Who Are We?

The Tel Aviv Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis was founded in 1999 by a group of senior professionals whose aim was to advance the practice and knowledge of psychoanalysis and contribute to its diffusion in Israel. This step was facilitated by Stephen A. Mitchell and other senior psychoanalysts worldwide, some of whom are at present members of the Advisory Committee of the institute under the chairmanship of Owen Renick. Paul Orenstein is the chairman of the Training Committee.

The Institute was established to create a framework that cultivates free and open discourse between the varied approaches and psychoanalytic currents of thought, as well as between the different disciplines and psychoanalysis, and to be a non-hierarchical intellectual community of clinicians and non-clinical academicians who are committed to and interested in the psychoanalytic world- view.

In accordance with the humanistic values on which psychoanalysis is based, the Institute is committed to its societal context and to the different sectors that compose the Israeli social reality. The Institute maintains a close connection with other psychoanalytic Institutes in the United States and in Europe.

The aim of the Institute is to encourage high levels of knowledge and clinical skill in its members, and create a process of professional “becoming” for those of the newer colleagues who are interested in psychoanalytic training. We mean to endow training of an open and free nature that will facilitate creativity and innovativeness of trainees within high standards of quality.

The organizational structure of the Institute includes a broad Managerial Committee composed of the Institute's Chairperson and Chairpersons of the different Sub-committees (Teaching; Admissions; Scientific Program; Social Involvement; Ethics and Bylaws, and Finance). Two members of this Committee, together with the Institute’s Chairperson comprise the Institute’s Core Management Committee.

The activities of the Institute are conducted on two separate tracks:
The first track is the “Study-Forum,” which entails study in the large group as well as developing programs, learning frameworks, and discussion of structural and procedural issues related to the Institute. This forum meets monthly for a number of hours. These meetings include theoretical and clinical presentations, as well as organizational discussions. In this forum, members present their papers and essential psychoanalytic issues are brought for discussion. In the organizational section of the forum, the group discusses subjects related to the Institute’s activities and important decisions are arrived at.

A second track is that of the Groups in Training. The Groups in Training function on the basis of a program that promotes learning from experience, and includes both theoretical studies and clinical experience. The aim is to constitute a space for openness and plurality of ideas within a climate of maximal freedom.

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