International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies
The International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS) is an international association for the maintenance and further development of psychoanalysis. It was founded in 1962 and in 2011 comprised a total of 26 specialist societies in Europe, North and Latin America with almost 3,000 members. The club language is English, hence the abbreviation. It stands for International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies . The seat of the association is the place of activity of the respective chairman, currently (2011) Oslo.
Founding idea and history
The IFPS is committed to the idea of pluralism in psychoanalysis, as well as the interdisciplinary exchange in questions of micro- and macro-social processes. Complete organizational and scientific autonomy as well as equal rights for all sub-societies are essential requirements of the association. In terms of club politics, the International Psychoanalytic Association dominated the international scene at that time . It was strictly aligned with the legacy of Sigmund Freud and was considered conservative and in some respects orthodox. With the establishment of the IFPS a counterweight should be created. It was supposed to give newer developments such as the social analysis by Erich Fromm and Igor Caruso and the neo-psychoanalysis by Harry S. Sullivan and Harald Schultz-Hencke , which at that time received little attention in the IPA, to more prestige and validity.
When it was founded, the background played a role in the fact that the German Psychoanalytical Society , which had the strongest initiative to establish it, had not regained its connection to international psychoanalysis after its re-establishment in 1946 and was threatened with isolation.
It was founded in 1962 in Amsterdam at an international congress in which the leading figures of the newer currents and progressive schools of psychoanalysis at that time took part. The founding companies were the German Psychoanalytical Society, which at the time was strongly influenced by the Berlin neo-psychoanalytic school von Schultz-Hencke, the Sociedad Psicoanalitica Mexicana AC under the direction of Erich Fromm, the Vienna Working Group for Depth Psychology, which was founded by Caruso (today : Austrian Working Groups for Psychoanalysis) and the William Alanson White Psychoanalytic Society, New York, in which the ideas of Sullivan, Frieda Fromm Reichmann, Karen Horney and other supporters of the "cultural schools" were cultivated.
activities
In its 50-year history, the main activity of the IFPS has been the organization of international forums for psychoanalysis and scientific conferences. So far it has organized 15 international forums, including major congresses such as those in Zurich in 1965, in Mexico City in 1969, in Berlin 1977, in Rio de Janeiro in 1989, in Belo Horizonte in 2004 and in Athens in 2010. It has also supported eight scientific conferences so far. a. in Göttingen in 1968, in Haikko (Finland) in 1980 and in Munich in 1992. The federation also publishes the journal International Forum of Psychoanalysis , which has been published four times a year since 1991 and is now one of the most important English-language organs in the field of psychoanalysis. It is open to all authors regardless of their affiliation to a special trend in psychoanalysis or a specialist society.