The idea of the journal was proposed by Ernest Jones in a letter to Sigmund Freud dated 7 December 1918.

It incorporates the International Review of Psycho-Analysis, founded in 1974 by Joseph J. Sandler.

Past editors have included Ernest Jones, James Strachey, Joseph Sandler, David Tuckett, and Dana Birksted-Breen.

In 2013 the journal established the online open peer review, multi-language site IJP-Open.

With the IJP Annuals, papers from the journal are selected each year and translated into eight different languages: French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.