About The William Alanson White Institute


For more than 75 years, the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis & Psychology has distinguished itself as one of the world’s most prominent and respected psychoanalytic training and treatment centers. Our faculty and graduates continue to make major contributions to the professional literature and to assume significant leadership roles in academic and clinical training settings and in national and international professional organizations.

Education & Services

Our Mission

The William Alanson White Institute, founded in 1943, is committed to innovation in the theory and practice of Interpersonal Psychoanalysis. Our focus is on the person as a social being within the surrounding culture. We train mental health professionals to apply these principles in a broad array of clinical settings with diverse populations. Central to our mission is serving the public with a range of affordable clinical services. We create vibrant programs for professionals and the community at large. We believe that people, through the enhancement of their own capacities, may more fully cope with the problems of living and the challenges of simply being human.

Letter From the Executive Director

 Welcome to the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Psychology. For over 75 years, the Institute has distinguished itself as one of the world’s most prominent and respected psychoanalytic training and treatment centers. Our faculty and graduates continue to make major contributions to the professional literature and to assume significant leadership roles in academic and clinical training settings as well as in national and international professional organizations.
Our founders — including Harry Stack Sullivan, Erich Fromm, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, and Clara Thompson–were early pioneers of our “interpersonal” psychoanalytic perspective, underscoring the significance of relationships with other people and the role of social and cultural forces in personality development. We believe in the power of human relationships to harm and to heal, and that psychoanalysis and psychotherapy require the personal participation of the analyst in the treatment process.
Through the years, we have expanded the range of applications of Interpersonal psychoanalysis to include: psychotherapy; clinical work with children, adolescents, and families; the study of organizational dynamics; community mental health initiatives, and clinical work with specialized populations. Our award-winning low-cost treatment center, established in 1948 as one of the first in the United States, continues to provide affordable, personal care to patients and their families who would otherwise be unable to access such high quality services. We are internationally recognized and highly regarded for the singular quality of our professional training programs. As an autonomous non-profit institution, our tradition of academic excellence has enabled us to assume a leadership role among other institutions in our field.
We continue to provide specialized, humane services to people in difficulty, in contrast to prevailing trends in health care that often sacrifice individual dignity to bureaucracy, “quick fix” solutions, and cost savings. In addition to our well established training programs in psychoanalysis and in child and adolescent psychotherapy, our current initiatives include continuing education programs for practicing clinicians both in person and online, specialty training for work with people with eating disorders and addictions, a center for public mental health, and post-doctoral fellowship opportunities for psychologists. The Institute also offers week-long intensive seminars by special arrangement for colleagues and students from the international professional community. Our training programs and clinical services embody our core value of personal engagement with others. We remain committed to reflection, introspection, self-awareness, and deep regard for others as the basis for our professional work.
We invite you to explore our numerous training opportunities, to trust us to provide confidential and compassionate clinical services, or to contribute financial support for our excellent programs and low-cost clinic. Whether you are a student, a professional, an organizational representative, a prospective patient, or an interested donor, I welcome you to the William Alanson White Institute and encourage you to contact me with any questions at director@wawhite.org or (212) 873-0725 Ext. 15.

Elizabeth Krimendahl, Psy.D.

The Interpersonal Perspective

Our History

The Institute was founded in 1943 as a revolutionary alternative to mainstream, orthodox Freudian psychoanalysis in the United States, by Erich Fromm, Ph.D., Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, M.D., Harry Stack Sullivan, M.D., David Rioch, M.D., Janet M. Rioch, M. D., and Clara Thompson, M.D.

Today, we still represent the most progressive wing of the psychoanalytic profession in the country.

Learning and Giving Back

Our People

Many Institute graduates continue to remain actively involved with us in numerous capacities, an acknowledgement of the positive influence of psychoanalytic training in their professional and personal lives. Among other contributions, graduates serve as members of the faculty, as supervisors, or as psychoanalysts to current candidates. The administration and oversight of the Institute is provided by the Board of Trustees, the Council of Fellows, and numerous Standing Committees; many generously give their time and expertise pro bono.

Making Long-Term Connections

Institute Societies

The Institute’s educational programs foster a sense of community that begins in training and continues long after graduation. The Societies offer graduates of the analytic training program a professional, intellectual and social community that extends this connection through the sponsorship of colloquia, social and other events.

William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis & Psychology 20 West 74th Street, New York, NY 10023 | (212) 873-0725