Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis

History

The Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis founders included Karen Horney, Clara Thompson, Bernard Robbins, Harmon Ephron and Sarah Kelman along with Harry Stack Sullivan and William Silverberg who joined from the Washington-Baltimore group. There were twenty one charter members who elected William V. Silverberg, president, Clara Thompson, vice-president, Harold Kelman, secretary, and Stephen P. Jewett, treasurer. Karen Horney, Sarah Kelman and Harmon Ephron were elected councillors. The AAP members immediately began hosting monthly scientific and other stimulating meetings which not only attracted its analyst and candidate members, but professionals from other fields as well, in keeping with the spirit of openness and mission of disseminating psychoanalytic ideas to the broader community. This ethos continues to this day.

Mission

The mission and purpose of the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis is to advance psychoanalysis by consistently encouraging psychoanalytic work and by promoting and disseminating the understanding of psychoanalysis in our immediate psychoanalytic community and the community at large.

To advance the Association’s mission, we endeavor to meet the professional needs of our members and psychoanalytic colleagues of the larger psychoanalytic community by supporting and enriching their professional lives through the following activities:

1. Publication of the American Journal of Psychoanalysis, an international psychoanalytic quarterly;
2. Sponsoring and organizing Continuing Education lectures;
3. Maintaining the Muriel Ivimey Library, a research site;
4. Sponsoring events to benefit the members of the AAP, by encouraging diversity and nurturing a collegial atmosphere.