History of the IAAP

The IAAP was founded in 1955 by a group of analysts who were close to C. G. Jung.  While several groups or societies had been formed earlier, there was no international body that could oversee the growing interest in Jung’s system of depth psychology, maintain standards of training and insure the ethical practice of analytical psychology.  With Jung’s advancing age, the establishment of the IAAP insured the continuity that had hitherto resulted from his personal engagement.  Jung’s close associate, C. A. Meier, was elected to be the first president of the IAAP, and the first Congress of the Association was held in Zurich in 1958.  Since its founding, the IAAP has grown to a membership of more that 3000 analysts, and recognizes 58 groups or societies throughout the world.  An elected group of officers and an executive committee of representatives from the groups or societies now govern the Association.  A separate committee maintains a code of ethics, and congresses are organized on a triennial basis.  Regional groupings of societies now conduct meetings during the intervening years, and various groups and journals regularly organize a wide variety of other scholarly conferences.  The IAAP has also established an affiliation with a number of Allied Organizations including the International Association for Jungian Studies, a group which promotes the study of Jung’s system of depth psychology and related issues in the larger academic community, as well as the Philemon Foundation, the International Society for Sandplay Therapy and the Marion Woodman Foundation.