International Psychoanalytical Association

The collection comprises material relating to the work of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA), covering a wide range of activities which includes: governance, standards setting, resolving ethical issues, assessing applications to become a member society or to change status, committees and meetings (including ad hoc and temporary committees), organising congresses, conferences and symposiums, running newsletters, reorganisation of IPA structure in the late 20th century, bulletins and journals, records enquiries, and also interactions with external organisations related to psychoanalysis.

There is a large amount of correspondence (with administrative and personal often being mixed within the same file), in which the changing dominant form of communication of the time is reflected: handwritten letters, telegrams, faxes and emails (predominantly printed). Events of Congresses, symposiums, conferences and committees and meeting are predominantly on paper (with a move to born digital files from 2000 onwards), with some audio tape recordings.

1922-2013

352 boxes, 10 audio cassette tapes Uncatalogued; 238 audio cassette tapes, 65 digital items

The collection on the whole has been organised according to the groupings that the material was originally in. Some additional arrangement has taken place it was felt that the material corresponds more to a relevant section. For files that contained material that could have been split into different sections, the material was placed into the section that contained the majority of one type of material; where possible, these cross-references have been recorded. The main sections can be found here:

A - IPA Study Group, Provisional and Component societies

B - Congresses, Conferences and Public Meetings

C - Committees and Meetings

D - Newsletters, Bulletins, Journals and Publications

E - Organisation and Administrative Records

F – Financial

G – Legal

H - External and Associated Organisations

Original file titles, where given, have been indicated in inverted commas; in some cases it is difficult to tell whether these represent working titles or titles assigned in organising the material at a later date.

Deposited by the International Psychoanalytical Association in July 2017

The International Psychoanalytical Association [IPA] was founded by Sigmund Freud in Vienna in 1910 as the Internationale Psychoanalytische Vereinigung. Freud's aim was to bring together people from different countries who were working in psychoanalysis. This was initially facilitated by means of congresses. After Freud left Vienna, the IPA needed a recognised headquarters and, because England had provided refuge for Freud himself, this was where the headquarters was chosen to be situated. In recent years the biggest growth in psychotherapy professionals has been in Latin America and Brazil; with the United States of America embracing the most members numerically. The IPA officially operates in four languages - English, French, German and Spanish. The elective position of President of the IPA lasts for four years.

Today the IPA acts as an umbrella for national psychoanalytic organisations worldwide dealing with governance and standards and is the world's primary accrediting and regulatory body for the profession. It is responsible for investigating and resolving ethical complaints from either patients or analysts and for mediating in professional issues. The London headquarters provide an administrative function to support the President, the IPA Board, its committees and members as well as to organise the biennial congresses. Since the IPA works by committee structure and the President is likely to be based overseas, a considerable amount of communication passes between headquarters and the members.

Broomhills in North Finchley housed the offices between 1986-2016 and is where the material was stored. This material consisted mainly of administrative paperwork (which from the early 2000s became digital).

Further information about the history of the IPA can be found on the organisation’s website or in 100 Years of the IPA: The Centenary History of the International Psychoanalytical Association.

This collection has been partially catalogued and the catalogued part is available to library members.

Some items have access restrictions which are explained in the item-level catalogue records. Requests to view uncatalogued material are considered on a case by case basis. Please contact collections@wellcomecollection.org for more details.

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Duplicate publications, papers and correspondence where identified have been disposed of, as has some routine administrative correspondence and ephemeral material.

Future accruals may be expected, with a high proportion of born digital material.

Direct transfer from the International Psychoanalytical Association on the closing of its Broomhills building.