About Us
The primary objective of the Institute for Relational Psychoanalysis (IRPP) is to provide a setting, unique in this city, devoted to the in-depth study of relational psychoanalysis. With faculty support from the Stephen A. Mitchell Center in New York, we are able to offer supervision with many of the leading thinkers in relational psychoanalysis. In keeping with central relational principles, we have also constructed our program to encourage critical thought in regard to psychoanalytic theories of mind, as well as to the social and cultural contexts and meanings of our work.
IRPP’s training complies with standards set forth by the Accreditation Council for Psychoanalytic Education (ACPE). The program consists of four years of coursework; supervised analytic work; and personal analysis. Our curriculum makes use of a combination of in-person and distance instruction.
Our institute began its first class in January 2007. However, the structure of our school and a committed cohort of candidates have been in the making since 1992, with the founding of the Philadelphia Center for Psychoanalytic Education (PCPE) by members of PSPP. The mission of PCPE has been to generate interest in the Philadelphia area in “comparative psychoanalysis…in a broad intellectual context”. In each of the succeeding years, three or more reading seminars have been offered, culminating in a day-long class offered by such noted authors as Beatrice Beebe, Philip Bromberg, Nina Coltart, Anna Ornstein, Joyce McDougall, Jay Greenberg, Adam Phillips, Christopher Bollas, Jessica Benjamin, Edgar Levenson, and Lew Aron. These seminars have succeeded in creating a cohort of individuals who share an excitement and interest in contemporary psychoanalytic thought. It is largely from within this group that there has been a call for a specifically relational psychoanalytic institute in Philadelphia.
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