Director's Statement

by Phil Lebovitz, M.D.

I am pleased that you have sought out the website of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. Information about psychoanalysis, and particularly about our Institute, is your interest. Our goal for this website is to provide the information you seek.

Franz Alexander who was one of Freud’s original protégés emigrated to Chicago from Berlin to found the Chicago Institute in 1932. Alexander modeled this Institute after the one he created in Berlin which was the first formally organized psychoanalytic Institute; the Berlin Institute offered a low fee clinic which Alexander incorporated into the Chicago Institute’s structure as well. In the section on Therapeutic Services you will find descriptions of the clinics which the Institute has developed: Adult Psychoanalysis, Adult Psychotherapy, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, and the Barr-Harris Grief Center. Each of these clinics provides treatment and consultation based on psychoanalytic theory; the clinics are also integral parts of the training, education and research commitments of this Institute. Consultations to schools have been added to this array of services to the community.

Chicago has contributed major innovations to psychoanalytic theory. At the clinical level, Franz Alexander explored a controversial technique known as the corrective emotional experience during the 1950’s. Another group pioneered research into the body and mind connection and developed psychosomatic specificity theory. The traumatic impact of parent loss at an early age on future development of one’s personality became evident from clinical research done in the 1960’s. Heinz Kohut’s innovative theoretical contributions known as self-psychology began to appear in the 1970’s, continued into the 1980’s and were elaborated in the 1990’s and through the millennium by Ernest Wolf, Arnold Goldberg, Michael Basch and Marian Tolpin. John Gedo’s publications spanned the same period. Nathan Schlessinger and Fred Robbins initiated a research project in the 1960’s which continues today; this research has elucidated the process of change in psychoanalytic treatment by interviewing patients after the completion of a psychoanalysis. Recent contributions to this rich tradition include writings by Jonathan Lear, Bert Cohler, Robert Galatzer-Levy, David Terman, Jerome Winer, Bonnie Litowitz, Frank Summers and several others. Intellectual ferment is energetically promoted by the Chicago Institute faculty.

Our Institute offers a menu of didactic and training programs to accommodate multiple levels of interest and knowledge. Those wishing to become psychoanalysts can apply to be a candidate in our adult psychoanalytic training program; fully trained psychoanalysts now include all terminal degrees in the mental health professions. People from diverse disciplines can pursue psychoanalytic training through our committee on special training (CORST) which exists for those who have doctorates in academic areas. We also offer training to become a psychoanalyst of children, another strong area of our program. Additional alternatives are the Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy training program or the Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training program. Others may choose to sample what psychoanalytic training offers by participating in the Fellowship program. Programs on a variety of topics are offered as conferences, panels and discussions (an example is the film discussion from a psychoanalytic perspective). These are accessible to anyone who wants to know about the psychoanalytic perspective in everyday language.
Change and innovation are continuously emerging within a tradition of intellectual fervor and collegial discussion. The expression of divergent perspectives and the respectful nature of these discussions have provided space for diverse positions ranging from ego psychology to interpersonal views to object relations to self-psychologists.

You are invited to explore our world, to investigate our opportunities for learning, to seek help by our clinical services, to become benefactors or to propose new initiatives for us to consider. We welcome your interest and your curiosity. As you immerse yourself in this website if some information which you are seeking cannot be readily found, please call or email us for answers.

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