This page describes the organizational structure of the Academy, and includes the Mission Statement, officers and chairpersons, members, application materials and contact information.

Mission Statement  

The Academy's mission is to advance the study of psychoanalytic epistemology, theory, practice, ethics and education within a psychological framework consisting of philosophy, the arts and the anthropic sciences as opposed    to biology, medicine and the natural sciences. 

We propose to do this through:

1.  the re-thinking of psychoanalysis as a creative intellectual discipline dedicated to the understanding of the psyche;

2.  the re-thinking of psychoanalytic practice as consisting of a collaborative inquiry to further self-understanding rather than the "treatment" of disease, disorder or deficiency;

3.  the development of educational programs for the study of the many modern and postmodern versions and visions of psychoanalysis that proceed from contextual metaphors such as narrative story, semiotics  and psychic theatre;

4.  the articulation and advancement of an ethic and principles consistent with this psychological framework;

5.  the presentation of these ideas to the academic, professional and lay communities.

Preamble

This Section of the Michigan Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology (MSPP) is dedicated to the spirit and tradition of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic inquiry as suggested in Freud's observation: "Psychoanalysis falls under the head of psychology; not of medical psychology in the old sense, nor of psychology of morbid processes, but simply of psychology" (1927).

This Section of the MSPP was conceived and founded in response to the growing realization that powerful socio-political-economic institutions and forces of this current cultural epoch have functionally narrowed the definition of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy to that of a health-care profession or a function thereof; psychoanalytic psychology, for many, has come to be understood as a medical psychology concerned with the understanding of the human condition within the contextual metaphor of "disease/illness," "diagnosis," "treatment," and "cure." Notwithstanding the observation made by Freud in 1927, this medicalized contextual metaphor for psychoanalysis has become reified in psychoanalytic theory, practice, research, and education and, for many, has come to constitute "psychoanalysis" and "psychoanalytic psychotherapy."

This Section of the MSPP is committed to the study of the psychoanalytic arts. Within the thematic context of "The Decade of the Mind," the section has been formed to undertake the long-term project of a "rethinking of psychoanalysis": to develop further understandings of psychoanalysis as theory, practice, research, and education within a psychological framework that is allied with philosophy, the arts, and the anthropic sciences; to present to the academic, professional, and lay communities this expanded definition and further elaboration of a philosophical-psychical way of understanding and working with people; and to develop programs for the study of the many modern and postmodern versions and visions of psychoanalysis that proceed from contextualized metaphors other than health care--e.g., narrative story, semiotics and psychic theatre.