he had conducted at Harvard to prove some
of Freud’s theories, to join his seminar and my interest in Freud deepened. Rosenzweig
had an analysis with the eminent psychoanalyst and anthropologist Geza Roheim. As a
senior I wrote a thesis comparing the efficacy of two psychotherapeutic approaches
and as a result was awarded my degree magna cum laude.
In part for a different venue I began graduate study in clinical psychology in New York
City at the New School for Social Research (now New School University Graduate
School) and I was aware that respected analysts and scholars such as Ernst Kris,
Sandor Ferenczi, Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, and Franz Boaz had taught there. During
my first year of graduate school I was also introduced to training in Shorinji Kempo (a
form of Zen practice) at the newly opened Japan Cultural Center. Returning to
Washington University to receive my doctorate I gained university teaching experience
and worked closely with Saul Rosenzweig and Hyman Meltzer. My dissertation focused
on fantasies linked with object loss.
I took my internship year in Chicago and it consisted of clinically rich inpatient,
outpatient and emergency room experiences and the internship diector had had a
personal analysis with a Franz Alexander trained analyst. Looking back I was the one
among my peers in both graduate school and during my internship most interested in
psychoanalysis. Knowing there were post doctoral work and advanced training
opportunities I became a post doctoral fellow in clinical psychology at the Detroit
Psychiatric Institute which was affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry at Wayne
State University School Medicine and it was during my analytically oriented two year
fellowship that I first met Marvin Margolis. Many wonderful analysts such as Nate
Segel, Bud Lipson, Mayer Subrin, George Greenman, Thomas Petty, Marty Mayman
and Marvin Margolis taught and supervised. I came to feel that the most gifted of the
seminar and case conference teachers were the training analysts. During my fellowship
I gained experience doing three times weekly psychoanalytic psychotherapy and
learned about psychoanalytic theory, transference, countertransference, etc. and I
began to supervise new post doc fellows. When I think of that time I recognize I was
becoming aware of the rather unique ways these psychoanalysts were able to more
profoundly understand the mind as well as help patients in deeper and more powerful
ways compared to other types of treatments. At the same time I felt that what I learned
from my years of graduate school, and my internship year as well as the two year post
doc fellowship was not enough: I wanted to become a psychoanalyst. During my
fellowship I began part-time private clinical practice by moonlighting at Lakewood
Clinic in Birmingham (which was run primarily by psychoanalysts) which is where I first
met Mel Bornstein. And it was during my fellowship that I began my analysis. I applied
for analytic training at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute after completing my
fellowship and during my second year as a candidate I married my wife Nancy, who is
also a psychoanalyst. My story of deciding to become a psychoanalyst has been an
unfolding process of curiosity and discovery about other human beings and myself. I
realized it would be a privilege to qualify to practice clinical analysis and help reduce
suffering.
Even now as I practice I am mindful of my own personal journey and questions I had
about deciding to become an analyst and I am grateful to Marvin Margolis for his
measured, thoughtful, kind, and wise encouragement and I try my best to offer this
type of encouragement to anyone who is considering embarking upon the enormously
fulfilling journey of becoming a psychoanalyst. Often I am aware I can never repay the
kindness of so many of my teachers. Finally, I encourage anyone who is considering
psychoanalytic training to be intrepid and go for it.
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