Psychoanalysis in Canada

Dear Dr Hayley:

In view of what has been written recently on the history of psychoanalysis in Canada, I would like to present some first-hand information about the beginnings of the Canadian Society which are missing in the recent writings, and to correct some inaccuracies. I would be grateful if you would publish this material.

Dr Alastair Macleod and myself are the survivors of the first officially recognized Psychoanalytic Study Group in Canada. The other three members were Prof. Theo. Chentrier, Dr Eric Wittkower and Dr Miguel Prados.

It was Father Mailloux of the Department of Psychology of the University of Montreal and Dr Prados who started a movement to create interest in psychoanalysis in Montreal with the formation of the 'Montreal Psychoanalytic Club' in which those who were interested in psychoanalysis would gather to hear lecturers invited mainly from the United States and France.

The aim of the members of the Club was eventually to establish psychoanalytic training in Canada, so that Canadians interested in becoming psychoanalysts would not have to emigrate. When Dr Prados became an associate member of the British Society in 1952, this brought the number of Montreal analysts to five, the required member to form a study Group. After long negotiations with the American Psychoanalytic Association, the Group asked for the sponsorship of the British Psychoanalytic Society, which it received in March 1952.

Unfortunately, the 'Montreal Psychoanalytic Club', which was disbanded upon the formation of the Study Group, had also been described as the 'Canadian Psychoanalytic Society' which led to some historical confusion concerning the foundation of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society. Dr Prados had also used the term 'Society' to refer to the Study Group (Prados, The Canadian Psychoanalytic Review, 1954, 1, p. 22). This explains why the membership diplomas of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society erroneously state that the Society was formed in 1952.

When I left C