A long but fruitful journey: From clinical psychoanalysis to public mental health in Chile

Abstract

The authors, both professors of psychiatry, trained as psychoanalysts according to the standards of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA), recount 30 years of conceptual and empirical research work for the construction of a model of brief and adaptive psychodynamic psychotherapy applicable at the Primary Health Care level. The many milestones of this journey are reviewed, starting with the difficulties and obstacles encountered when pursuing this task within IPA institutions. Once the authors decided to conduct the task outside the analytic institution, they created two training programs for psychodynamic therapists and a research group in psychotherapy, all of which have attained excellence. This effort gave birth to several institutions that are still in operation, such as the Chilean and Latin American chapters of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, the Chilean Congress of Psychotherapy, the PhD Program in Psychotherapy, and finally the Millennium Institute for Research and Personality (MIDAP). In its 8 years of existence, MIDAP has become a national and Latin American reference center for research in Mental Health, aimed at implementing preventive and psychotherapeutic interventions in vulnerable populations at the primary health care and community level. The article ends with a description of the main components and the final process of the construction of the Protocol of Psychotherapeutic Competences for the Treatment of Depression in Primary Health Care level.