Cross-Institution Psychoanalytic Social Network

In collaboration with Birkbeck's Centre for Psychosocial Research, the Cross-Institution Psychoanalytic Social Network is a platform for those engaged in psychoanalytic and psychosocial study, research, and practice to meet across institutional boundaries. Psychoanalysis today is taught, researched, and practiced in a wide range of settings — universities, clinical training organisations, community projects, and interdisciplinary programmes — yet opportunities for sustained cross-institutional exchange remain limited.

This network creates a shared space where people working with psychoanalysis can connect, exchange perspectives, and develop collective orientations toward the future of the field.

Participants include members of psychoanalytic and psychosocial programmes at Birkbeck, UCL, Essex, Edinburgh, CFAR, and other institutions.

The network supports two closely connected forms of activity:

Cross-Institution Social and Academic Exchange (2025): Regular events bring together participants from different programmes and institutions to introduce their work, share research and training experiences, and discuss contemporary questions in psychoanalysis. These gatherings create opportunities to meet peers beyond one's home institution and to build a wider sense of the psychoanalytic landscape.

Careers, Practice, and Professional Pathways (2026): The network also hosts events focused on how psychoanalysis is pursued in practice today. Early-career researchers, trainees, and practitioners share their experiences of navigating academic, clinical, community, and hybrid professional roles. These conversations offer students insight into the many ways psychoanalytic thinking can be carried forward, and into how careers are shaped in real institutional and social conditions.