[The Stuttgart Psychotherapeutic Institute, Wolfgang Loch and the beginnings of the DPV-Study Group Stuttgart-Tübingen. Historical essay of an eye witness]

Abstract

During the Nazi-regime, the Stuttgart Psychotherapeutic Institute (1948-1970) had a memorable precursor which was a branch of the Berlin "Göring-Institut". Its stated goal to be a "synoptic" institute that combined Freud, Jung and Adler is discussed. Then the crisis triggered by Wolfgang Loch in 1964 is focussed on. It is shown how Loch tried to create a kind of Tavistock clinic with himself as director, how the board and the members warded this off, how old conflicts between the two German psychoanalytic societies came into play, and how the synoptic institute finally, in an exciting process of separation and individuation, changed to a new structure with three departments: a Freudian group, a neo-analytic group and a Stuttgart group. In conclusion a glance is cast at the early history of the "Study Group Stuttgart-Tübingen, Institute of the German Psychoanalytic Association", founded in 1971.