History of the New South Wales Institute of (Psychoanalytic) Psychotherapy

The idea of a New South Wales Institute of Psychotherapy was conceived in 1976. At that time there was no formal training in psychotherapy in New South Wales. Professor Reg Martin, a member of the Sydney Institute of Psychoanalysis which had been founded 15 years earlier, had recently retired from the University of New South Wales where he had been teaching psychologists psychotherapy based on psychoanalytic principles. The Institute of Psychoanalysis had a training course for psychoanalysts in association with the Melbourne Institute. However, this was psychoanalytic training, and was moreover heavily Kleinian based. An attempt had been made to form a group of psychiatrists to discuss psychotherapy, but it had not flourished, apparently because it was difficult to get a common basis for understanding what psychotherapy was about.

In 1976 a group of professionals interested in psychotherapy was brought together with a view to starting a training programme. This group, most of whom were known to each other, and had worked in the same professional settings, contained two social workers, Margaret Berkovic and Lyndsey Fletcher, one psychologist, Terry Coulton, and five psychiatrists, John Buttsworth, Charles Enfield, David and Isla Lonie, and Ken Mackey. The Sydney Institute of Psychoanalysis sent along to the meetings of the group, one of their members, David Buick, who was both a valuable source of knowledge about the wider field of psychotherapy, having himself been trained in London before coming to Sydney, and an important point of contact with the Sydney Institute.

After meeting monthly for six months, a decision was made to form a Study Group which would meet weekly, with members presenting topics based on books and journal articles in the area of psychotherapy, and undertaking weekly small group supervision with analysts who were members of the Sydney Institute of Psychoanalysis. There were twenty participants in this programme, and at the end of 1977, the group decided to continue for a further year, now with a clear intention of forming a body which was to be called the NSW Institute of Psychotherapy. The group continued to meet weekly in the following year, but had by this point become a smaller group of 14 members. By this time, the group had developed a broad agreement on the principles of psychoanalytic psychotherapy as distinct from psychoanalysis as a treatment method.

Formal Incorporation of the Institute took place on the 27th July, 1978, and the first Annual General Meeting, called by Lyndsey Fletcher was held on October 23rd, 1978, at 23 Johnston St, Annandale. The Founding Members were:- Dr Edith Adler, Dr Robert Adler, Dr. Marie Bashir, Mrs. Margaret Berkovic, Dr John Buttsworth, Dr Warwick Coombes, Mr. Terry Coulton, Ms. Lyndsey Fletcher, Dr Robert Gordon, Dr David Lonie, Dr Isla Lonie, Dr Ken Mackey, Dr Loris Mayer, and Dr John Parkinson.

From its inception, the main aims of the Institute were to promote Psychotherapy as a discipline, to provide a milieu for psychotherapists to discuss theory and clinical work, and to conduct a training programme in Psychotherapy. The first Training Programme commenced in February, 1979 with six participants of whom four completed the three year Course.

In 1980 the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Association of Australia was formed and members of the NSW Institute became active members of this umbrella organisation, which subsequently was expanded to include similar organisations in New Zealand.

Since that time, the Institute has continued to conduct a training course in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, has held regular meetings of its membership, and has supported and advanced the practice of psychoanalytically based psychotherapy in New South Wales.

LIST OF PRESIDENTS