The Israel Association for Self Psychology and the Study of Subjectivity was established in 1999 for the purpose of providing a professional and organizational entity for the development and transmission of Self Psychology. The Association aspires to be an ideological home to psychotherapists who consider Self Psychology the philosophical source of inspiration to their psychoanalytic attitude and the therapeutic presence implied in it. The Association also aspires to maintain an open relationship of information and interchange with workers in other disciplines, who may consider Self Psychology a philosophical and cultural context tangential to other, extra-psychological bodies of language.
The Association is located at the Adam Campus in Lod, and this residence provides a home base for the offering of services to the town of Lod. The association has grown to around 200 members (many of whom are IAPSP members, who regularly attend its International Annual Conferences, present there, and also publish papers in the journal) and is enthusiastically involved in developing Self Psychology in Israel. Members of the Association are active participants in Universities and other academic institutions, in the psychoanalytic institutes in Israel, in hospitals and public health clinics, contributing regularly to disseminate Self Psychology’s legacy and ethics to the professional community and the general public.
The Association is currently running three training programs simultaneously (Self Psychology and Therapeutic Action, Training Program for the Study of Self Psychology, Human Spirit: Psychoanalytic-Buddhist Training Program), each with its own unique population of therapists at various stages of training. These programs will be enumerated more fully shortly. In addition, a Youtube channel is opening which will include around 50 lectures based on Self Psychology which have been given at our various seminars and workshops over the years.
The various activities of the association include:
Self Psychology and the Therapeutic Action: a four-year training curriculum, for advanced therapists, graduates of basic psychotherapy programs. It takes place at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine’s Psychotherapy Program, Tel Aviv University. The eighth class began last year and we are proud that, thus far, almost 150 students have been trained in this unique program of in-depth training in Self Psychology.
Training Program for the Study of Self Psychology: a three-year basic training program for beginning therapists, which takes place in the Lod campus. The fifth class is now beginning the program, and the current class of 27 therapists is receiving an in-depth exposure to Self Psychology early on in their careers.
Human Spirit: Psychoanalytic-Buddhist Training Program: a unique seven-year psychoanalytic training program integrating psychoanalysis, Buddhism and the humanities and arts, which takes place in the Lod campus. The first class is already conducting 30 four–times- a- week analyses to the citizens of the city of Lod, and the second class of experienced therapists is now beginning the program.
Scientific Meetings: a series of monthly scientific meetings open to professionals as well as to the general public.
Beit Midrash- ‘Reading Kohut’: monthly gatherings, which over the past four years has been dedicated to the systematic reading of Kohut’s Chicago Institute Lectures.
Annual day-workshops exploring the relationship between Self Psychology and various areas of culture and arts.
Translation project of Kohut’s writings into Hebrew: Books that have already been translated: How Does Analysis Cure?, Self Psychology and the Humanities, The Restoration of the Self. Translation of The Analysis of the Self is currently in progress, while the translation of Stozier’s Heinz Kohut, the Making of a Psychoanalyst , is now in the final stages of publication.
Ktavim)- (‘Writings’)- The Israeli Contribution to Self Psychology: A publication project of seminal original works of the Association’s members throughout the last 25 years.
Thinking and Research groups: application of Self Psychology to the fields of child and adolescent treatment, couples therapy, education and the social sphere.
We are also looking forward to the possibility of cooperation and interchange with other Self Psychology groups in institutes worldwide. In 2013 members of our group have met in Austria for a weekend clinical seminar with the Vienna Circle for Psychoanalysis and Self Psychology, an initiative we hope to continue. We would also welcome similar initiatives with other groups around the world. Over the years, as part of our tie with the International Self Psychology community, we have hosted prominent IAPSP members, such as Anna and Paul Ornstein, Donna Orange, Doris Brothers, Jaqueline Gotthold, Joe Lichtenberg, and Maxwell Sucharov.
Recently the Japanese Association for World Peace Bells has decided to donate the 24th bell throughout the world to Adam Campus in the city of Lod, and we are humbly grateful for this generous act and are hopeful that this will help us in our sincere efforts to contribute whatever we can for the creation of world peace, starting within us as individuals and as a community.
The Association’s Steering Committee:
Claudia Cogan – chairman
Aliza Dolev
Iris Levinson
Dr. Asher Epstein
Saray Ilan
Elinoar Laks – administrative manager