Psychoanalysis at The Menninger Foundation: A Fiftieth Anniversary Retrospective Exhibit was the title of an illustrated history of The Topeka Institute for Psychoanalysis shown at the meeting of the APsaA this spring in Los Angeles. The exhibit, organized by the author together with Doctors Ishak Ramzy, Sydney Smith, and Mr. Harlan Hillmer, brought together photographs, correspondence, official documents, and programs of landmark events in the 37 year history of The Topeka Psychoanalytic Society and of its institute, founded some four years after the recognition of the parent society.
The history of the Topeka Society and Institute is intimately associated with the work of Doctors Karl and Will Menninger and of the Clinic (later to be The Menninger Foundation) which they and their father established in 1925. Both men served presidential terms in The American Psychoanalytic Association (Doctor Karl in 1942 and 1943; Doctor Will in 1947 and 1948).
Records in the museum and archives of the Foundation reveal that psychoanalytic treatment was given patients of the Clinic from its earliest days; Karl Menninger with his student John Stone offered analytic therapy as early as 1925. (Stone, a psychologist, was later to become the chief administrative officer of the Foundation).
Early annual reports of the Menninger Clinic reveal that in the late 1920's the professional staff began having regular biweekly scientific meetings and that around 1932 psychoanalytic themes began to predominate as topics of discussion. From these Wednesday night seminars there evolved a psychoanalytic study group and a small informal training program under the guidance of the Chicago Institute, then under the directorship of Dr. Franz Alexander. Karl Menninger was the first graduate of the Chicago Training Program. The Topeka Psychoanalytic Society was officially recognized by The American in 1938 and during the next several years increasing numbers of candidates undertook training in Topeka under the auspices of the Chicago Institute. Students journeyed to Chicago fortnightly to attend courses and seminars and for supervision.
In May, 1942, the Topeka Society was approved to establish an independent institute. The new institute held its initial meeting in August of that year and selected as its first officers Dr. Karl Menninger, Director; Dr. Robert Knight, Assistant Director; and Dr. Ernst Levy, Secretary-Treasurer. Lecturers and speakers in the Topeka Institute's first year included Drs. David Rapaport, Margaret Mead, O. Spurgeon English, Elisabeth R. Geleerd, and Lawrence S. Kubie. The first class of the new institute numbered eight students.
The fourth oldest institute in the United States, Topeka was originally made responsible for all psychoanalytic training in the area west of Chicago. Dr. Ernst Simmel, who had arrived in Los Angeles in 1934, was also an officer of the Topeka Institute, serving as its Assistant Director for (Training in) California, as well as the first president of the Los Angeles Study Group in the creation of which he had played a predominant role. Sometime later, a study group was organized in San Francisco and records show frequent consulting visits by Drs. Karl Menninger and Knight to the two California groups, then consisting, in addition to Simmel, of Prof. Erik Erikson, and Drs. Otto Fenichel, Bernhard Berliner, Emanuel Windholz, Siegfried Bernfeld, Charles Tidd, May Romm, Hanna Fenichel, Frances Deri, and the Haenels, Joachim and Irene.
The Topeka Society was of consistent support to the California group in its organizational birth struggles, helping to work out a set of agreements around the status of non-medical analysts which would be acceptable to the Los Angeles and San Francisco groups as well as to the American Psychoanalytic Association. In August, 1941 Dr. Knight presided at the organizing meeting in Los Angeles of the California Psychoanalytic Society.
Between 1942 and 1945 ten or eleven candidates were in training at the young Topeka Institute. With the end of World War II and the sharply increased demand for psychoanalytic training, these figures rose steadily and rapidly; 25 in 1946, 36 in 1947, 44 in 1948, 54 in 1949. The present level of 40 has remained relatively constant throughout the late 1950's and 1960's. In an unpublished manuscript describing the first fifteen years of the Topeka Institute, Dr. Rudolf Ekstein states, “At the time that I came to Topeka in 1947, we had approximately 80 candidate applications at a given moment.”
In that paper Ekstein also writes, “Most institutes are known for their theoretical convictions, and while I am not certain whether there is a difference in self-judgment and the judgment others may have about us, we are committed basically to classical psychoanalysis, to standard training, along with research, experimentation and the belief that constant exploration and scientific curiosity are essential aspects of Freudian thinking.”
During its 33 years of teaching psychoanalysis, the Topeka Institute has had eight Directors. In addition to Drs. Karl Menninger, Lewy and Knight, they include Drs. Jan Frank, Otto Fleischmann, Herman G. van der Waals, Gertrude R. Ticho, and the present Director, Dr. Ishak Ramzy.
Seventy graduates have completed their adult analytic training in Topeka, and seven more have qualified as child analysts. Four members of the group have served as President of the American; in addition to Drs. Karl and Will Menninger, Dr. Knight served in 1951 and Dr. Robert Wallerstein held that office in 1971.
Members of the Topeka Society have always been prominent in carrying forward the work of The Menninger Foundation, which in turn has been of continuing and generous support to the development of psychoanalysis. From the beginnings of psychiatry in Topeka, Doctors Karl and Will occupied positions of clinical, educational and administrative leadership. The development and refinement of a psychodynamic model of hospital treatment at the Foundation was described in Part I of this history by Dr. Hartocollis. Similar articles might be written detailing the great enrichment of American psychoanalysis through the Menninger Foundation's pioneering advances in psychotherapy, diagnosis, child psychiatry,
clinical psychology, research, and social applications and education—for each of these areas of activity has been significantly influenced by (and in many instances led by) members of the Topeka Society and Institute. A list of the twenty-eight training and supervising analysts in the last three decades readily shows the wide dissemination throughout the country of distinguished contributors whose scientific work often has begun in the fertile soil of Topeka. This list includes Doctors Sylvia Allen, Trygve Braatoy, Rudolf Ekstein, Michalina Fabian, Otto Fleischmann, Jan Frank, Hugh Galbraith, Ramon Ganzarain, Alfred Gross, Peter Hartocollis, Mary O'Neill Hawkins, J. Cotter Hirschberg, Philip Holzman, Robert Jokl, Hellmuth Kaiser, Irving Kartus, Jerome B. Katz, Otto F. Kernberg, Ernst Lewy, Robert Knight, Karl A. Menninger, William C. Menninger, Harold Meyers, Alfredo Namnum, William Pious, Ishak Ramzy, Lewis Robbins, Irwin C. Rosen, Herbert J. Schlesinger, Ellen Simon, Petronella Tibout, Ernst A. Ticho, Gertrude R. Ticho, William Tarnower, Herman G. van der Waals, and Robert S. Wallerstein.
With the Chicago and Pittsburgh Institutes, Topeka helped organize and participated in the three Institute Conferences on Psychoanalytic Education, acting as host in April, 1969. Two monographs resulting from those meetings, appreciatively dubbed “The Green Giant” and “The Blue Giant” have received wide and positive acceptance among training centers in this country and abroad.
In 1966, the Association for Child Psychoanalysis held its first annual meeting in Topeka and the Foundation's Visiting Professor, Miss Anna Freud, lent the fledgling organization her wisdom, encouragement, and guidance. Next March that organization will meet in Kansas City. The President-Elect of the Association, Dr. Ramzy, is planning a series of special events at the Foundation for those attending next year's 10th anniversary meeting.
IN MEMORIAM
Ms. Gilda Nigro, bookkeeper for the Association, died on August 13, 1975. Ms. Nigro, a valued and respected member of the Central Office staff, was employed by the Association for over six years.