Organisation in Britain
British Psychoanalytical Society
Predecessor
| London Psychoanalytical Society
|
---|
Formation
| 1913
|
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Founder
| Ernest Jones
|
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Merger of
| Institute of Psychoanalysis
|
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Location
| |
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Leader
| Vic Sedlak (President)
|
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Website
| http://psychoanalysis.org.uk/
|
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The
British Psychoanalytical Society
was founded by
Ernest Jones
as the
London Psychoanalytical Society
on 30 October 1913. It is one of two organisations in Britain training psychoanalysts, the other being the British Psychoanalytic Association.
The society has been home to a number of psychoanalysts, including
Wilfred Bion
,
Donald Winnicott
,
Anna Freud
and
Melanie Klein
. Today it has over 400 members and is a member organisation of the
International Psychoanalytical Association
.
[1]
Establishment and name
[
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]
Psychoanalysis was founded by
Sigmund Freud
, and much of the early work on Psychoanalysis was carried out in Freud's home city of Vienna and in central Europe. However, in the early 1900s Freud began to spread his theories throughout the English speaking world. Around this time he established a relationship with
Ernest Jones
, a British neurosurgeon who had read his work in German and met Freud at the inaugural Psychoanalytical Congress in
Salzburg
. Jones went on to take up a teaching post at the
University of Toronto
, in which capacity he established the
American Psychoanalytic Association
.
When Jones returned to London, he established the society in 1913, as the
London Psychoanalytical Society
. The society had 9 founding members including
William Mackenzie
,
Maurice Nicoll
and
David Eder
.
[2]
Almost immediately, the society was caught up in the international controversy between
Carl Jung
and
Sigmund Freud
. Many of the society's membership were followers of Jung's theories, although Jones himself enjoyed a close relationship with
Freud
and wished for the society to be unambiguously Freudian.
[3]
Jones had joined Freud's
Inner circle
in 1912, and helped to oust Jung from the
International Psychoanalytical Association
.
However, the outbreak of
World War One
in 1914 meant that the nascent society, which depended heavily on correspondence with psychoanalysts in
Vienna
, then part of
Austria-Hungary
, had to be suspended. There were a few informal meetings during the war, but these became less and less frequent as the war went on.
In 1919, Ernest Jones re-founded the society as the
British Psychoanalytical Society
, and served as its president. He took the opportunity to define the society as
Freudian
in nature, and removed most of the
Jungian
members. With the help of
John Rickman
, the society established a clinic and a training arm, known as the
Institute of Psychoanalysis
.
[4]
Interwar years
[
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]
In the 1920s, Ernest Jones and the society grew increasingly under the influence of
Melanie Klein
. Jones was inspired by her writings to develop several of his own psychoanalytical concepts. In 1925, Klein delivered a series of talks at the society on her theories.
[5]
Klein's work was well received in London, but it attracted increasing controversy on the continent, where the majority of psychoanalysts were still based. Realising that her ideas were not warmly received at the
Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute
, where Klein was based, Jones invited her to move to London, which she did later in 1925.
The rise of the
Nazi Party
in Germany and later in Austria, led to increasing numbers of German and Austrian Psychoanalysts fleeing to London, where they joined the burgeoning society. By 1937, 13 out of 71 members were refugees from Europe.
[3]
Ernest Jones
personally intervened to bring
Sigmund Freud
and his daughter,
Anna Freud
, to London.
[2]
In 1938, Sigmund Freud wrote to Jones:
"The events of recent years have made London the principal site and center of the psychoanalytical movement. May the society carry out the functions thus falling to it in the most brilliant manner."
[6]
By the start of the second world war, 34 out of 90 members were emigres from the continent. Among them were:
However, the assimilation of so many prominent Psychoanalysts from continental Europe created tensions. The huge difference in the approaches of
Anna Freud
and
Melanie Klein
led to the development of several factions. Increasingly, presentations of papers at the society became thinly veiled attacks on opposing factions theories. For example, in March 1937
Melitta Schmideberg
(Klein's daughter) presented her paper: "After the Analysis ? Some Phantasies of Patients", which viciously attacked almost all of Klein's ideas, though it did not mention her by name.
[7]
[8]
The views of the different Psychoanalysts: Kleinian, Freudian, and those who were not affiliated with either, led to increasing dysfunction, and things became so bad that a specific committee had to be established to deal with the problem.
The 'controversial discussions'
[
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]
By 1942, relations between the factions within the society had become so heated that a committee had to be convened to facilitate monthly discussions on the scientific nature of the society.
[9]
The committee was chaired by three members of the society, each representing one of the major factions:
After heated debate, the committee resolved to a "gentleman's agreement" ? which ensured that each faction would have equal representation within all committees within the society. It was also agreed that training of future psychoanalysts at the institute would be organised into two pathways: one Kleinian, and one Freudian.
After World War Two
[
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]
With the resolution of the controversial discussions, the society became dominated by independent psychoanalysts such as
Donald Winnicott
,
Michael Balint
or
Wilfred Bion
.
Prominent members of the society and Institute
[
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]
Prominent members of the Society include:
The society today
[
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]
Through its related bodies, the Institute of Psychoanalysis and the London Clinic of Psychoanalysis, it is involved in the teaching, development, and practice of
psychoanalysis
at its headquarters at Byron House, west
London
. It is a constituent organisation of the
International Psychoanalytical Association
and a member institution of the
British Psychoanalytic Council
.
References
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]
External links
[
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]