Psychoanalytic institutes and societies in the United States


Psychoanalytic institutes and societies in the United States are often linked together, though a distinction may be made between the functions of the institutes and the societies. Some local psychoanalytic organizations have both words in their title while others have only one or the other.
Psychoanalytic institutes are organizations that train psychoanalysts and psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists, provide continuing education for psychoanalytically oriented mental health professionals, and/or carry out psychoanalytically informed research in mental health or social sciences and humanities. Psychoanalytic societies are local or regional professional associations of psychoanalysts and sometimes other psychoanalytically oriented professionals.
Psychoanalytic institutes in the United States may be affiliated with either the American Psychoanalytic Association, the International Psychoanalytic Association, or both. The two associations differ slightly in their training guidelines over such things as length and frequency of so-called "control cases" or of the candidates themselves. The two organizations also historically differed in their rules for allowing different types of professionals to undergo psychoanalytic training. The two associations historically also had different attitudes towards theoretical schools within psychoanalysis such as Kleinian or Lacanian approaches. Since 2001, some psychoanalytic institutes have been accredited by the Accreditation Council for Psychoanalytic Education, Inc..

Overview

There are at several philosophical and psychotherapeutic traditions related to Freudian psychoanalysis. One of the largest are Jungian psychoanalysis or analytic psychology, based on the works of Freud's early colleague and one-time protoge Carl Gustav Jung. The International Association for Analytical Psychology is the international accrediting and regulatory body for all Jungian societies and groups of analytical psychology practitioners, trainees and affiliates. Another, particularly prominent in Europe and Latin America, is Lacanian psychoanalysis, based on the work of the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. The World Association of Psychoanalysis was founded in 1992 and groups together a number of regional Lacanian associations. While some psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic institutes associated with APsaA or IPA may use or teach some Jungian or Lacanian concepts and techniques, in practice these have become somewhat separate traditions, with separate journals, professional societies, accredidation, and so one. Consequently Jungian and Lacanian societies and institutes are not listed here unless they are also associated with either APsaA or IPA.
Many American psychoanalytic institutes are stand-alone, nonprofit, educational institutions of relatively small size. A handful are affiliated with major universities: Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research; New York University's Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis; Emory University Psychoanalytic Institute. A small number are independently accredited graduate schools: Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis.
It is difficult to give a single "foundation date" for many of the institutes and societies. Some began as independent study groups or as sponsored affiliates of more established psychoanalytic institutes or societies in other cities. Most went through a process of accreditation by APsaA and/or IPA, which can take years to complete and which has several stages from recognized study group through provisional institute to independent institute or training institute status. Most were chartered as nonprofit organizations or accredited at the state level as educational organizations separately from their IPA/APsaA accreditation. Consequently, some foundation dates are approximate and some organizations have multiple significant dates listed.
There are also several institutions that are hard to categorize and have therefore been omitted, such as the Menninger Clinic in Houston, a prominent training program in psychiatry and clinical psychology with strong tradition of training in psychoanalytic approaches. The Menninger Clinic was previously closely connected with the Topeka Psychoanalytic Society; however, Menninger itself does not appear to be independently recognized by APsaA or IPA as a psychoanalytic institute, or to have an explicitly affiliated psychoanalytic society at present. The Wright Institute in Berkeley, California and the formerly affiliated but now independent Wright Institute Los Angeles, and the Austen Riggs Center in Massachusetts, similarly have long traditions of training psychoanalytically informed clinicians, but are not chartered as psychoanalytic institutes.

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