While making preparations to join several of our earliest members in an oral history of the Institute’s beginnings, one of the founders, in true romantic tradition, discovered a long forgotten cache of papers at the bottom of a trunk, dusted them off and presented them to the Institute. These include the first Minutes, Charter, Statement of Purpose, Newsletters and correspondence.

At the Institute we are now in the midst of re-examining our identity, purposes and structure. These documents are a precious contribution to that project. They express the vision and hopes of our founders. They enable us to pay homage to who and what formed us, to place ourselves in developmental and social context and to see ourselves as truly part of a heritage.

Although many of us remember those early times as being casual and loose, one obtains a different view when reading these papers. They repeatedly testify to the democratic idealism, sense of responsibility, accountability, lawfulness, and the very, very, hard work of these founders. From their writings I will attempt to cull a chronology of our earliest organizational history.

1970. The time is the midst of the Vietnam war. Education and training have been punctuated by protest and disruption. the mental health professions are in a period of rapid change: the beginnings of community mental health programs, demands for broad based services for the previously dispossessed, attacks upon traditional forms of psychotherapy. Experienced practitioners are either bewildered or excited at the surge of populist, non-traditional and anti-traditional folk methods. Traditional hierarchies (Psychoanalysis on top, then Psychiatry, Psychology, Social Work) are challenged. The thrust is for egalitarianism. Peer counseling and store front clinics emerge. At the Free Clinic, psychologists sweep the floor while house painters lead rap groups.

Seven women, six current graduates of the UC School of Social Welfare (Clair Brady Kapor, Toby Dyner, Devora Goldberg, Madalyn Honog Sandler, Virginia Harper Harrison, and Myrna Rudman) and their supervisor at Berkeley Mental Health (Sheila Fergusson), begin meeting to explore feasibility of an interdisciplinary center for advanced training. Their interests reflect the social upheaval of the times. There are few jobs in traditional agencies yet an expanding market for pioneers. They are concerned with maintaining intellectual and professional standards yet are excluded from medically oriented advanced institutes. They want more education and opportunity. They yearn to be part of an intellectual community of peers. They are infused with the fervor for participatory democracy with no class distinctions. They want to create a home for a diverse group of clinicians who would break the caste system yet protect and nourish intellectual rigor.

1970-71. These seven continue regular informal meetings and finally go off on a retreat where they decide to form an institute. They compose a Statement of Purpose and distribute this with invitations to the mental health community asking friends and colleagues to join them.

May 1971. A group gathers in a Kensington living room, supports the proposal, agrees to meet regularly and to invite others to join them.

August 1971. After several grave and heated discussions about inclusion of the word “psychoanalytic,” the name, The Psychotherapy Institute, is agreed upon. At a general meeting with 30 people present, 25 join at a $5 annual membership fee. Almost all present commit themselves to do organizational work. Everyone is invited to contribute ideas.

November 11, 1971. Bylaws accepted by 35 members. Charter members are defined in a solemn and notarized statement. Five committees form: Clinical Services, Education, Research, Business, and Public Information. Two modestly-paid part-time co-directors are chosen: Sheila Fergusson and Bill Riess.

December, 1971. The Newsletter announces that “after seven months of hard thinking and hard work The Psychotherapy Institute is under way with 74 active members! We are now at the point of planning an educational program and creating a clinic. This will be exciting work with many opportunities for creative participation by members.” Officers are nominated. The Vice President is to function as an ombudsman.

February 2, 1972. Coordinating Council meets. It is composed of co-directors, five committee heads, and four officers. The letterhead lists a clinical staff of 10, a teaching staff of 18 composed of 10 psychologists, three psychiatrists, and five social workers. The purpose of the Institute is stated as “to rigorously explore the theories and practices of psychotherapy, contributions and limitations, with an attitude of mutual support, but also of careful questioning of the body of knowledge and of ourselves, in order to increase our skills and effectiveness as therapists.” Criteria for membership are defined as 1) possession of a recognized clinical degree or credential plus supervised clinical experience, 2) agreement with the stated purposes of the Institute, 3) attendance at least one general meeting, and 4) payment of the $5 initial fee.

October 1972. Clinic opens in a space rented from Children’s Home Society on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland. On November 30, a letter to the mental health community announces opening of a clinic “for the practice of group, individual, family, conjoint and child therapy.... The clinic staff are involved in a planned advanced training program in psychotherapy. Half of their time will be spent seeing patients and half...in seminars and consultation....” Fees are on a sliding scale from $7.50 per session with a first appointment fee of $10 regardless of treatment modality or income.

1973. In process of incorporating as a non-profit organization. The Institute has 98 paid members, 10 trainees and “ 24 teaching and consultant staff from all disciplines, with wide theoretical and practical backgrounds.”

It is astonishing to recall that all this was accomplished by volunteers. The discrepancies between their intention and the realization of their goals, the inevitable interpersonal strains which developed, form yet another story. Reading these materials one becomes caught up in the drama of the creation of a new institution by a group of people who wished to generate energy and generosity of spirit.

Philosophically, we are currently asking ourselves some of the same questions our founders addressed. How do we retain respect for our traditions while we creatively develop new ones? The founders wanted a place and forum for diverse people, interests, theories, and modalities of treatment. Have we realized these goals, or have we changed them over the years? How do we keep clarifying our priorities within a process which encourages debate, discussion, honest differences? Part of this article’s intention has been to give us a base line of information about our past so that it will not be forgotten. I also hope that by making it available we can tap our history as a resource and inspiration. Our future and past are indeed intertwined. It is in that spirit that we reproduce in full the original Statement of Purpose which was mailed to all prospective members in 1971.