The SFCP Library

The SFCP Library supports the research of faculty, candidates, and community members at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. Library users can access the collection in several ways—by visiting the physical library, browsing our online catalog, using our online resources, or making requests via email and phone.

The library contains over 13,000 items. Some of these resources cover psychotherapy and psychology in general, but the majority relate specifically to the study of psychoanalysis. The Library holds a non-circulating reference journal collection of roughly 160 titles, which contains material related to subject areas within psychoanalysis: child psychiatry, gender studies, and specific theoretical orientations in the field (such as Klein, Bion, and Lacan). Patrons can visit the library in person or receive requested books through mail, and receive journal articles or book chapters through mail or email. A full list of our services is available at our services page.

Journals are some of the most heavily used items in the Center’s collection. In addition to the Library’s long list of reference journals (which can also be found on SFCP’s online catalog), the Library maintains circulation copies of several titles as well: the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, JAPA,Psychoanalytic Quarterly, and the Psychoanalytic Study of the Child. Circulating journals provide members and candidates with the convenience of borrowing a current copy for offsite research use.

SFCP is a member of the Northern California Consortium of Psychological Libraries and the San Francisco Biomedical Library Network. These memberships provide us with free interlibrary loan service, giving SFCP patrons the convenience of accessing material from most of the Bay Area’s psychological libraries for a nominal fee (the SFCP Library charges patrons only $5.00 for this service to cover staff time spent searching area libraries’ catalogs for requested material). SFCP is part of the National Library of Medicine’s Docline service, which enables us to obtain articles that are unavailable through local consortiums via this national service.