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, on an idea proposed by Sándor Ferenczi.
In 1902 Sigmund Freud started to meet every week with colleagues to discuss his work, and so the Psychological Wednesday Society was born. By 1908 there were 14 regular members and some guests including Max Eitingon, Carl Jung, Karl Abraham, and Ernest Jones, all future Presidents of the IPA. 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 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 in March of 1910. Its first President was Carl Jung, and its first Secretary was Otto Rank. 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 world’s primary accrediting and regulatory body for psychoanalysis. The IPA's aims include creating new psychoanalytic groups, stimulating debate, conducting research, developing training policies and establishing links with other bodies. It organizes a large biennial Congress.
There is a Regional Organisation for each of the IPA’s 3 regions:
Europe—European Psychoanalytical Federation (or EPF), which also includes Australia, India, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, 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 and values them highly, but they are not officially or legally part of the IPA.
The IPA's members qualify for membership by being a member of a "constituent organisation" (or the sole regional association).
Constituent Organisations
Argentine Psychoanalytic Association
Argentine Psychoanalytic Society
Australian Psychoanalytical Society
Belgian Psychoanalytical Society
Belgrade Psychoanalytical Society
Brasília Psychoanalytic Society
Brazilian Psychoanalytic Society of Rio de Janeiro
Brazilian Psychoanalytic Society of São Paulo
Brazilian Psychoanalytical Society of Porto Alegre
Brazilian Psychoanalytical Society of Ribeirão Preto
British Psychoanalytic Association
British Psychoanalytical Society
Buenos Aires Psychoanalytic Association
Canadian Psychoanalytic Society
Caracas Psychoanalytic Society
Chilean Psychoanalytic Association
Colombian Psychoanalytic Association
Colombian Psychoanalytic Society
Cordoba Psychoanalytic Society
Czech Psychoanalytical Society
Danish Psychoanalytical Society
Dutch Psychoanalytical Association
Dutch Psychoanalytical Group
Dutch Psychoanalytical Society
Finnish Psychoanalytical Society
French Psychoanalytical Association
Freudian Psychoanalytical Society of Colombia
German Psychoanalytical Association
German Psychoanalytical Society
Hellenic Psycho-Analytical Society
Hungarian Psychoanalytical Society
Indian Psychoanalytical Society
Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research
Israel Psychoanalytic Society
Italian Psychoanalytical Association
Italian Psychoanalytical Society
Japan Psychoanalytic Society
Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies
Madrid Psychoanalytical Association
Mato Grosso do Sul Psychoanalytical Society
Mendoza Psychoanalytic Society
Mexican Assn for Psychoanalytic Practice, Training & Research
Mexican Psychoanalytic Association
Monterrey Psychoanalytic Association
New York Freudian Society
Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society
Norwegian Psychoanalytic Society
Paris Psychoanalytical Society
Pelotas Psychoanalytic Society
Peru Psychoanalytic Society
Polish Psychoanalytical Society
Porto Alegre Psychoanalytical Society
Portuguese Psychoanalytical Society
Psychoanalytic Center of California
Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California
Psychoanalytic Society of Mexico
Psychoanalytical Association of The State of Rio de Janeiro
Recife Psychoanalytic Society
Rio de Janeiro Psychoanalytic Society
Rosario Psychoanalytic Association
Spanish Psychoanalytical Society
Swedish Psychoanalytical Association
Swiss Psychoanalytical Society
Uruguayan Psychoanalytical Association
Venezuelan Psychoanalytic Association
Vienna Psychoanalytic Society
Guadalajara Psychoanalytic Association (Provisional Society)
Moscow Psychoanalytic Society (Provisional Society)
Psychoanalytic Society for Research and Training (Provisional Society)
Romanian Society for Psychoanalysis (Provisional Society)
Vienna Psychoanalytic Association
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).
"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
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" 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
The first 23 Congresses of IPA did not have a specific theme.
Erich Fromm questioned this organization and finds that the psychoanalytic association is "organized according to standards rather dictatorial".
Elisabeth Roudinesco notes that IPA professionalizing psychoanalysis has become "a machine to manufacture significant". She also notes that in France, "Lacanian colleagues looked IPA as bureaucrats who had betrayed psychoanalysis in favor of an adaptive psychology in the service of triumphant capitalism". She speaks of the "IPA Legitimist Freudianism, we mistakenly called "orthodox" ". Among Roudinesco's other criticisms, she talks about "homophobia" in the IPA, considered as a "disgrace of psychoanalysis.
On the other hand, most criticisms against IPA tend to stick to Lacan's point of view of the fifties, unaware of most of the developments, variety of schools and training models within this association in the last decades. It should be noted that 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.
