The London Psychoanalytical Society was founded by Ernest Jones
on 30th October 1913. With the expansion of psychoanalysis in the United Kingdom the Society was renamed the British Psychoanalytical
Society in 1919. Soon after, the Institute of Psychoanalysis was established to
administer the Society’s activities. These include: the training of
psychoanalysts, the development of the theory and practice of psychoanalysis,
the provision of treatment through The London Clinic of
Psychoanalysis, the publication of books and journals, maintaining a library, furthering
research, and holding public lectures. The Society has a Code of Ethics and an
Ethical Committee. The Society, the Institute and the Clinic are all located at
Byron House.
The Society is a component of the International Psychoanalytical
Association, a body with members on all five continents that
safeguards professional and ethical practice. The Society is a
member of the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC); the BPC
publishes a register of British psychoanalysts and
psychoanalytical psychotherapists. All members of the British
Psychoanalytical Society are required to undertake continuing
professional development.
Through its work – and the work of its individual members – the
British Psychoanalytical Society has made an unrivalled
contribution the understanding and treatment of mental illness.
Members of the Society have included Michael Balint, Wilfred
Bion, John Bowlby, Anna Freud, Melanie Klein, Joseph Sandler,
and Donald Winnicott.
Psychoanalysis is the most
intensive form of the talking therapy, devised by Sigmund Freud one hundred
years ago, but developed continuously and radically since then. Patients attend
five fifty minute sessions weekly, usually for several years, working with their
psychoanalyst to examine and to explore unconscious conflicts of feeling,
emotion and phantasy that are at the root of their symptoms and the problems
that are troubling them.
Psychoanalytic theory suggests that it is by no means only
genetic and constitutional factors that make up the personality. Other central
influences include the experience of birth, of the early relationships with
parents, of sexuality, of love and hate, of loss and death. These crucial
experiences, worked over and lived out in the core relationships of the family,
lay down patterns in the mind of feeling, phantasy and relationship - patterns
which provide unconscious templates, or models of relationships. Such
unconscious versions of relationships are often at the root of the problems
which lead people to seek help.
The regular sessions of psychoanalysis provide a setting
within which these unconscious patterns can be brought into awareness and worked
on with a view to change. The relationship with the analyst is influenced
inevitably and powerfully by the patient’s unconscious ways of behaving and
itself becomes a central area of study, enabling light to be thrown on the
patient’s patterns of relationship in the immediacy of the sessions.
The work of psychoanalysis is long and arduous, for both
patient and analyst. When successful, however, psychoanalysis can be a unique
and profound experience that often leads to long-term development in close
relationships, work and creativity. Success depends on both analyst and patient
and on the quality of their joint work.
Latest edition of Scientific American
on evidence for psychodynamic psychotherapy
‘... the
strongest evidence yet that psychodynamic psychotherapy -- “talk
therapy” -- works. In fact, it not only works, it keeps working
long after the sessions stop.’
We aim to develop our position as
the leading centre of excellence in the UK in the provision of psychoanalytic
training, education, publication and clinical practice and to develop a
professional organisation for the furthering of psychoanalysis through diversity
and debate.
To support the development of psychoanalytical knowledge as a
general theory of mind.
To maintain and further the clinical and scientific standards of
psychoanalysis.
To promote an internal culture where a diversity of psychoanalytic
theories and techniques are valued and can be debated with
intellectual openness.
To train high quality psychoanalytic professionals in sufficient
numbers to maintain and develop the profession of psychoanalysis.
To provide and/or support high quality psychoanalytic treatment.
To disseminate knowledge about psychoanalysis, to health and allied
professionals.
To promote the contribution of the discipline of psychoanalysis to
public and intellectual life.
To form mutually collaborative clinical and academic links with
other organisations (public sector, academic and charitable) which
support the furtherance of the above aims.
To work as appropriate with and/or within national and international
organisations in the interests of psychoanalysis and the
psychoanalytic profession.
To maintain the physical and administrative facilities necessary for
the above activities to take place in an appropriate and
professional environment.
The Society currently has 438 members and 46
candidates. The majority of them live in or near London, though there are 158
members in many different countries and in other parts of the British Isles.
Many psychoanalysts work in public organisations, principally in the Health
Service, as well as in private practice. Recently it has become possible for
those living at a distance from London to do the training. Members of the
Society come from a diversity of countries and cultures, offering treatment in
over 22 languages, including Armenian, Catalan, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew,
Hindi, Hungarian, Iranian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Polish, Punjabi, Russian,
Swedish, Turkish, and Urdu. Today as in the past, approximately half of the
British Psychoanalytical Society are women. A complete list of qualified UK
Institute trained psychoanalysts is available here
www.psychoanalysis.org.uk/uklist.htm
Members of the public considering psychoanalysis may want to
consult this list to make sure that a practitioner describing themselves as a
psychoanalyst is in fact qualified genuinely to practise this intensive form of
treatment. Those named are properly entitled to hold themselves out to the
public as psychoanalysts because of their Internationally recognised training.
The Institute of Psychoanalysis qualifies its members to belong to the
International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) - a body with members on all
five continents which safeguards professional standards and oversees the stages
by which new societies are created.
Since the term Psychoanalyst is currently not yet protected in law anyone can,
at present, claim to be one.
If you have any doubts that a particular individual is qualified to represent
themselves as a qualified psychoanalyst you may wish to consult the following
list of all qualified practising Institute trained psychoanalysts working
currently in the UK.
A searchable listing of qualified and practising
psychoanalysts, in particular areas of the UK, as well as psychoanalytical
psychotherapists, can be found at the
BPC Website.
Under 'Institution' select
British Psychoanalytical Society.
Psychoanalysts work with patients intensively (fifty-minutes a
day, five days a week) and less intensively (fifty-minutes a day,
one, two, three, or four days a week). Psychoanalysts work in public
organisations as well as in private practice. Over 250
psychoanalysts work in the National Health Service; many hold
distinguished positions in psychiatry, child psychotherapy, adult
psychotherapy, psychology, social work, and family therapy. A
significant number also work in universities; 18 are professors. It
is their judgement that their private psychoanalytic experience
deepens and enhances their public work in the NHS and higher
education.
Founded in 1924, the Institute of Psychoanalysis has trained
generations of psychoanalysts, many of whom have become leaders in the field of
mental health. The Institute of Psychoanalysis welcomes applicants from all
types of professional and academic backgrounds, from all over the world. Many
students are psychiatrists or medically qualified, some are child or adult
psychotherapists, psychologists, social workers or academics, and some come from
another background altogether. The Institute of Psychoanalysis training leads to
the title ‘psychoanalyst’, as recognised by the
International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA).
The London Clinic of Psychoanalysis
currently has over 100 patients in treatment. Treatment is low-cost; patients
are invited to contribute to help cover the running costs of the Clinic. The
Child and Adolescent Department provides assessment and treatment for patients
between 2 and 17 years of age.
The Institute of Psychoanalysis is the foremost publisher of
psychoanalytic literature. The 24-volume Standard Edition of the Complete
Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud was conceived, translated, and produced
under the direction of the British Psychoanalytical Society. The Society, in
conjunction with Random House, will soon publish a new, revised and expanded
Standard Edition. With The New Library of Psychoanalysis the Institute continues
to publish the books of leading theorists and practitioners. The International
Journal of Psychoanalysis is published by the Institute of Psychoanalysis. Now
in its 84th year, it has the largest circulation of any psychoanalytic journal.
The British Psychoanalytical Society library is probably the
finest psychoanalytical library in the world, holding over 25,000 volumes. The
Archive of the British Psychoanalytical Society contains important collections
on the origins and history of psychoanalysis. It is used and appreciated by
scholars worldwide.
Since it was founded in 1924, the Institute of Psychoanalysis
has offered lectures to the public. The Society continues to offer a wide
variety of public courses and events, including The Introductory Lectures, a
two-term introduction to the basic principles and recent developments in
psychoanalysis; termly lectures from the Centre for the Advancement of
Psychoanalytic Studies and Meet The Author - book launches for titles in the New
Library of Psychoanalysis series. Recent speakers have included David Bell, Glen
Gabbard, Michael Rustin, Margaret Rustin and Margot Waddell.
The British Psychoanalytic Council has issued a public
position statement on statutory regulation and a range of other issues related
to Government policy and initiatives, e.g. National Occupational Standards, IAPT,
NICE guidelines, New Ways of Working.
It has been occasioned, in part, by recent media coverage of the views of some
psychotherapists, including some psychoanalytic psychotherapists, on some of
these issues. The British Psychoanalytic Council is engaging with these policies
and initiatives actively and positively, and wishes to differentiate its
position from those therapists who seem to consider this to be undesirable.
This position statement is available on the BPC website, at
The British Psychoanalytical Society aims to ensure that its
members maintain the highest standards of professional conduct.
All members are expected to adhere to the Society’s Code of
Ethics and those in clinical practice are subject to the Code of
Ethics and complaints procedure of the
British
Psychoanalytic Council (BPC)
If a complaint or concern about a member of the Society who is
on the British Psychoanalytic Council Register cannot be
resolved directly with him or her, you should should contact the
British Psychoanalytic Council
The films on this page are part of an ongoing audiovisual project. This
was started in 2007 by the Student Organisation of the British Institute of
Psychoanalysis, with the aim to film eminent psychoanalysts talking of
their work and life with new generations of students and psychoanalysts. In 2008
a film group was also established in the British Psychoanalytical Society.
Funding generously granted from the International Psychoanalytical Association
will help to develop the quality of the materials produced, and will include the
production and restoration of audiovisual material on various clinical and
theoretical topics related to psychoanalysis, as well as its training. This page
will be updated as new films will become available.
The primary purpose of our website is that of providing a medium for the open communication and exchange of information about psychoanalysis and the clinical and theoretical contributions of the British Psychoanalytical Society in particular. In doing this we intend to convey and uphold the distinctive values and ethics of psychoanalysis, including the essential privacy and confidentiality of patients, without which authentic psychoanalysis could not take place.
The Institute of Psychoanalysiswelcomes enquiries from the media and can provide media
professionals with a quick and authoritative response.
Specialist spokespeople are available to comment on psychoanalytic
matters but also on many wider issues affecting society today, from
young people’s issues such as self-harm and eating disorders,
personal issues such as relationships and sexuality, violence and
problem behaviour.
They can also offer a psychoanalytic perspective on aspects of
contemporary culture such as arts, literature and film.
