The circumstances surrounding the origin of NPAP continue to shape
its contemporary role in the psychoanalytic movement. In June 1938,
when Theodor Reik came to the USA seeking refuge from Nazi persecution,
he was confronted with professional discrimination. Despite the fact
that he had been trained by Sigmund Freud and was a prominent member
of the Vienna Psycho-Analytical Society, he was denied full membership
in the American Psychoanalytic Association because he was not an MD.
Freud was aware of this sort of 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 further their
training through informal seminars under his leadership. This group
became the nucleus out of which NPAP grew. In 1948 a non-medical psychoanalytic
training institute was established. In 1950, the Association was incorporated
as a membership organization under the laws of the State of New York.
Today, the NPAP Training Institute is a member of the Council of Psychoanalytic
Psychotherapists, the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis
and the International Federation for Psychoanalytic Education. 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,
furthering public understanding of psychoanalytic principles, and correcting
misconceptions about psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic credentials
whenever and wherever these may arise.
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