2010: The 100th Anniversary of the IPA: Come to Reception January 15 at 2010 National Meeting

The International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA), founded by Sigmund Freud in 1910, will mark its 100th Anniversary in 2010.

Here in North America, there will be celebrations in Canada and the United States throughout the year. The first of these—inaugurating the year of celebration—will be sponsored by the IPA and the American Psychoanalytic Association. A wine and cheese reception to be held at the APsaA 2010 National Meeting on January 15 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., at the Empire Room at the Waldorf will honor IPA members' work on outreach, in the context of remembering the early outreach efforts of the pioneers of psychoanalysis. All IPA members and APsaA meeting participants are invited to attend.

The IPA Web site (ipa.org.uk) describes the origins of the IPA as follows:

In 1902 Sigmund Freud invited four men (Stekel, Adler, Kahane and Reitler) to meet him in order to discuss his work, and they formed what they called the Psychological Wednesday Society, since they met every week on that day. By 1908 there were 14 members and the name was changed to the Vienna Psychoanalytical Society; it was in this year that Ferenczi joined it. Besides the members, there were some guests who later became important for psychoanalysis; these included Eitingon, Jung, Abraham and Jones, each of whom later became president of the IPA.

In 1907 Jones visited Jung in Zurich. It was Jones who suggested to Jung that an international meeting should be arranged to bring together colleagues from various countries in order to discuss their common interest in psychoanalysis. Freud welcomed the proposal, and it was he who chose Salzburg as the best place for the projected meeting. Jung called this meeting the “First Congress for Freudian Psychology.” This very informal meeting is now reckoned to be the first International Psychoanalytical Congress, although the IPA had not yet been founded.

It was during this meeting in Salzburg, on 27 April 1908, that the idea of an international association was discussed and agreed upon. The next Congress was held at Nuremberg in March 1910, and it was at this Congress that the IPA was founded.

Sigmund Freud believed an international organisation was essential to advance and safeguard his thinking and ideas.

In honor of its founding and 100 years of development, the IPA is planning celebrations around the world. Today the IPA has members in about 50 countries, mostly in Europe, North America, and Latin America. There will be celebrations in all three primary regions as well as in other locations where interest in IPA psychoanalysis has been gaining. For example, a major conference in Beijing, China, is being planned for October 21-24, 2010.

The many other events to be scheduled over the course of the year and even extending into the next year will culminate in the final celebration at the next IPA Congress in Mexico City in 2011. Look in a future TAP issue for details of other events at which your participation will be welcome and your interest valued. The IPA would also welcome and value local community celebrations of IPA members. We can use this time of celebration to consider not only the historic past but even more to think creatively about the future of psychoanalysis and the next 100 years of the IPA.