Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis
Encyclopedia
The Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis is a center for psychoanalytic research, training, and education that is located on Michigan Avenue
in downtown Chicago. The institute provides professional training in the theory and practice of psychoanalysis
and psychotherapy
. It was founded in 1932 by Franz Alexander
, a pioneer in psychosomatic medicine at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute
, who have moved to Chicago at the invitation of Robert Maynard Hutchins, then president of the University of Chicago
. Notable psychoanalysts that have been associated with the institute include Karl Menninger
, Karen Horney
, Therese Benedek, Roy Grinker, Maxwell Gitelson, Louis Shapiro, Heinz Kohut
, Arnold Goldberg
, Jerome Kavka
, and Michael Franz Basch.
From the beginning, the Chicago Institute has nurtured innovative, and occasionally revolutionary, approaches to the psychoanalytic theory and practice originally formulated by Sigmund Freud
in Vienna. Alexander wanted to experiment with frequency of sessions, length of treatment and how the analyst should optimally conduct himself. He published his ideas in several books, and became an outspoken advocate for such experimentation. Alexander left Chicago for California in 1955. He was succeeded by Gerhard Piers as the Director of the Institute. The group of analysts who became the dominant voices at the Institute had been greatly influenced by Lionel Blitzstein, who had analyzed them all. Though Blitzsten had been on the early faculty of the Institute, he and Alexander were at odds. With his ascendance the Institute reinstated practices that were considered more in line with the dominant American view of depth and intensity of psychoanalytic treatment. The intellectual leader of this group was Maxwell Gitelson. Joan Fleming became Dean of Education, and the curriculum emphasized a more thorough historical approach to teaching psychoanalysis.
The decade of the 60’s witnessed one of the most vibrant creative periods in the Institute’s history. Two important theoretical developments occurred. One was a collective research project that concerned parent loss. Fleming's research group observed that there seemed to be an arrest of the personality at the age of the child when the parent died, associated with an absence of mourning. From these findings, the group reasoned that intervention at the time of the loss - i.e., in childhood - would effectively prevent later psychological problems. Ten years later, in 1976, the Barr-Harris Children’s grief center opened its doors.
The second major development was the groundbreaking work of Heinz Kohut, who developed his own ideas about the central role of empathy as defining the field of psychoanalysis - a position he staked out in 1959. Kohut had observed the intense reactions that would occur when patients were engaged with others who had not functioned as a needed part of themselves and hence caused injury to that most vital part of their being. But it was this being-part-of that had deep implications for the understanding of both development and treatment. Paradoxically, the understanding of the essential role of the “other” became a psychology of the “self”. All of this offered another, additional way of looking at what the classical theory had charted in its terms. Self psychology
has had (and continues too have) an enormous impact on psychoanalytic thought and practice throughout the world.
In the midst of all this groundbreaking intellectual work, the Institute also launched a number of innovative programs. In 1962 it began the Child Therapy Program, the first of its kind in the country. Graduates of the Child Therapy Program have staffed and trained legions of agencies and treatment facilities of all kinds and have been the source of quality child psychotherapy over the last 45 years. A few years later, in 1965, Kay Field began the Teacher Education Program that educated teachers and school personnel about the nature of emotional development and helped them recognize and deal with problems in that development. The program reached hundreds of school personnel. In 1973, under the direction of then-director George Pollock
, the Institute began the yearly publication of the Annual of Psychoanalysis. It remains the only Institute in the country - and the world - to sponsor, edit and produce an important academic journal. The 70’s also saw the inauguration of the most complete catalogue of psychoanalytic literature assembled to that point, The Chicago Psychoanalytic Index. Begun in 1970 and continued until 1989, this was the standard reference work for most American psychoanalysts until the recent advent of centralized computer cataloguing. The psychoanalytic library out of which this work arose began with the founding of the Institute and grew to be one of the three most complete psychoanalytic collections in the world.
, psychology
, and social work
who are interested in psychoanalysis as a framework with which to understand and carry out clinical work. Participants meet for a monthly seminar. Fellows also meet monthly with a mentor to discuss readings, cases and other relevant topics. The Adult Psychotherapy
Program is a two year curriculum that is equally divided between clinical and didactic courses. Students learn to do diagnostic evaluations from a dynamic point of view, including dynamic formulations. They also have supervision with an analyst once a week to help with patients they currently have in treatment. The Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Program is a 4 year program to train mental health workers who treat children and adolescents Students complete a variety of diagnostic evaluations of children and their families with a dynamic perspective, in addition to several long-term psycho-analytically-oriented supervised cases. The core Psychanalytic Education Program provides training in the practice of psychoanalysis. This is a 5 year curriculum, but completion of the program frequently requires additional years to finish the clinical work required for graduation. Students must undergo a personal analysis that begins before matriculation into coursesStudents treat at least three people in analysis under supervision of an analyst.
In collaboration with Rush University
, the Institute also offers the CORST program to Ph.D.s from a variety of non-clinical academic field, who wish to become psychoanalysts.. It is designed to provide such students experience in general psychiatry and psychotherapy as preparation for psychoanalytic training. CORST is a 17 month program in which the student shares many of the courses given to residents in Psychiatry at Rush Medical College
. Concurrently, they see several patients in psychotherapy under the supervision of analysts on the faculty of the Institute.
Psychoanalytic treatments are based on the belief that emotional difficulties are often the result of thoughts and feelings outside of a person's awareness. By exploring and working through these issues in the safety of a trusting relationship with a therapist, one can experience lasting changes. Present stresses and crises are also contributors to one's sense of well-being and can be an important focus for therapeutic intervention.
In 1976, the Institute for Psychoanalysis established the Barr-Harris Children's Grief Center to meet the needs of children who have lost a parent or significant loved one through death, divorce, or abandonment. The Center's mission is to provide therapeutic services to bereaved children and their families; to make intervention more accessible; to heighten awareness of the potentially harmful short- and long-term effects of loss; and to provide training and consultation for teachers, clergy, mental health workers, and other involved community members.
In addition to its main location at the Institute for Psychoanalysis in downtown Chicago, the Center has established programs at four Chicago area locations: Highland Park
Hospital serving the north suburbs, Little Company of Mary Hospital serving the south suburbs, La Rabida Children's Hospital serving the city's south side, and Swedish Covenant Hospital serving the city's north side. More recently, the Center has opened a sixth location at the Riverdale Community Resource Center in Riverdale, IL.
Michigan Avenue (Chicago)
Michigan Avenue is a major north-south street in Chicago which runs at 100 east south of the Chicago River and at 132 East north of the river from 12628 south to 950 north in the Chicago street address system...
in downtown Chicago. The institute provides professional training in the theory and practice of psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
and psychotherapy
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...
. It was founded in 1932 by Franz Alexander
Franz Alexander
Franz Gabriel Alexander was a Hungarian-American psychoanalyst and physician, who is considered one of the founders of psychosomatic medicine and psychoanalytic criminology.- Life :...
, a pioneer in psychosomatic medicine at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute
Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute
The Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute was founded in 1920 to further the science of psychoanalysis in Berlin. Its founding members included Karl Abraham and Max Eitingon. The scientists at the institute furthered Sigmund Freud's work but also challenged many of his ideas.-History:During the 1920s,...
, who have moved to Chicago at the invitation of Robert Maynard Hutchins, then president of the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. Notable psychoanalysts that have been associated with the institute include Karl Menninger
Karl Menninger
Karl Augustus Menninger , was an American psychiatrist and a member of the famous Menninger family of psychiatrists who founded the Menninger Foundation and the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas.- Biography :...
, Karen Horney
Karen Horney
Karen Horney born Danielsen was a German-American psychoanalyst. Her theories questioned some traditional Freudian views, particularly his theory of sexuality, as well as the instinct orientation of psychoanalysis and its genetic psychology...
, Therese Benedek, Roy Grinker, Maxwell Gitelson, Louis Shapiro, Heinz Kohut
Heinz Kohut
Heinz Kohut was an Austrian-born American psychoanalyst best known for his development of Self psychology, an influential school of thought within psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theory which helped transform the modern practice of analytic and dynamic treatment approaches.-Early life:Kohut was born...
, Arnold Goldberg
Arnold Goldberg
Arnold Goldberg is the Cynthia Oudejans Harris Professor of Psychiatry at the Rush Medical School, Chicago, and a supervising and training analyst at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, where he did his psychoanalytic training....
, Jerome Kavka
Jerome Kavka
Jerome Kavka is an emeritus supervising and training analyst at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. Beginning in the early 1990s, he also served as archivist for the Institute....
, and Michael Franz Basch.
History
The Chicago Institute is the second oldest in the United States, preceded by New York five months earlier, and followed by Boston and Washington. It was incorporated on February 25, 1932, with Franz Alexander as the first Director. Alexander’s first associate was Karen Horney who had been another student at the Berlin Institute. Alexander and Horney appointed three more to form the first staff. They were: Thomas French as Lecturer and Clinical Associate, Helen McLean and Catherine Bacon as Clinical Associates. There were also two visiting lecturers: Karl Menninger and Lionel Blitzstein.From the beginning, the Chicago Institute has nurtured innovative, and occasionally revolutionary, approaches to the psychoanalytic theory and practice originally formulated by Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
in Vienna. Alexander wanted to experiment with frequency of sessions, length of treatment and how the analyst should optimally conduct himself. He published his ideas in several books, and became an outspoken advocate for such experimentation. Alexander left Chicago for California in 1955. He was succeeded by Gerhard Piers as the Director of the Institute. The group of analysts who became the dominant voices at the Institute had been greatly influenced by Lionel Blitzstein, who had analyzed them all. Though Blitzsten had been on the early faculty of the Institute, he and Alexander were at odds. With his ascendance the Institute reinstated practices that were considered more in line with the dominant American view of depth and intensity of psychoanalytic treatment. The intellectual leader of this group was Maxwell Gitelson. Joan Fleming became Dean of Education, and the curriculum emphasized a more thorough historical approach to teaching psychoanalysis.
The decade of the 60’s witnessed one of the most vibrant creative periods in the Institute’s history. Two important theoretical developments occurred. One was a collective research project that concerned parent loss. Fleming's research group observed that there seemed to be an arrest of the personality at the age of the child when the parent died, associated with an absence of mourning. From these findings, the group reasoned that intervention at the time of the loss - i.e., in childhood - would effectively prevent later psychological problems. Ten years later, in 1976, the Barr-Harris Children’s grief center opened its doors.
The second major development was the groundbreaking work of Heinz Kohut, who developed his own ideas about the central role of empathy as defining the field of psychoanalysis - a position he staked out in 1959. Kohut had observed the intense reactions that would occur when patients were engaged with others who had not functioned as a needed part of themselves and hence caused injury to that most vital part of their being. But it was this being-part-of that had deep implications for the understanding of both development and treatment. Paradoxically, the understanding of the essential role of the “other” became a psychology of the “self”. All of this offered another, additional way of looking at what the classical theory had charted in its terms. Self psychology
Self psychology
Self Psychology is a school of psychoanalytic theory and therapy created by Heinz Kohut and developed in the United States at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. Self psychology explains psychopathology as being the result of disrupted or unmet developmental needs...
has had (and continues too have) an enormous impact on psychoanalytic thought and practice throughout the world.
In the midst of all this groundbreaking intellectual work, the Institute also launched a number of innovative programs. In 1962 it began the Child Therapy Program, the first of its kind in the country. Graduates of the Child Therapy Program have staffed and trained legions of agencies and treatment facilities of all kinds and have been the source of quality child psychotherapy over the last 45 years. A few years later, in 1965, Kay Field began the Teacher Education Program that educated teachers and school personnel about the nature of emotional development and helped them recognize and deal with problems in that development. The program reached hundreds of school personnel. In 1973, under the direction of then-director George Pollock
George Pollock
Field Marshal Sir George Pollock, 1st Baronet, GCB, GCSI was a British soldier.-Military career:Educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Pollock was commissioned into the Bengal Artillery in 1803....
, the Institute began the yearly publication of the Annual of Psychoanalysis. It remains the only Institute in the country - and the world - to sponsor, edit and produce an important academic journal. The 70’s also saw the inauguration of the most complete catalogue of psychoanalytic literature assembled to that point, The Chicago Psychoanalytic Index. Begun in 1970 and continued until 1989, this was the standard reference work for most American psychoanalysts until the recent advent of centralized computer cataloguing. The psychoanalytic library out of which this work arose began with the founding of the Institute and grew to be one of the three most complete psychoanalytic collections in the world.
Education Programs
The Chicago Institute offers a variety of pathways to facilitate psychoanalytic learning. The fellowship program is open to advanced trainees and recent graduates in psychiatryPsychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
, psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, and social work
Social work
Social Work is a professional and academic discipline that seeks to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of an individual, group, or community by intervening through research, policy, community organizing, direct practice, and teaching on behalf of those afflicted with poverty or any real or...
who are interested in psychoanalysis as a framework with which to understand and carry out clinical work. Participants meet for a monthly seminar. Fellows also meet monthly with a mentor to discuss readings, cases and other relevant topics. The Adult Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...
Program is a two year curriculum that is equally divided between clinical and didactic courses. Students learn to do diagnostic evaluations from a dynamic point of view, including dynamic formulations. They also have supervision with an analyst once a week to help with patients they currently have in treatment. The Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Program is a 4 year program to train mental health workers who treat children and adolescents Students complete a variety of diagnostic evaluations of children and their families with a dynamic perspective, in addition to several long-term psycho-analytically-oriented supervised cases. The core Psychanalytic Education Program provides training in the practice of psychoanalysis. This is a 5 year curriculum, but completion of the program frequently requires additional years to finish the clinical work required for graduation. Students must undergo a personal analysis that begins before matriculation into coursesStudents treat at least three people in analysis under supervision of an analyst.
In collaboration with Rush University
Rush University
Rush University is a private university on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois. The university, founded in 1972, is the academic arm of Rush University Medical Center.Rush University comprises:* Rush Medical College* Rush University College of Nursing...
, the Institute also offers the CORST program to Ph.D.s from a variety of non-clinical academic field, who wish to become psychoanalysts.. It is designed to provide such students experience in general psychiatry and psychotherapy as preparation for psychoanalytic training. CORST is a 17 month program in which the student shares many of the courses given to residents in Psychiatry at Rush Medical College
Rush Medical College
Rush Medical College is the medical school of Rush University, a private university in Chicago, Illinois. Rush Medical College was one of the first medical colleges in the state of Illinois and was chartered in 1837, two days before the city of Chicago was chartered, and opened with 22 students on...
. Concurrently, they see several patients in psychotherapy under the supervision of analysts on the faculty of the Institute.
Clinical Services
The Clinics of the Institute for Psychoanalysis provide psychoanalytically informed services to adults, adolescents, and children in the Chicago area at a greatly reduced fee. All therapists and analysts are highly experienced clinicians trained in psychiatry, psychology, social work, or counseling. Many have advanced training in psychoanalysis or psychotherapy.Psychoanalytic treatments are based on the belief that emotional difficulties are often the result of thoughts and feelings outside of a person's awareness. By exploring and working through these issues in the safety of a trusting relationship with a therapist, one can experience lasting changes. Present stresses and crises are also contributors to one's sense of well-being and can be an important focus for therapeutic intervention.
In 1976, the Institute for Psychoanalysis established the Barr-Harris Children's Grief Center to meet the needs of children who have lost a parent or significant loved one through death, divorce, or abandonment. The Center's mission is to provide therapeutic services to bereaved children and their families; to make intervention more accessible; to heighten awareness of the potentially harmful short- and long-term effects of loss; and to provide training and consultation for teachers, clergy, mental health workers, and other involved community members.
In addition to its main location at the Institute for Psychoanalysis in downtown Chicago, the Center has established programs at four Chicago area locations: Highland Park
Highland Park, Illinois
Highland Park is a suburban municipality in Lake County, Illinois, United States, about north of downtown Chicago. As of 2009, the population is 33,492. Highland Park is one of several municipalities located on the North Shore of the Chicago Metropolitan Area.-Overview:Highland Park was founded...
Hospital serving the north suburbs, Little Company of Mary Hospital serving the south suburbs, La Rabida Children's Hospital serving the city's south side, and Swedish Covenant Hospital serving the city's north side. More recently, the Center has opened a sixth location at the Riverdale Community Resource Center in Riverdale, IL.