The Wright Institute is a Clinical Psychology Graduate School located in Berkeley, California.
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The Institute was founded by Nevitt Sanford in 1968 when he left Stanford. His approach was motivated by the desire to reinvigorate the "conversation" between Marx and Freud and that graduate schools had become "too narrow in their thinking, the problems they approached, and their student body".[1]
At its outset the program was interdisciplinary. Faculty members were drawn from a range of disciplines including sociology, philosophy, and history. Only a few were psychologists. The structure of the program was "spare" with only four required courses. Two of these were "Psychopathology" and a course that criticized the notion of "Psychopathology". Alongside the Institute was a clinic in which students and faculty could practice. Students were required to write a thesis. Until 1985 it was possible to practice psychology in California if one had a PhD in any field, and passed the State Board exams. The Institute was recognized as a leading center for "critical psychoanalysis" and the place for people who already had PhDs in other fields, like sociology, literature or history.
Since its inception, the Institute has gone through various incarnations, with extensive changes in governance, faculty and philosophy. The most notable change was in 1995, when the earlier PhD program, focused on psychology as inherently critical and multidisciplinary, became an APA accredited PsyD program, with a complete change in curriculum and nearly complete change in faculty. Recent changes have included the establishment of an MA program in Counseling Psychology.[2]
Today, the institute claims to teach the "scientific knowledge base of clinical psychology" and to "enrich that learning by exploring the meanings of students' own experiences in relationships with clients".[2] It has around 40 full and part-time faculty and offers programs in Clinical Psychology. The Institute is also accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
In a ranking of US and Canadian clinical psychology doctoral programs by the Social Psychology Network based on how well their graduates performed on the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP) from 1988 to 1995 the Wright Institute was ranked 163rd out of 183.[3]