History
The St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute, originally known as The St. Louis Psychoanalytic Foundation, dates back to 1956, when a group of interested laymen, academics and physicians saw the need to increase opportunities for adult psychoanalytic treatment in the St. Louis area as well as to promote psychoanalytic education and research. In 1974, the Foundation was granted status as a training facility by the American Psychoanalytic Association and became the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute.
In 1957, the Betty Golde Smith Library was established at the Institute and today provides one of the most extensive collections of psychoanalytic literature in the Midwest that can be easily accessed by a broad spectrum of individuals and institutions in the metropolitan community and beyond.
Since 1961, the Institute's Herbert S. Schiele Clinic has been an integral part of its educational program. The Clinic provides low-fee psychoanalytic treatment, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and diagnosis and referral services for St. Louis-area residents. In 1998-99, in order to increase its ability to meet the community's demand for mental health services without incurring the expenses of large-scale facility expansion, the Institute dramatically expanded Clinic services for adult patients with a new concept: the Clinic Without Walls Network, which expanded treatment opportunities by drawing upon the more than 140 social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and counselors who have graduated from the Institute's adult programs. The clinic services were expanded again in 2002 to include our network of more than 30 child therapists.
In 1981, the Institute launched both the Adult Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Program (APP) and the Child Development Program (CDP) to expand its range of educational offerings for mental health and child development professionals. A training program in Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis was added to the course offerings in 1994 and the Lectures and Seminars, offering a variety of courses for professionals and the community at large, was launched in 1997.