Christopher Christian, PhD
psychologist/psychoanalyst
New York / New Haven, CT
Dr. Christian, Ph.D. is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Psychoanalytic Psychology. He obtained a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts; earned a Certificate in Psychoanalysis from the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR), where he is past Dean, and a Training and Supervising Analyst. His most recent book, Psychoanalysis in the Barrios: Race, Class, and the Unconscious, with Patricia Gherovici, is the winner of the distinguished 2020 Gradiva Award, and winner of the American Board & Academy of Psychoanalysis Book Prize. He is co-editor of Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Conflict with Morris Eagle and David Wolitzky; and co-editor of The Second Century of Psychoanalysis: Evolving Perspectives on Therapeutic Action with Michael J. Diamond. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor, Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry; Faculty at the Western New England Psychoanalytic Society; Professor in the Contemporary Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy program, Ramon Llull University (Barcelona). He is member of the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies; the American Psychoanalytic Association; the International Psychoanalytical Association; and the Rapaport-Klein Study Group. His forthcoming book is titled: Psychoanalysis and the Corporeal: New Studies on the Psyche-Soma Connection, Somatization, and Body Dysmorphia to be published by Routledge.
"Since its origins, psychoanalysis has been faced with two crucial questions: are its theories universal or culturally determined? Should treatment be made available to all, and if so, at what cost? These questions continue to haunt contemporary psychoanalytic practice. Psychoanalysis in the Barrios: Race, Class, and the Unconscious presents a diverse array of responses to and provocative reformulations of these century-old concerns, as for instance whether there is a cultural specificity to Cuban scopophilic perversions, or how one offers treatment to impoverished, working-class urban Americans? How does contemporary fiction, art, and music help us understand these questions? Patricia Gherovici’s and Chris Christian’s edited volume should be required reading for all analytic trainees and students of psychology." -- Rubén Gallo, PhD, author of Freud’s Mexico: Into the Wilds of Psychoanalysis and member of the board, Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna
Working in and against a U.S. medical industrial complex that seeks to commodify every aspect of health—including mental health—this sui generis collection underscores how psychoanalysis is not only possible in the barrio but indeed indispensable to it. This book achieves something truly remarkable: the integration of critical race studies with psychoanalysis. It illustrates how a retooled psychoanalytic practice can be oriented toward progressive social transformations of race, gender, class, and capitalism for Latinidad.
-- David L. Eng, PhD, co-author of Racial Melancholia, Racial Dissociation: On the Social and Psychic Lives of Asian Americans
Bringing together outstanding contributions from some of the leading figures in the field, the editors have produced a superb volume that is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of psychoanalysis. -- Jeremy D. Safran, Ph.D., Chair & Professor of Psychology, The New School for Social Research
Christian, Eagle and Wolitzky have done an extraordinary service to the field by collecting essays from different psychoanalytic orientations-- Contemporary Freudian, Object Relations, Self Psychology, Relational, Lacanian and Attachment-- written by some of the most original thinkers in the field. Treatment issues are central, but the book also covers neurobiological and developmental issues as well. For psychoanalysts who long for dialogue across psychoanalytic orientations, this book is exemplary, and deserves a wide audience. --Elliot Jurist, PhD, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Philosophy, Graduate Center and the City College of New York, the City University of New York, and Editor of Psychoanalytic Psychology
“This inspired collection of essays written by faculty members of the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies (LAISPS) reviews core issues of psychoanalysis through new lenses while having the energy and passion of discussions behind it. Of immediate use to many in the field while offering a major contribution to psychoanalytic studies, the book clearly celebrates this distinctive psychoanalytical society while bringing the renewing visions of West Coast psychoanalysis to the world of psychoanalysis at large.” --Christopher Bollas, Ph.D., author, The Evocative Object World and The Infinite Question.
“Europeans are used to thinking about North American psychoanalysis as an archipelago of groups rather isolated from one another. In this innovative and very interesting text, we see influential Californian psychoanalysts accomplishing a great choral work to integrate the different theoretical-clinical trends with convincing and deeply harmonious results.” --Stefano Bolognini, M.D., author, Secret Passages: The Theory and Technique of Interpsychic Relations and President.
“Diamond and Christian's timely and well organized volume brings together a collection of thoughtful and engaging reflections on the nature of therapeutic change that take into account intrapsychic and intersubjective factors, insight and relationship, and the uniquencess of the individual dyad. This book will deepen our study of these healing processes.” --Lewis Aron, Ph.D., Director, NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.
“The papers in this volume provide one of the best available overviews of contemporary thinking about therapeutic action. This book will engage and inform anybody who is interested in the current state of clinical theory in psychoanalysis and dynamic psychotherapy by challenging us to think about what we do, why we do it, and what effect we are having on our patients.” --Jay Greenberg, Ph.D., author, Oedipus and Beyond: A Clinical Theory, and Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory (with Stephen Mitchell), and editor.
Attà Negri, Rachele Mariani, Annalisa Tanzilli, Alice Fiorini Bincoletto, Vittorio Lingiardi and Christopher Christian (in press). A Single Case Multimethod Assessment to Detect Significant Changes in the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Psychosomatic Disorders. Journal of Personality Assessment, https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2024.2312978.
Negri, A. and Christian, C. (2022). Changes in Clinical Process as a Result of Online Therapy: Findings from a Single Case Study. Psychodynamic Psychiatry, 50 (4), 659–671. https://doi.org/10.1521/pdps.2022.50.4.659
Negri, A., De Bei, F., Christian, C., Rocco, D. (2022). Relationship between countertransference and emotional communication in the counselling process. Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology, 10(3).
Mariani, R., Monaco, S., Christian , C., and Di Trani, M. (2021). Dreaming in quarantine: linguistic analysis of referential process of dreams during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Research in Psychotherapy: Psychopathology, Process and Outcome, 24(2). https://doi.org/10.4081/ripppo.2021.537
Christian, C., Barzilai, E., Nyman, J., and Negri, A. (2021). Assessing key linguistic dimensions of ruptures in the therapeutic alliance. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 50, 143–153 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-021-09768-1
Negri. A., Andreoli, G., Barazetti, A., Zamin, C., and Christian, C. (2020). Linguistic Markers of the Emotion Elaboration Surrounding the Confinement Period in the Italian Epicenter of COVID-19 Outbreak, Front. Psychol., 18 September 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.568281.
Dent, L. and Christian, C. (2019). The Shifting Prevalence of Conflict in Psychoanalytic Literature: A Brief Report of a Corpus-Based Text Analysis. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 36(2), 184–188. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pap0000220
Negri, A., Christian, C., Mariani, R., Belotti, L., and Andreoli, G., and Danskin, K.. (2019). Some Important Linguistic Features of the Therapeutic Alliance in the First Session. Research in Psychotherapy: Psychopathology, Process and Outcome, Vol., 22., https://doi.org/10.4081/ripppo.2019.374
Christian, C. (2015). Conflict Theory and Intersubjectivity. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 32, 608-625. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pap0000011
Christian, C. (2015). Punti di convergenza tra teoria del conflitto e intersoggettivita nella psicoanalisi contemporanea (Points of convergente between conflict theory and intersubjectivity in contemporary pychoanalysis). Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane, XLIX, (2), 201-220.
Harris, A., Lichtenstein, D., and Christian, C. (2015). To Whom Does the Subject Speak? Between the Relational and Lacanian Schools of Psychoanalysis: A Conversation with Adrienne Harris and David Lichtenstein, Moderated by Chris Christian. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 229-246.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15240657.2015.1107445
Christian, C., Hoffman, L., Bucci, W., Crimins, M. and Worth, M. (2010). Symbolization and Emotional Engagement in Mothers’ Reports of Child Care Activities. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 7(1), 22-39.
Christian, C. (2009). The Piano Teacher: A Case Study in Sadomasochism. The Psychoanalytic Review, 96, 774-786.
Christian, C. (2007). Sibling loss, guilt and reparation: A case study. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 88, 41-54.
Christian, C. and Jurist, E. (2001). The relevance of psychoanalytic ideas to crisis work. The Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless, 3, 1-25.
Friedman, R. C., Bucci, W., Christian, C., Drucker, P., and Garrison, B. III (1998). Private psychotherapy patients of psychiatrist psychoanalysts. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 1772 -1774.