Records of the Topeka Psychoanalytic Society

Abstract: This sub-unit of the Menninger Archives provides a good overview of the history of the Topeka Psychoanalytic Society (TPS) and its educational arm, the Topeka Institute for Psychoanalysis (TIP), from their beginnings in the 1930s and 1940s near their close in 2001. While some of TPS' and TIP's records have been divided, many remain intermingled with each other, largely due to the close relationship between the two entities. Because of this, and because of the general disorganization of the records, researchers may need to search in multiple boxes and series for all materials related to a single topic.

Records of significance include early correspondence, business meeting minutes for most of TPS's life, financial documentation, information about speakers brought in to discuss important issues before the Society, and other administrative files for TPS. There are also some publications from TIP, including its bulletin and curriculum, as well as 15 boxes of Ishak Ramzy's papers. Of particular note in the early correspondence is discussion about early psychoanalysis in the western United States; the formation of the first California psychoanalytic societies; ERIC, or the Emergency Relief & Immigration Committee administered through the APsaA for European emigres; and other related topics.

Administrative History: In 1932, a group of Menninger Clinic staff who wanted to discuss psychoanalytic issues with Dr. Karl Menninger formed an informal special study seminar. By 1936 this group was joined by the more formal--and more exclusive--Psychoanalytic Study Group of Topeka, restricted to the six analysts on staff at the Clinic and overseen by the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society, then the only midwestern organization recognized by the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA).

This second group expanded quickly and included individuals practicing in such locations as Oklahoma City and California; these analysts had wanted membership affiliations closer than Chicago. In 1938 the group renamed itself as the Topeka Psychoanalytic Society (TPS), absorbed the special study seminar that had been run by Dr. Karl, and assumed responsibility for training and supervising analytic candidates in Kansas and the western United States.

In 1942, the Topeka Psychoanalytic Society received permission to open an Institute for the formal education and training of new analysts. The Topeka Institute for Psychoanalysis (TIP), also known as the Topeka Psychoanalytic Institute, continued to serve as the educational locus for psychoanalysis in the western U.S. until the California psychoanalytic societies began operating under TIP's sponsorship.

In 1965 the Psychoanalytic Study Group of Kansas City was incorporated in Missouri, and in the 1990s it became associated with the APsaA and changed its name to the Greater Kansas City Psychoanalytic Society. With sponsorship from TIP, the Greater Kansas City Psychoanalytic Institute opened in 1996.

The Topeka Institute for Psychoanalysis closed its doors in 2001 when the Menninger Foundation began initiating a move to Houston, Texas. Many of TIP's former candidates and faculty members joined the Kansas City institute, or the Houston-Galveston Institute, or elsewhere as needed; and many former TPS members joined the Kansas City society.