Ann Arbor on the Couch

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The change was driven in part by managed care--insurers are no longer willing to pay for years of talk therapy. Yet Ann Arbor still has dozens of working psychoanalysts, with dozens more in training. Some, like Betty Draper's, are classic Freudians, dark-suited and silent. Others dress more casually and speak more freely. More now are women, and many now come to therapy with a PhD in clinical psychology or a master's in social work instead of an MD.

Analyst Marvin Margolis, a past president of both the MPI and its parent organization, the American Psychoanalytic Association, says that the pendulum swung away from men and medicine in the latter part of the last century. Margolis, who has both a MD and a PhD, says the organizations are hoping to continue the trend away from the stereotypical "white Jewish male from New York," while attracting more candidates with backgrounds in psychiatry and neurology.

Dwarakanath "Dwarky" Rao embodies the change. "I did my psychiatry training in India," says Rao, who succeeded Bronx-born Harvey Falit as president of MPI last year. But like his predecessors, Rao, who practices in Ann Arbor, remains a Freudian at heart.