ABSTRACT
The establishment of the German Institute for Psychological Research and Psychotherapy in 1936 marked the true beginning of the rather exceptional process of professionalization that psychotherapists experienced in the Third Reich. This unprecedented institutionalization of psychotherapy in Germany allowed the psychotherapists for the first time to exercise de facto control over the training and practice of their discipline. This control was not legally exclusive since psychotherapy could be taught and practiced outside of the Göring Institute, but the institute did represent a central locus for the discipline during the nine years of its existence. The creation of the institute also opened the door to increasing levels of funding from various agencies of the state and the military. While the German General Medical Society remained a “purely scientific” organization without any legal professional capacities, 1 the Göring Institute constituted an entity that put professional meat on the bones of a scientific society. In order to ensure this status, Göring insisted on the complete independence of the institute from society and its status as a national group within an international body. 2
