The Pearl King Archive Trust was established in 2002 by Ms Pearl King, founder of The British Psychoanalytical Society Archive as it exists today.
In 1984, following her term as President of the British Psychoanalytical Society, Ms Pearl King began work to establish a formal archive service with a modern computerised catalogue. With a dedicated cohort of at least 14 members and staff, she set about organising and indexing the Society’s amassed papers onto a computer database.
The technology was primitive and the work was time-consuming and yet during the year Pearl and her team also assisted the European Psychoanalytic Federation, The International Psychoanalytical Association and what was then the Sigmund Freud Society in Vienna in doing the same.
In 2002 Pearl set up The Pearl King Archive Trust with the aim of increasing the knowledge of psychoanalysis, through archive research, to improve treatment of nervous and mental disturbances.
Pearl died in 2015 leaving an important legacy to the archive and to the psychoanalytic community.
The Trust's stated aims & activities are:
- Preservation of psychoanalytical archives.
- To increase public access to The British Psychoanalytical Society Archive.
The Trust's objectives are to:
- Increase the knowledge of the branch of science known as psycho-analysis.
- Improve the treatment of nervous and mental disturbances by the technique of psychoanalysis by the acquisition, conservation, preservation and protection of the archives, and by their use and exploration (especially for research).
Funds in the Trust are actively managed and may be used for specific archive-related projects such as:
- Cataloguing of collections.
- Conservation programmes or equipment.
- Enhancement of display or exhibition areas.
- Capital programmes.
If you would like to make a donation to The Pearl King Archive Trust to support the work of The British Psychoanalytical Society Archive, we will be delighted to hear from you.
Please send us a message at archives@iopa.org.uk
or call us on +44 (0)20 7563 5010
Archivist: Ewan O'Neill, MSc (City Lond), RMARA
Chair of the archives committee: Dr. Christine English
The Pearl King Archive Trust is registered with the Charity Commission for England & Wales, Charity number 212330-2