Npap

The National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis is a membership organization and training institute distinguished by its adherence to the principle that psychoanalysis is a discipline that can be practiced by nonmedical professionals. NPAP is open to training applicants from all fields of study and is accepting of many viewpoints within the field of psychoanalysis.

Our founding principles were established by Theodor Reik, who came to the United States in June 1938, seeking refuge from Nazi persecution. Upon arrival Reik was confronted by professional discrimination even though he had been trained by Sigmund Freud and had been a prominent member of the Vienna Psycho-Analytical Society. He was denied full membership in the American Psychoanalytic Association because he was not a medical doctor. Freud was aware of this basis for discrimination. In 1926 he had written “The Question of Lay Analysis” supporting Reik’s qualifications and insisting that psychoanalysis was an independent profession, not a subdivision of medicine or any other field. In 1927 Freud added a “Postscript” arguing that any effort to restrict or regulate psychoanalysis on the basis of extraneous credentials was “more or less equivalent to an attempt at repression.”

The American psychoanalytic establishment disregarded Freud’s position, but this did not deter Theodor Reik. During the 1940s, a small group of analysts began to gather around Reik to advance their training through informal seminars under his leadership. This group became the nucleus for NPAP. In 1948 a psychoanalytic training institute was established. In 1950 NPAP was incorporated as a membership organization under the laws of the State of New York. In 1977 NPAP was divided into an Association and a Training Institute.

Today the NPAP Training Institute is a member of the American Board for Accreditation in Psychoanalysis (ABAP), the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP), the Association for Autonomous Psychoanalytic Institutes (AAPI), and the International Federation for Psychoanalytic Education (IFPE). The NPAP Membership Organization is a member of the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH). By way of honoring and upholding the vision handed down from Freud and Reik, NPAP is committed to psychoanalysis as an independent profession, to providing sound training for competent practice to all qualified applicants, and to furthering public understanding of psychoanalytic principles.