Short presentation
Lithuanian Association for Analytical Psychology (LAAP) was founded in 2007, and in 2010 became a full member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP). In 2016, LAAP obtained the rights to train psychoanalysts with a Jungian orientation, ensuring the training adheres to international professional standards. Currently, our organization consists of 28 Jungian psychoanalysts, almost as many Jungian-oriented psychotherapists, and about 70 candidates participating in various stages of our training program.
Currently, our program is taught by Lithuanian psychoanalysts, as well as experienced psychoanalysts from Switzerland, Germany, the USA, etc. Students from Lithuania and neighbouring countries: Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus study in the LAAP program. We have a number of students who were forced to emigrate due to circumstances and are now studying in our program remotely.
We are happy that a number of C.G. Jung's works have been translated into Lithuanian, as well as books by contemporary authors such as V. Kast, D. Kalsched, L. Zoja and others, which help spread the ideas of analytical psychology to the Lithuanian public.
LAAP participate in diverse scientific research projects. Several doctoral theses were written and successfully defended at Vilnius University, based on the paradigm of analytical psychology. LAAP members research such scientific topics as: the dynamics of authority and the father complex, overcoming long-term traumatic effects, issues of transformation of aggression, the importance of the gender factor in overcoming crises, etc. Asta Adler, Ieva Bieliauskienė, Neringa Grigutytė, Gražina Gudaitė, Juliana Lozovska, Dovilė Petronytė-Kvedarauskienė, Goda Rukšaitė actively participated in projects, developing links between scientific research and analytical psychology.
Gražina Gudaitė has written several books on the topic of analytical psychology, and is also the author of many articles in scientific journals and collective monographs (see more in the Research section).
The beginning
The emergence of analytical psychology in Lithuania is closely related to the changes that began after liberation from the Soviet regime. The connection with the international community of Jungian analysts was an important factor in the development of analytical psychology in Lithuania. The first workshop took place in 1990, led by Tomas Kapačinskas and Judith Roberts from Chicago. The roots of Tom's family are in Lithuania. He was the first professional Jungian psychoanalyst who came to Lithuania, conducted seminars here, took care of sending books to Lithuania, assisted Lithuanian psychologists in creating opportunities for internships overseas. Tomas Kapačinskas organized the first study program, during which Catherine Asper and Elizabeth Hartung from Zurich, Nora Hall from Minnesota, Boris Mathews from Chicago and others conducted seminars for the Lithuanian group for a whole decade. In 1992, Tomas Kapačinskas, in cooperation with the IAAP administration (Tom Kirch and Verena Kast), invited psychologists from the post-Soviet bloc to the IAAP world congress in Chicago, where the possibilities of professional training and assistance for individuals from Eastern Europe began to be discussed.
Training professional analysts: history and present
In 1992 at the IAAP Chicago Congress, Eastern European representatives raised two fundamental questions. First, how to get involved in analytical psychology training and how to become a professional Jungian psychoanalyst. Second, how to become part of the international analytical psychology community. The IAAP has carefully examined these issues and proposed several avenues for professional training. One of the ways was to provide an opportunity for Eastern Europeans to study in Western institutes. The representatives of Lithuania used all the opportunities offered. Gražina Gudaitė, a member of the LAAP, attended the analyst training program at the C.G. Jung Institute in Chicago from 1994 to 1995, continued her studies in Zurich from 1996 to 1999, and became an individual member of the IAAP in 2001. In addition to internships abroad, we invited visiting analysts and organized seminars in Lithuania. In 1992, the visiting analyst, Catherine Asper from Zurich, played a crucial role in forging a lasting professional collaboration between the Lithuanian group and the Zurich School analysts.
Our group is especially grateful to Gert Sauer and his wife Rodtraud, who conducted many seminars in Lithuania. They have emerged as genuine intermediaries in establishing connections with IAAP analysts. They established a foundation that supported analytical psychology initiatives in Eastern Europe. G. and R. Sauer contributed a lot so that Lithuanian representatives could have individual supervisions abroad, could participate in international conferences and seminars.
Over two decades, 12 individuals have successfully completed the analyst training program and become internationally recognized Jungian analysts. In addition to training seminars held in Lithuania, conducted by visiting analysts from the IAAP, and later by analysts from the newly established Lithuanian Association of Analytical Psychology (LAAP), our trainees had the opportunity to regularly participate in individual supervisions in Freiburg, Frankfurt, Zurich, Tel Aviv, Stuttgart, Berlin, etc. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the IAAP Executive Committee for their support in this project. Personally to Verena Kast, Murray Stein, Joe Cambray and Tom Kelly who have been very helpful in organizing the various stages of individual membership. We are very grateful to Mario Jacoby, Catherine Asper, Verena Kast, Elizabeth Hartung, Ursula Wirtz, Alice Merc, John Hill, Andreas Mitchel from Zurich, Gert Sauer, Gidon Horowitz, Ingrid Riedel, Viktor Zielen, Ursula Bernauer, Anneliese Guerin, Irene Berkenbusch from Germany, Henrik Abramovich and Ester Morris from Israel, Tatiana Rudakova from St. Petersburg, JoAnn Culbert - Koehn from Los Angeles for the inspiring work with candidates from Lithuania..
Long-term relationships with IAAP Jung analysts have allowed us to develop and implement our own training program, which is now recognized as successful. We have about 70 candidates at various stages of the program. Now most of the work is done by Lithuanian analysts, but every year we invite guest analysts who conduct seminars for our community and also take part in exams. Marianne Mueller, Tom Kelly, Kristina Schellinski, Mark Winborn, David Tacey, and others have contributed greatly to our work in recent years.
Our society is expanding. We are glad that a number of colleagues from Latvia have successfully completed the analyst training program. They are currently preparing documents to become members of the IAAP group. We are very proud of this and wish them every success in developing their ideas.
Other activities
For more than a decade, Lithuanian analysts have organized series of public lectures for those interested in C.G. Jung's theory. These lecture cycles are organized by Elona Lovčikienė, and the lectures are given by all LAAP analysts. The shadow and its expression, the importance of the symbol for the development of awareness, the phenomenology of change, cultural trauma and they consequences - these are only a very small part of the topics that were analysed in those lectures. Public lectures play a crucial role in public education and in invigorating theoretical paradigms by linking fundamental assumptions with contemporary issues.
Every summer we hold summer camps that have grown into regional conferences. At these events, we aim to reflect and discuss relevant topics such as resilience, gender equality, ecology, etc. Goda Rukšaitė, Gražina Gudaitė, Dovilė Petronytė-Kvedarauskienė, Rasa Šilalytė and many others contribute significantly to the continuation of this activity.
Lithuanian analysts actively participate in international conferences, and also take part in organizing international events in Lithuania. In 2009, Vilnius hosted the first European conference on analytical psychology titled "Dialogue at the Threshold between East and West: Past, Present, and Future of Cultural Identity." On this occasion, we would like to express our special thanks to Murray Stein, who not only conducted many seminars in Lithuania, but also did a great job in organizing the first European conference. The conference's name reflects the central theme that is significant to our endeavors. We feel fortunate to have engaged in dialogue with diverse analysts of our time who are concerned with psychotherapy and culture, possess a profound comprehension of current issues, their historical ties, and the concept of identity within the context of globalization.
Scientific research
Another important event for us was the joint conference of IAAP and Vilnius University " Psychotherapy and cultural research " (Vilnius, 2018). We wish to express our heartfelt gratitude to IAAP President Marianne Muller and her administration for their support in organizing conferences like these, recognizing the significance of building bridges between clinicians and researchers dedicated to integrating the principles of analytical psychology with contemporary research. Members of our Society understand the importance of scientific research and have participated in many of them, both as researchers and as participants. One of our most recent projects was devoted to researching the concept of core psychotherapist competencies and their integration in practice. Competence integration is important when considering the effectiveness of analytical psychotherapy, the training of suitable specialists, and the administration of psychotherapeutic assistance. We are pleased that, based on the results of the research, it was possible to create a book that was published by the Routledge publishing house and was recognized internationally (Exploring core competencies in Jungian Psychoanalysis: Research, Practice and Training (ed. G. Gudaitė, T. Kelly, Routledge, 2023).
Challenges and Concluding Remarks
One of the biggest challenges we are currently facing is the war in Ukraine. All members of our group expressed their support for the Ukrainians in various ways. We try to maintain dialogue and contribute to their initiatives. Ukrainians participate in our training programs. The war changed life, as well as teaching conditions. Sometimes it is not possible to regularly plan activities and meet the requirements that would be important in peacetime. Yet, colleagues from Ukraine convey that even amid war, they seek moments that resemble normalcy. Being able to learn is one way to achieve these moments. We all try to do what we can, and hope that moments of reflection on Jung's studies and experiences, even in the most difficult conditions, can provide an impetus for hope and continuity...
All members of our society have private practices and most of them teach in the analyst training program. We continue our cooperation with IAAP, our member Gražina Gudaitė was elected vice-president of IAAP at the Buenos Aires Congress. In addition to working in the training program, our analysts Asta Adler and Elona Lovčikienė became coordinators of IAAP and development groups in Poland and Slovakia respectively. Our analysts Algis Petronis, Goda Rukšaitė, Dovilė Petronytė-Kvedarauskienė, Dalia Beniušytė, Anžela Rybakovienė and many others provide supervision and personal analysis to IAAP training program candidates from Poland, Ukraine, Kemerovo, etc.
We are living in an era of global transformation. We all hope that increasing awareness and connectedness can unlock new resources to help meet the challenges of our time.
Goda Rukšaitė, president of LAAP,
Gražina Gudaitė, chairwoman of the LAAP training committee
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