Welcome from our Executive Director
Welcome to the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Psychology as we celebrate our 75th anniversary. Throughout our history, the Institute has distinguished itself as one of the world's most prominent and respected psychoanalytic training and treatment centers. Our faculty and graduates continue to make major contributions to the professional literature and to assume significant leadership roles in academic and clinical training settings as well as in national and international professional organizations.
Our founders -- including Harry Stack Sullivan, Erich Fromm, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, and Clara Thompson--were early pioneers of our "interpersonal" psychoanalytic perspective, underscoring the significance of relationships with other people and the role of social and cultural forces in personality development. We believe in the power of human relationships to harm and to heal, and that psychoanalysis and psychotherapy require the personal participation of the analyst in the treatment process.
Through the years, we have expanded the range of applications of interpersonal psychoanalysis to: psychotherapy; clinical work with children, adolescents, and families; the study of organizational dynamics; community mental health initiatives, and clinical work with specialized populations. Our award-winning low-cost treatment center, established in 1948 as one of the first in the United States, continues to provide affordable, personal care to patients and their families who would otherwise be unable to access such high quality services. We are internationally recognized and highly regarded for the singular quality of our professional training and service programs. As an autonomous, free-standing non-profit institution, our tradition of academic excellence has enabled us to assume a leadership role among other institutions in our field.
We continue to provide humane and personal services to people in difficulty, in contrast to prevailing trends in health care that often sacrifice individual dignity to bureaucracy, "quick fix" solutions, and attempted cost savings. In addition to our well established training programs in psychoanalysis and in child and adolescent psychotherapy, our current initiatives include continuing education programs for practicing clinicians both in person and online, specialty training for work with people with eating disorders and addictions, a center for public mental health, and post-doctoral fellowship opportunities for psychologists. The White Institute also offers week-long intensive seminars by special arrangement for colleagues and students from the international professional community. Our training and service programs all embody our core value of personal engagement with others. We remain committed to reflection, introspection, self-awareness, and deep regard for others as the basis for our professional work.
We invite you to explore our numerous training opportunities, to trust us to provide confidential and compassionate clinical services, or to contribute financial support for our excellent programs and low-cost clinic. Whether you are a student, a professional, an organizational representative, a prospective patient, or an interested donor, I welcome you to the William Alanson White Institute and encourage you to contact me with any questions at director@wawhite.org or (212) 873-0725 Ext. 15.
Executive Director, Elizabeth Krimendahl