David Raft Fellowship for Psychoanalytic Education

Created through a generous gift from Elizabeth Raft, MD, the David Raft Fellowship is awarded periodically to a clinician enrolled in, or planning to enroll in, the training programs or continuing education courses of the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas (PCC). The David Raft Fellowship provides up to $1,250 towards training expenses for the upcoming academic year. These funds may be applied to tuition, training program fees, and/or membership dues. The scholarship can be used for up to two consecutive years if the award is not exhausted in the first year.

Raft Fellowship Details

Mental health professionals or trainees who are enrolled in or eligible to take courses at the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas may apply for the David Raft Fellowship by submitting the Raft Fellowship application by May 1.

All application materials and information will be kept confidential.

Preference will be given to eligible applicants who demonstrate one or more of the following qualities:

  • Demonstrated interest in and/or commitment to the application of psychoanalytic principles to any area of clinical care
  • Commitment to developing oneself as an analytic instrument by deepening one’s knowledge and understanding of one’s own inner processes and learning to apply those lessons in the therapeutic relationship
  • Interest in developing a research project that explores psychoanalytic concepts and/or guides psychoanalytic practice

Priority will be given to applicants who have matriculated or plan to matriculate in the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas. However, clinicians who plan to take PCC courses without matriculating may also apply and be considered for the Raft Fellowship.

The Raft Fellowship selection committee will consist of three members and two alternates of the PCC Admissions Committee.

The selection committee may use application materials and any additional information it deems necessary, such as essays or interviews, in order to reach its decision. The decision of the selection committee will be final.

The Raft Fellowship recipient will be announced in the summer.

The application period closes on May 1. 

The Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, gender, gender identity, marital status, religion, sexual orientation or identification, or national and ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, and financial aid policies.

About David Raft, MD (1930 – 1985)

David Raft, MDDr. David Raft, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, was a committed researcher, clinician, and teacher. As an Associate Professor in the University of North Carolina School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, he taught on the consult/liaison service. He also taught and supervised the psychoanalysis training program of the PCC (then known as the UNC-Duke Psychoanalytic Education Program).

Equally comfortable with internal medicine, psychopharmacology, and psychoanalysis, or a combination of those, he could and would respond to emergencies with the same generosity and excellence he showed in providing psychoanalytic supervision. Dr. Raft wrote on diverse topics including depression in medical patients, anorexia nervosa, sexual problems, psychopharmacological prescribing by non-psychiatrists, somatization, and therapeutic abortion.

Dr. Raft’s real love was teaching, supervising, and conducting psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Those he supervised and mentored remember him as a dedicated teacher of the craft. The Raft Fellowship will provide financial support in order to share his professional values with new generations of students of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.

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