Welcome To IPSO Training, Learning and Enjoying
Dear Candidate in Psychoanalytic Training,
In the name of the International Psychoanalytical Studies Organization we welcome you to this new and challenging phase of your life: the journey towards becoming a psychoanalyst and consolidating an analytic identity.
We want to invite you to join our organization while you undergo your training so that you can be part of an international group of peers that come together to share their experiences, learn from each other and enjoy the friendly IPSO spirit!
This handbook has been created for you to get to know IPSO a little better, and we hope to welcome you aboard! We are sure IPSO will be part of your story and your memory for very good reasons. ☺
IPSO Executive Committee
Introducing IPSO
IPSO stands for the International Psychoanalytical Studies Organization.
It was founded in 1975, and is the only global candidates’ organization of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA).
As of September, 2021, IPSO has:
1. 2673 members
2. from 83 IPA Institutes
3. who are in 50 countries
4. and speak 32 languages
IPSO was established to provide IPA candidates with an opportunity to come together to discuss issues of training, theory, and practice, as well as to offer a social context for candidates’ cross-cultural engagement.
IPSO is committed to the belief that exposure to the pluralism and diversity of psychoanalytic traditions is an important part of a candidate’s well-rounded education.
By offering opportunities to recognize and explore both their similarities and differences, IPSO helps candidates to bridge and appreciate the complexity and richness of the many psychoanalytic cultures.
It provides international width to complement local depth.
IPSO embodies a spirit that marries an intense intellectual interest for psychoanalysis with an enthusiastic attitude towards sharing good times with colleagues. Most members comment on this friendly, stimulating atmosphere.
IPSO is governed in accordance with its Articles and Bylaws, and holds democratic elections every two years to elect new members to its Executive Commettee which is composed of Presidents, regional Vice-Presidents, Editors and Treasurers. They are responsible for IPSO’s general functioning, and represent the interests of candidates in local and international committees and institutions. IPSO Representatives are the bridge between the Executive Committee and the candidates of an Institute; they are involved in the dissemination of information and organization of local events.
Operational governance in IPSO is distributed into three geographic Regions: Europe, North America and Latin America. The creation of a fourth, Asia-Pacific Region, is under consideration (Israel, South Africa, India and Australia currently belong to the Europe Region; Japan, Taiwan, China and South Korea currently belong to the North America Region)
IPSO shares an administrative and legal structure with the IPA at the offices in the Lexicon building in London, but is independent in its functioning, organization and planning of events. The IPA/IPSO Relations Committee (IIRC) is the link between the two institutions.
All psychoanalysts in training at IPA affiliated Societies and Study Groups are invited and encouraged to become IPSO members. See below for member benefits.
Every year IPSO holds several in-person and virtual events in its three Regions that take the form of Colloquiums, Study Days, Regional Meetings, Meet the Analyst, and theme-specific Webinars.
Every two years IPSO holds its 5-day Biannual Congress in conjunction with the IPA Congress. This rotates between the regions; the next ones will be in Latin America in 2023, Europe 2025, North America 2027, Latin America, 2029, Europe 2031, etc.
IPSO has specific programming at the large Regional Congresses: yearly at the European Psychoanalytic Federation Congress, yearly at the American Psychoanalytic Association Meeting, biannually at the Federación Psicoanalítica de América Latina, and biannually at the Asia-Pacific Congress.
IPSO offers its members the unique opportunity of doing a Visiting Candidate Program. The VCP is IPSO’s most hands-on in-person program where a candidate experiences a 1 to 4-week immersion in another IPA Institute, participating in all its activities and supervising with two analysts.
IPSO members also have the chance of joining one of the popular Cross Regional Study Group. The CRSGs are small online international peer consultation groups, where 4 to 5 colleagues from different Regions are introduced to each other to meet online monthly to discuss clinical material, and learn from each other’s training experiences.
IPSO has recently launched both the Local Funding Program, where members may apply for funding for the organizing of local events, and the Cross Regional Support Program that provides funds for members traveling to international events in which they will present a paper.
IPSO members may submit texts for the IPSO Writing Award, given during its Biannual Congress, and the IPSO-OCAL Award, given during the Biannual OCAL Congress.
We are currently considering opening Regional Writing Awards.
IPSO publishes its Newsletter twice a year and a Journal every two years.
The fee to be an IPSO member is $40 USD/Euro paid annually. There’s a reduction of 5 to 10 USD/Euro for some countries following the IPA’s policy of reduced membership fees for certain psychoanalytical societies.
Any candidate at an IPA Component Society, Provisional Society or Study Group can become an IPSO member by contacting their local IPSO Representative or their Regional IPSO Vice-President.
Since its inception, IPSO has held merry, lively parties during all in-person events –– they have acquired a fame of their own.
President: IPSO-President@ipso-candidates.org.uk
President Elect: IPSO-PresidentElect@ipso-candidates.org.uk
European Vice-President: IPSO-Europe@ipso-candidates.org.uk
Latin American Vice-President: IPSO-LatinAmerica@ipso-candidates.org.uk
North American Vice-President: IPSO-NorthAmerica@ipso-candidates.org.uk
Treasurer: IPSO-Treasurer@ipso-candidates.org.uk
Editor: IPSO-Editor@ipso-candidates.org.uk
You can find all the information in our IPSO website and social networks:
Member Benefits
- Participating in international congresses and scientific meetings
- Submitting original papers for consideration for the IPSO Writing Awards
- Presenting clinical and theoretical papers at IPSO Congresses, Study Days, Colloquiums, Regional Meetings and Webinars
- Presenting clinical material to senior analysts and colleagues at IPSO, EPF, APsaA and FEPAL Congresses
- Participating in the Visiting Candidate Programs, IPSO’s most culturally and scientifically immersive experience of studying in another Institute for 1 to 4 weeks
- Participating in the Cross Regional Study Groups, small online peer consultation groups on clinical material with members from Europe, North America and Latin America
- Receiving the IPSO Newsletter with up-to-date activities in your community and the world
- Becoming part of the IPSO Editorial Board, an opportunity to create editorial policy and review manuscripts prior to IPSO Congresses
- Joining the IPSO WhatsApp worldwide group of IPSO Representatives (if you are one) and engage in lively discussions with colleagues from around the world
- Being eligible to be appointed onto IPA Committees seeking IPSO candidate participation
- Subscribing to the International Journal of Psychoanalysis at a special rate for IPSO members
- Subscribing to Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing at a discounted rate for IPSO members
- Benefitting from a reduced registration fee for the biannual IPA Congress
- Becoming an IPSO Representative of your Institute
- Running for office on the IPSO Executive Committee
- Enjoying the intellectual and cultural diversity of the international psychoanalytic community
- Attending social functions at IPSO Congresses, Study Days, Colloquiums, Regional Meetings, and during IPSO programming at the EPF, APsaA and FEPAL Congresses
- Voicing one’s opinions on psychoanalytic training standards, raise issues about training in your society or region, and represent your group at a local and international level
- Most of all, forming lifelong personal and professional relationships around the world
How To Become a Representative and IPSO Reps Roles
If your institute doesn’t currently have an IPSO Representative (Rep) and you’d like to become the Rep for your institute, first check with your institute’s candidate organization and let them know you’d like to be the IPSO Rep. Then, let your regional IPSO Vice-President and Vice-President Elect know (see above for email addresses) and they’ll walk you through the steps for you to become a Rep.
A Representative of IPSO is a bridge between IPSO and the candidates of an Institute. IPSO provides the connection between candidates within the IPA, and with the IPA. The Representatives have the same rights as other IPSO members. They can communicate directly with the IPSO Executive Committee, in which all three Regions of the IPA are represented, and communicate to other candidates of their institutes. Speaking English is important for Reps since it is IPSO’s working language but, in our experience, fluency is proportionate to the desire to communicate.
The Representative is responsible for attending to new members, introducing them to IPSO and to its programs. The Reps stay updated about national and international events of IPSO in order to inform the members of their Institute. That can be done through the website or through contact with the Vice-Presidents of the Region. The Vice-Presidents are regularly in touch with the Reps keeping them informed of what’s going on in their Region.
In case a Society doesn’t pay directly for its candidates’ dues, the Rep is responsible for collecting the annual membership dues and sending them to the IPSO Treasurer. When the Society or Regional Organization pays for the dues of the candidates, the Rep should remind his/her Society Treasurer to make the payment by March 30th, each year.
The Rep should inform members about IPSO programs and benefits (see above) and also participate, whenever possible, in the IPSO events of his/her region. The focus will be on disseminating information, helping candidates with IPSO-related issues, or in obtaining accommodation, as in the case of the VCPs.
For Vice-Presidents of a region, contact with the Representatives is essential in order to be aware of the interests and concerns of the candidates, to seek international support for them and to inform them about the IPA. The Representative has IPSO’s support to promote activities that offer opportunities for learning and for exchange among candidates and he/she also acts on behalf of IPSO. This is how the spirit of intellectual diversity and cultural interchange is spread.
Representatives are encouraged to propose their own ideas for activities. For example: an academic activity, an intervision among peers, a Webinar, a Meet the Analyst, inviting a senior analyst for a supervision, or a day of activity and presentation for candidates about IPSO. All of these activities add to and promote psychoanalysis within different cultures.
IPSO is for passionate people. For those who like people, ideas and knowledge, entwined by our world of psychoanalysis.
A Brief History Of IPSO
The International Psychoanalytical Studies Organization was founded in 1975.
In the late sixties, echoing the worldwide dissatisfaction of a younger generation with a certain kind of authority, a group of candidates planned a Counter-Congress during the 1969 Congress of the International Psychoanalytical Association in Rome. The threat of such a confrontation mobilized the training analysts attending the Congress to consider the possibility of candidate representation, but at a later date. The candidates did not actually stage a demonstration yet held their own meetings at the same time as the IPA, near the official site of the IPA meeting.
This group of candidates discussed issues related to training, the lack of candidate representation on committees, and the overall limited inclusion within their communities. Marianna Bolko and Berthold Rothschild wrote a fascinating account of this meeting which can be found in this article: “A flea in one’s ear. An account of the Counter-Congress of the International Psychoanalytical Association of 1969 in Rome”
Leo Rangell, the incoming President of the IPA back then, requested that a student conference be organized for the upcoming Conference on Training to be held in Vienna in 1971. A candidate committee was organized and led by two students, Dr. Julian Goodburn, from the United Kingdom, and Dr. David Terman, from the United States. Both analyst and candidate groups were reported to hold a lot of hostility and resentment. The analysts regarded the student meetings as subversive, while candidates expressed their discontent after a long-standing tradition of exclusion.
In the end, the meetings were fruitful as they provided an avenue for discussion and for the expression of the needs of analysts-in-training. It was at this meeting that the proposal for a candidate organization was formulated. There was another organizational meeting of candidates in Paris in 1973, and IPSO was officially founded at the 1975 London IPA Congress.
The first Executive Committee exemplified IPSO’s international breadth and was comprised of the following members: President: Dr. Warren Kinston (U.K. –– originally from Australia), Secretary: Dr. Rivka Eifermann (Israel), Treasurer: Dr. Elsie Kooij- Scheen (Netherlands), Members: Dr. Fabio Herrmann (Brazil), Mr. Udayan Patel (India) and Dr. Martin Weiler (U.S.A.), Dr. Tomas Böhm (Sweden), Ms. Dietlind Eckensberger (West Germany)
IPSO held its international congresses, published bulletins and managed its budget almost completely independently from the IPA for the first 28 years. Then, in 2003 it was agreed that a rapprochement between the institutions was necessary, and the first official IPA-IPSO Task Force was jointly created by Lee Jaffe, IPSO President, and Robert Tyson, Secretary of the IPA, with the assistance of Otto Kernberg, IPA President. It later became the IPA-IPSO Relations Committee. IPSO currently enjoys a collaborative and productive relationship with the IPA.
IPSO Archives are held at the Wellcome Library in London and are currently undergoing digitalization (as of the end of 2021). A more detailed history of IPSO will be possible when access to these archives becomes available.
