Mission Statement

The Association for the Psychoanalytic Study of Psychopathology (APSP) is dedicated to advancing the psychoanalytic understanding of mental disorders through rigorous theoretical inquiry and scientific investigation. In an era when psychoanalysis has increasingly drifted from its clinical foundations, APSP reaffirms that the central aim of psychoanalysis is the treatment of psychopathology. We bring together psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and scholars committed to integrating depth psychology with contemporary clinical science in the service of human suffering.

Organizational Aims

• To reaffirm the clinical purpose of psychoanalysis as a treatment for mental disorders, and to preserve its relevance in contemporary psychiatry and psychotherapy.

• To promote dialogue between psychoanalysis and empirical science, especially in the domains of diagnosis, psychopathology, and treatment efficacy.

• To support theoretical and clinical work that deepens the understanding of personality disorders and other complex psychiatric conditions from a psychoanalytic perspective.

• To provide a forum for clinicians and scholars who reject both reductionist biological models and postmodern relativism, advocating instead for a psychologically realistic, clinically grounded psychoanalysis.

• To encourage research and writing that bridges the gap between psychoanalytic theory and the realities of modern clinical practice.

• To offer educational initiatives, events, and publications that advance a rigorous, clinically focused psychoanalytic discourse.