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Tucked away on the seventh floor of the Gothic Willoughby Tower on Michigan Avenue is the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute’s Helen McLean Library.
Founded in 1932 by Sigmund Freud’s first graduate, Franz Alexander, the Institute’s mission is dedicated to advancing the knowledge of human feelings, thoughts, and behavior to improve people’s lives.
The Institute’s library houses one of the largest collections of psychoanalytic literature in the world, including special collections by Bion, Freud, Klein, Kohl, and Winnicott. The collection features various forms of media, including taped therapy sessions by notable psychoanalysts such as Anna Freud and miniature children’s toys used in the founding of the Child Analysis Program at the Institute over 80 years ago.
Today, the Institute is dedicated to diversifying the clinicians that they have, focusing on reaching clinicians of color early on in their careers. As in any library, it’s important that people see themselves reflected in stories—at the Institute, it’s their same belief that people should be able to get treated by people who look like them.
Learn more about the Helen McLean Library at https://chicagoanalysis.org/library/.