The International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) is an association including 12,000 psychoanalysts as members and works with 70 constituent organizations. It was founded in 1910 by
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
, from an idea proposed by
Sándor Ferenczi
Sándor Ferenczi (; 7 July 1873 – 22 May 1933) was a Hungarian Psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst, a key theorist of the psychoanalytic school and a close associate of Sigmund Freud.
Biography
Born Sándor Fraenkel to Baruch Fränkel and Rosa ...
.
History
In 1902
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
started to meet every week with colleagues to discuss his work, thus establishing the ''Psychological Wednesday Society''. By 1908 there were 14 regular members and some guests including
Max Eitingon,
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of Carl Jung publications, over 20 books, illustrator, and corr ...
,
Karl Abraham, and
Ernest Jones, all future Presidents of the IPA.
The ''Society'' became the ''Vienna Psychoanalytical Society''.
In 1907 Jones suggested to Jung that an international meeting should be arranged. Freud welcomed the proposal. The meeting took place in
Salzburg
Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...
on April 27, 1908. Jung named it the "First Congress for Freudian Psychology". It is later reckoned to be the first International Psychoanalytical Congress. Even so, the IPA had not yet been founded.
The IPA was established at the next Congress held at
Nuremberg
Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...
in March 1910.
[How did the IPA begin?]
Its first President was
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of Carl Jung publications, over 20 books, illustrator, and corr ...
, and its first Secretary was
Otto Rank
Otto Rank (; ; né Rosenfeld; 22 April 1884 – 31 October 1939) was an Austrian psychoanalyst, writer, and philosopher. Born in Vienna, he was one of Sigmund Freud's closest colleagues for 20 years, a prolific writer on psychoanalytic themes, ...
. Sigmund Freud considered an international organization to be essential to advance his ideas. In 1914 Freud published a paper entitled
The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement.
The IPA is the international accrediting and regulatory body for member organisations. The IPA's aims include creating new psychoanalytic groups, conducting research, developing training policies and establishing links with other bodies. It organizes a biennial Congress.
Regional organizations
There is a Regional Organisation for each of the IPA's three regions:
* Europe—European Psychoanalytical Federation (or EPF), which also includes Australia, India, Israel, Lebanon, South Africa and Turkey;
** The IPA is incorporated in England, where it is a company limited by guarantee and also a registered charity. Its administrative offices are at The Lexicon in Central London.
* Latin America—Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies of Latin America (or FEPAL);
* North America—North American Psychoanalytic Confederation (or NAPSAC), which also includes Japan and Korea.
Each of these three bodies consists of Constituent Organisations and Study Groups that are part of that IPA region. The IPA has a close working relationship with each of these independent organisations, but they are not officially or legally part of the IPA.
Constituent organizations
The IPA's members qualify for membership by being a member of a "constituent organisation" (or the sole regional association).
Constituent organisations
Provisional Societies
* Guadalajara Psychoanalytic Association (Provisional Society)
* Moscow Psychoanalytic Society (Provisional Society)
* Psychoanalytic Society for Research and Training (Provisional Society)
* Vienna Psychoanalytic Association
Regional associations
*
American Psychoanalytic Association ("APsaA") is a body which has in membership societies which cover around 75% of psychoanalysts in the United States of America (the remainder are members of "independent" societies which are in direct relationship with the IPA).
IPA Study Groups
"Study Groups" are bodies of analysts which have not yet developed sufficiently to be a freestanding society, but that is their aim.
* Campinas Psychoanalytical Study Group
* Center for Psychoanalytic Education and Research
* Croatian Psychoanalytic Study Group
* Fortaleza Psychoanalytic Group
* Goiania Psychoanalytic Nucleus
* Korean Psychoanalytic Study Group
* Latvia and Estonia Psychoanalytic Study Group
* Lebanese Association for the Development of Psychoanalysis
* Minas Gerais Psychoanalytical Study Group
* Northern Ireland Psychoanalytic Society
* Portuguese Nucleus of Psychoanalysis
* Psychoanalytical Association of Asuncion SG
* South African Psychoanalytic Association
* Study Group of Turkey: Psike Istanbul
* Turkish Psychoanalytical Group
* Vermont Psychoanalytic Study Group
* Vilnius Society of Psychoanalysts
Allied Centres
"Allied Centres" are groups of people with an interest in psychoanalysis, in places where there are not already societies or study groups.
* Korean Psychoanalytic Allied Centre
* Psychoanalysis Studying Centre in China
* Taiwan Centre for The Development of Psychoanalysis
* The Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies of Panama
International Congresses
The first 23 Congresses of IPA did not have a specific theme.
Criticism
In 1975,
Erich Fromm
Erich Seligmann Fromm (; ; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and set ...
questioned this organization and found that the psychoanalytic association was "organized according to standards rather dictatorial".
In 1999,
Élisabeth Roudinesco noted that the IPA's attempts to professionalize psychoanalysis had become "a machine to manufacture significance". She also said that in France, "
Lacanian colleagues looked upon the IPA as bureaucrats who had betrayed psychoanalysis in favour of an adaptive psychology in the service of triumphant capitalism". She wrote of the "IPA
sLegitimist Freudianism, as mistakenly called "orthodox"".
On the other hand, most criticisms laid against the IPA tend to come from a 1950s Lacanian point of view, unaware of recent developments, and of the variety of schools and training models within the association in recent decades. One of the three training models in the IPA (the French Model), is mostly due to Lacan's ideas and their perspectives regarding the training.
Homophobia
Among Roudinesco's other criticisms was her reference to "
homophobia
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...
" in the IPA, considered a "disgrace of psychoanalysis.
According to psychiatrist Albert Le Dorze, the association is homophobic.
[La politisation de l'ordre sexuel by Albert Le Dorze, éditions L'Harmattan, Paris, january 2009 - 238 pages]
Archives
The archive of the International Psychoanalytical Association is held at
Wellcome Collection (ref no
SA/IPA.
See also
*
Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Freudian psychology
International organisations based in London
Psychoanalysis organizations
Scientific organizations established in 1910