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The exhibit “Cleveland on the Couch: 75 Years of Psychoanalysis in Cleveland,” is open at Hanna Perkins Center for viewing and educational events. Developed by Vera Camden and Valentino Zullo, it explores the establishment of the psychoanalytic community in Northeast Ohio and its close connections with Sigmund Freud’s family.

The exhibit highlights activities of Hanna Perkins Center, the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center and the Center for Psychoanalysis in the Department of Literature at Kent State University. It includes correspondence, books, early published papers, artwork and other fascinating artifacts – many borrowed from Hanna Perkins’ own archive.

It covers Sigmund Freud’s writings outlining why psychoanalysis has much to offer society in general; and those endorsing the idea that social workers and other non-MD’s be trained as psychoanalysts. The exhibit highlights the involvement of psychoanalysts in social movements and education as it follows the migration of the psychiatric specialty from Vienna to Cleveland with husband-and-wife psychoanalysts Drs. Maurits and Anny Katan.

A contemporary and lifelong friend of Anna Freud (Sigmund Freud’s daughter and close collaborator), Dr. Anny founded Hanna Perkins School in 1951.

Today, Hanna Perkins and the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center are partners in offering The Cleveland Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Training Program; and our work with children and families is still based on psychoanalytic understandings.

This exhibit was originally displayed at the National Museum of Psychology at the University of Akron over the 2021-22 winter. Hanna Perkins Consulting Therapist Barbara Streeter, who is a CPC board member, led the work to set up the exhibit at Hanna Perkins. It’s now open by appointment for individuals and small groups.

To schedule a viewing, contact Barbara Streeter by phone (216-991-4472) or email.