An unconventional psychoanalytic community challenging family norms and embracing free love.
The Sullivan Institute for Research in Psychoanalysis, founded in 1957 by Saul Newton and Jane Pearce, was a unique psychoanalytic community based in New York City. It was known for its radical views on the nuclear family, therapy practices, and social organization. The institute, which flourished from the late 1950s through the 1980s, was built on the premise that traditional family structures and monogamous relationships were oppressive constructs that hindered personal and societal growth. The founders, influenced by the work of Harry Stack Sullivan, developed a model of communal living and therapy that aimed to liberate individuals from these traditional bonds.
Therapy and Community Life
The core philosophy of the Sullivan Institute centered around the belief that the nuclear family was a “death trap” restricting individual growth and perpetuating capitalist values. Therapy sessions encouraged members to pursue their desires freely, break away from familial and societal expectations, and engage in multiple sexual relationships as a form of political and personal liberation. This approach was seen as a pathway to personal revolution, offering patients infinite opportunities for growth through regular therapy, free love, and detachment from exclusive emotional attachments.
Members lived communally in shared apartments on the Upper West Side, maintaining a lifestyle that included mandatory weekly therapy sessions, sexual freedom, and a structured social calendar filled with study dates, parties, and group activities. The therapists and members of the institute formed a closely-knit community, often engaging in sexual relationships with each other and participating in a training program for selected patients to become therapists themselves.
Financial and Social Control
The institute exerted significant control over its members’ lives, including their finances and relationships. Members were often directed towards specific jobs to financially support the community and were encouraged to sever ties with family members outside of the institute. This control extended to mandating how members should interact with each other, discouraging any form of exclusive relationship, or “focus,” to ensure a broad network of connections within the community.
Controversies and Decline
Despite its ideals of liberation and growth, the Sullivan Institute faced criticism for its practices, which many saw as manipulative and abusive. Therapists wielded considerable influence over members, engaging in sexual relationships with patients and enforcing a regime that isolated members from the outside world. The community’s approach to parenting was particularly controversial, with children often sent to boarding schools to prevent dependency and members sometimes losing custody due to the institute’s teachings.
The institute’s decline began in the late 1980s, with key members leaving and public scrutiny increasing. The death of Saul Newton in 1991 marked the end of the Sullivan Institute as a cohesive community, although its legacy continues to be debated by former members and observers.
image via nymag
