Noël 2004, Anne devant son ordinateur, devant le massif du Mont Blanc. (Photo de Jean Philippe Azaïs).

IAGP

Historique IAGP publié dans "Forum 2002"

Report from the IAGP Archivist Anne Ancelin Schützenberger-August 2001

Encounter (1950)  and Precursors

During the 1950 1st International Congress of Psychiatry (Paris, October 1950, general secretary: Pr. J. Favez Boutonier) - and especially during the 2nd International Congress of Criminology (organized by Pierre Piprot d’Alleaumes, o.p.), and its psychiatry section, Moreno suggested to have an international association of group psychotherapy (in 1952, Slavson initiated separately to have one).

Already during World War II, Moreno’s ideas on sociometry and its techniques were used to select officers for the American army - and S.H. Foulkes used groups for therapy in the British army, and Kurt Lewin’s ideas to try to change food habits of American civil population. At the end of the war the Tavistock Clinic created the Tavistock Institute (London, UK) and with the Research Centre for Group Dynamics (Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA) created a review: "Human Relations" for research and applied research to industry("action methods", "action research").

 The American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama was founded in 1941 by J.L. Moreno. The American Group Psychotherapy Association was founded in 1942.

Informal    Committee  (1951)

 J.L.Moreno had numerous exchanges (in 1950 and 1951) with Juliette Favez-Boutonier (Psychoanalyst and Professor of Psychology at the Sorbonne), Serge Lebovici, S.H.Foulkes, J.Bierer, Georges Gurvitch [being at that time a student of psychology, I happened to have been asked to put together (edit) all the papers for publication of the Proceedings as a 5 volumes PUF books, and  having met Moreno in Beacon in January 1951, thus started relations with them: an informal work group].

They created a First Committee on group psychotherapy (Paris,1951) mentioned by J.L.Moreno as "the first official step".

First Congress (1954) and Council (1957)

An International Committee for Group Psychotherapy was created at the 1st International Congress on group psychotherapy (Toronto,1954) (with tensions already between Slavson and Moreno, a European Committee helped a little to ease the tensions-thus we held the next congress in Zurich, with Friedmann’s help, and started to work for an international organization).

In 1957, the International Committee became The International Council of Group Psychotherapy (during the Zurich 2d Congress).

Second: Zurich (1957), 3rd: Milano (1963) (where someone suggested to J.L. Moreno to organize in Paris the First International Congress of Psychodrama, (Paris, September 1964, organized by Anne Schützenberger: 1200 participants and 28 Countries).

4th: Vienna (1968), then again Zurich, 5th: Zurich (1973).

IAGP (1973)  

During this (5th) 1973 Zurich congress, IAGP (the International Association of Group Psychotherapy) was co-founded by J.L.Moreno (1889-1974, USA), who became honorary president, A.Friedmann (Switzerland), who became treasurer, Anne Schützenberger (France), who became honorary general secretary, Raymond Battegay (Switzerland), who later became general secretary, with A.Schützenberger, Samuel Hadden (USA), who became president), Raoul Schindler(Austria), S.H.Foulkes (UK), Joshua Bierer (UK), Jay Fidler (USA), Zerka Moreno (USA), Grete Leutz (Germany), Ambros Uchtenhagen (Switzerland), Anne-Lise Heigel-Evers (Germany): a dozen co-founders (Incorporated according to the Swiss Civil Code, by Raymond Battegay).

Next meetings in Nice and/or Madrid had to be cancelled  and the next one was 6th: Philadelphia, August 1977; 7th: Copenhagen,1980; 8th: Mexico, 1984; 9th:Zagreb, 1986; 10th: Amsterdam, 1989; 11th: Montreal, 1992; 12th:Buenos-Aires, 1995; 13th: London, 1998; 14th: Jerusalem, 2000;    15th to be in Istanbul, 2003.

 In 1993, in the Heidelberg IAGP Board meeting, IAGP started 2 sections: Group Analysis (co-chair:  Malcolm Pines and Juan Campos) and Psychodrama (co-chair: Grete Leutzand and David Kipper, who started the first Newsletter) and later: Family Therapy (co-chair: Alberto Serrano and Susana Bullrich); later: organizational consultation (co-chair: Earl Hopper and Isaiah Zimmermann), System Centered Group Psychotherapy (co-chair: Yvonne Agazarian and Fran Carter, 1995)  and at present it has 4: Group-Analysis (chair: Göran Ahlin), Psychodrama (Sue Daniel), Family Therapy (Richard Reposa), Organizations (Marianne Wiktorin); a Transcultural section or committee is being considered.

There are actually around 400 paying IAGP members and many more still unpaid.

Each section has special extra means of exchanges: Psychodramatists have created IPN (International Psychodrama Network), including also students and interested persons *Ana Aguirragabiria). Many group therapist correspond via "grouptherapy" *Haim Weinberg, group analysts via "group analysis" and regional meetings and associations (ie FEPTO: European Federation of psychodrama training schools and org.),  Pacific Rim conferences. [Group Analysts and Social Psychologists working with Organizations or in industry have their own associations and journals since 1960], and there is also an International Journal of social psychology (Paris)].

The President of IAGP (Sabar Rustomjee) and its Board elected Anne Schützenberger (France-one of the co-founders) in August 2000 as Archivist:  

I have started to collect real archives, and have some of Elisabeth Foulkes (main part of Foulkes archives are at the Welcome Institute for History of Medicine, London). J.L. Moreno archives are at Harvard Medical School, (but without an archivist), Anne Schützenberger donated her personal library at the Historical Center for research on group psychotherapy of Quebec University at Trois Rivières, Canada (Pr René Marineau obtained rooms and a university paid archivist) and Zerka Moreno’s are going there too). We are in regular contact - Pr René Marineau is building serious archives and a serious reference library in English and French. I still have some unclassified archives from 1950 on.

Some of us have printed articles on the history of group psychotherapy: Hadden, Moreno, Miers, Schützenberger, Battegay, Fonseca, Campos (a booklet); some of us have chapters about history in their books, (ie René Marineau, Ancelin) and I am trying to have a collected archives. It would be nice to find some university archiving possibility for it;  and receive more official archives to add to it.

By real archives, I mean papers, articles, books really published in their time, as well as congress programs and Proceedings and official paperhead(s) and Congress Posters. [personal papers, exchange of letters are important of course, as much as films and video tapes, personal recall of events are very interesting to hear and keep, but their historical value has less official credit for the future generations]. 

Archives must be originals, factual and updated, kept in working order and available for references and study.

History, past history of persons and families, as well as past  history of countries and organisations is important, and thus objective archives. For the future, to keep archives available and secure, let us all think of possibilities, like university (with an archivist provided) or the historical library that René Marineau  is building in the University of Quebec (Canada), or ask if the Group Analytic Institute has/will have a library with a librarian or try to find a stable space, like a university. [All good ideas are welcome, please].

One other possibility is too, to print regularly history of group psychotherapy in available books  and to always add the 12 names of the 1973 IAGP co-founders and the 3 dates (1950, 1954, 1973) on all brochures and paperhead of IAGP, with the past presidents(°) (and eventually the past Vce-Pts).

As the British song goes: "Make new friends, but keep the old: the ones are silver, but the others are gold".

And as the French poet Char says: "You sing better in the branches of your family tree”.

(*)At the beginning, IAGP had Vice-Presidents (one then 2), none actually.

 As I do not have at hand the names of all the vice-presidents of IAGP, I cannot be unfair, and put only some [but Zerka Moreno (1984) and Anne Ancelin Schutzenberger (1977-80)  were the psychodrama vice-Presidents].

The European  Federation of Teaching Organizations and schools of psychodrama (FEPTO) was initiated by Grete Leutz and Pierre Fontaine, and the East European training by Goran Högberg  in 1988+1992, with the help of a grant from Sweden and many leading psychodramatists invited to teach.

Section de psychodrame, de groupe analyse, de thérapie familiale…

Congrès :

Council

 IAGP

 Fondateur:

 Présidents et vices présidents :

   [1] Pour des raisons géographiques,  de nombreux vice-présidents ne pouvaient assister au comité exécutif, qui décide en 1991 de replacer ce poste par le président élu pour le congrès suivant. [Cette mesure sera effective en 1995].

Avec l'aide de Howard Kiebel,IAGP secrétaire général, 2003 et de ses archives

 Skipper bénévole, croisière voil