‘Institutional Psychotherapy Does Not Exist!’

Abstract

Paying careful attention to the multiple meanings the word ‘institution’ has in French, this article traces the development of institutional psychotherapy’s clinical practice. Through a close reading of Jean Oury’s seminars and clinical writing alongside other key members of the GTPSI (Groupe de travail de psychothérapie et de sociothérapie institutionnelles or Working Group on Institutional Psychotherapy and Socio- therapy), this article argues that institutional psychotherapy’s specificity is in the way in which the clinical and the political are able to connect their praxis.