Our Mission

The American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry is an organization of psychiatrists dedicated to using, teaching, and advancing psychodynamic and psychoanalytic principles and skills in the practice of modern psychiatry wherever clinical work takes place.

We are an affiliate organization of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and welcome interested colleagues to join us at our Annual Meetings and share our publications.

The aims of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry are:

• To provide a forum for discussion of psychodynamic work in the consulting room as well as ideas and research in psychodynamic psychiatry and psychoanalysis;
• To encourage research and scholarship in psychodynamic psychiatry and psychoanalysis;
• To support education in psychodynamic principles and skills for trainees in psychiatry and psychoanalysis as well as for graduate psychiatrists and for other mental health clinicians;
• To support inquiry into the phenomena of individual motivation and social behavior, basic building blocks of psychodynamic thinking;
• To foster communication among psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, and colleagues in the sciences and the humanities.

Message from the President

The current President of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry (AAPDP) is Gerald P. Perman, M.D.. To view the current Message from the President, click here.

Academy Officers

The officers of this Academy are the President, President-Elect, Past-President, Secretary, Past-Secretary, Treasurer, Past-Treasurer and nine trustees. To view the current slate of officers, please click here.

Academy Charter Members

The brave pioneers who set out to establish The Academy were creative, courageous, and bold thinkers who had a vision of how things could be. They included Clara Thompson, William Silverberg, Janet Rioch, Ralph Crowley, Jules Masserman, Irving Bieber, Abraham Kardiner, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, Sandor Rado, Robert Heath, Marianne Eckardt, Miltiades Zaphiropoulos, Franz Alexander, and Leon Saul.

To view the full list of Charter Members of the Academy, click here.

Academy Past Presidents

To view the full list of Past Presidents of the Academy, click here.

History of the Academy

Founded in 1956, the Academy has been open to physicians with legitimate training in psychoanalysis, and membership was opened to those psychiatrists who have demonstrated an interest in psychodynamic psychotherapy.  Psychodynamic psychiatrists were offered membership, and this expansion of the membership was signaled by the name change to the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Psychiatry (AAPDP) in 2001.

The Academy became an affiliate organization of the American Psychiatric Association, indicating the organization’s status as representing the importance of psychodynamic psychotherapy within the practice of psychiatry.  Membership has been opened to psychiatric residents and medical students as well.

To learn more about the history of the Academy, click here.