Faculty

Steven Reisner, Ph.D.

Steven Reisner, PhD is a psychoanalyst, Freud scholar, podcaster, essayist and political activist. His psychoanalytic teaching and publications include a relational reading of Freud's theoretical and clinical writing, along with the political and cultural reasons for the suppression of this aspect of his work. Some were imposed by Freud himself, others by advocates of classical psychoanalysis.

Dr. Reisner is the recipient of Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology's (Division 39) Leadership Award, the New York State Psychological Association's Beacon Award, and the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis' Vision Award. He has published in Psychoanalytic Dialogues, JAPA, and Studies in Gender and Sexuality and as part of the series Couch in The New York Times.

Dr. Reisner has been a consultant on issues of trauma, torture, political violence, disaster, and resilience in the face of catastrophic events for the United Nations, the European Council, the International Criminal Court, the International Organization for Migrations and other international humanitarian and mental health organizations and has provided training for clinicians after disasters and political violence in Haiti, Kosovo, Kurdistan, Colombia, and Ethiopia.

Dr. Reisner is a founding member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology, Advisor on Psychology and Ethics for Physicians for Human Rights and past-President of Psychologists for Social Responsibility. Along with a small, dedicated group of psychologist-activists, Dr. Reisner fought to prohibit psychologists from continuing in their central role in abusive CIA and military interrogation and detention processes. As a result of these efforts, APA policy on psychologists' involvement in interrogations was changed, and psychologists were removed from detention operations at Guantanamo Bay.

His podcast, Madness: Where Psychology and Fascism Collide, has had over 80,000 downloads and has reached listeners in 112 countries. In addition to his publications in psychoanalytic journals, he has published widely, most recently on politics and psychoanalysis for Slate.com. In a former career, Dr. Reisner was an Obie award winning theater director, and more recently, co-producer on Michael Moore's documentary film, Fahrenheit 11/9.

For more information, email mrcinfo@mitchellrelationalcenter.org
A complete list of the Mitchell Center Faculty can be found here: Faculty Information