The Toronto Psychoanalytic Society (TPS) is a not-for-profit association of professional psychoanalysts engaged in the development and advancement of clinical psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought in Toronto. It was founded in 1965 as a branch of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society (CPS), a component society of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) founded by Sigmund Freud, with headquarters in London, England.
The Toronto Institute of Psychoanalysis (TIP) is composed of senior members of the TPS who have, in addition to psychoanalytic training, qualified as Training and Supervising Analysts. They are charged with the responsibility of analyzing and supervising candidates in training. They also oversee the processes of admission of candidates, the assessment of their progress in training, the development and administration of the curriculum, the evaluation of members of the TPS who have applied to become training analysts, among other functions.
The TIP was established in 1969 as a branch of the Canadian Institute of Psychoanalysis (CIP). The TIP is now the largest psychoanalytic training program in Canada. As a component society of the IPA and a branch of the CIP, the TIP provides the only training in clinical psychoanalysis in Toronto with internationally recognized standards of excellence and ethics.
In addition to the training of psychoanalysts, the TPS&I present an extensive range of educational programs throughout the academic year that are open to the community. The Advanced Training Program in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (ATPPP), in addition to offering a two-year clinical training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, sponsors biannual Scientific Sessions that focus on timely clinical and theoretical issues in long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
Since 1983, the Extension Program of the TPS has offered to the public a series of courses on a wide range of clinical and applied psychoanalytic topics, including the highly attended annual course “Psychoanalysis and Cinema.”
Each year since 2005, the TPS has offered a one year, twenty-four week, introductory course on the principles of psychoanalysis. The Fundamental Psychoanalytic Perspectives Program combines teaching of basic concepts of psychoanalytic theory, with presentation of clinical cases and an introduction to psychotherapy technique. Although not a training program, it could easily serve as a preliminary to one.
Many of the monthly scientific meetings of the TPS are open to the community and focus on a wide range of theoretical and clinical issues, as well as applications of psychoanalysis in other fields. In 1990, the signature event of the TPS&I was established as The Annual Day in Psychoanalysis, and it has become an important event in the education calendar of Toronto’s community of mental health professionals.
With the growing interest in clinical psychoanalysis and applied psychoanalysis in Toronto, the TPS&I seek to reach a broad clinical and academic audience interested in the full spectrum of psychoanalytic thought. The TPS&I now sponsor many special events and outreach programs, including the Annual Day in Applied Psychoanalysis, special film presentations, and performance pieces applying psychoanalytic themes and concepts.
Membership in the TPS is limited to individuals who have completed psychoanalytic training at a branch of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Institute or another psychoanalytic institute sanctioned by the International Psychoanalytic Association.