Mission, Values and Vision
The Minnesota Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis (MICPP) provides programs of study and clinical training in contemporary psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Our programs strive to capture the excitement, creativity, and diversity of current activity in contemporary psychoanalysis.
MICPP believes that the psychoanalytic method is unique in its ability to relieve suffering and to equip individuals to create satisfying lives. That is why we offer in-depth study and clinical training in broad theoretical ideas from classical to contemporary psychoanalytic approaches.
The Institute devotes special emphasis to the study of attachment organization and development, self psychological, intersubjective and relational psychoanalysis. Our program is particularly strong in re-examining seminal psychoanalytic concepts such as the unconscious, transference and therapeutic action. The role of both old as well as new relational experiences are examined in light of contemporary research. Students are taught how to utilize this knowledge in the conduct of psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.
MICPP provides a participatory, multi-disciplinary, learner-centered environment. Both in the content of its curriculum and in its organizational process, the Institute facilitates and encourages an atmosphere of openness, collegiality, and mutual respect.
We aspire to provide outstanding psychoanalytic training programs and events that foster the development of excellent clinicians and contributors to the theoretical, research and clinical evolution of the field of relational psychoanalysis. Our aim is to promote students’ professional growth as Psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic therapists as well as their personal development and well-being. MICPP desires to provide participants with a strong sense of community and expand psychoanalytic understanding within the general public.
History
Under the leadership of Gary R. Perrin, PhD, LP and Michael P. Browne, PhD, LP, MICPP was first incorporated in 2003 as a non-profit Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program. Initially the Institute offered a two-year clinical training program in contemporary psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Short-term study groups were also offered for clinicians wishing to explore specific topics related to the Institute’s theoretical focus.
In 2010 the Institute expanded its offerings to include the Program in Psychoanalysis. Students who completed the two-year psychoanalytic psychotherapy program or its equivalent were able to engage in this new advanced training program consisting of three years of coursework, supervised clinical cases and personal psychoanalysis.
The philosophy behind the program was and remains to provide a contemporary model for providing psychoanalytic services. Our concept of contemporary meant emphasizing the relational developments in the field of psychoanalysis that have evolved over the last 40-50 years. We wanted to know how a personality develops, where a person gets his/her/their view of the world, and how persons form their attitudes towards themselves and others.
We took much from the 30+ years of longitudinal research done at the Institute for Child Development led by Dr. Alan Sroufe and his colleagues. He had systematically explored the questions we had about the development of the person and his work blended with other research on the development of attachment relationships gave us our foundation. The results were so robust that it encouraged us in our development of curriculum.
It was clear that the development of the person was derived from his/her/their experiences in their relationships. We chose to follow a theory of normal development that helps us also to understand abnormal or pathological development and that led us to an understanding of how to intervene therapeutically. We therefore selected relational approaches to doing psychotherapy and psychoanalysis and to teach trainees how to best use themselves in providing services.