I am a psychiatrist – certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and a psychoanalyst – certified by the American Psychoanalytic Association, the American Board of Psychoanalysis, the Council of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies, and the International Psychoanalytic Association. I have been in private practice for 46 years, been teaching at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia since 1987, and am currently a part-time Full Professor of Psychiatry there. Since 1996, I have also been an IPA Training and Supervising Analyst with the Contemporary Freudian Society in Washington, DC.
Early in my career, while in child psychoanalytic training, I was a consultant to Child Protection Centers for the state of Louisiana, designated a Sexual Abuse Treatment Resource, and evaluated over 5,000 cases of child abuse over a 10-year period. In 2016, with Dr. Kathleen Dring, I co-wrote about Child Abusers in Sexual Aggression against Children: Pedophiles’ and Abusers’ Development, Dynamics, Treatability and the Law (New York: Routledge, 2016). The book has been translated into Mandarin and is now being considered for publication by East China Normal University Press.

In the early 1980’s, I was appointed Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Dermatology at Tulane Medical School in New Orleans, where I consulted to the Psoriasis Center and taught psychiatry and dermatology residents.

In 1986, with my wife, Susan, I moved from New Orleans to Virginia Beach, Virginia, where I became Associate Professor of Psychiatry at EVMS. In 1987, I published my first paper, on Character Traits Underlying Self-neglect and their Connection with Heart Disease in J Louisiana State Medical Society.

In 2003, my paper on countertransference was published in the Psychoanalytic Quarterly. I later published book chapters on laziness, shame, philandering, and anxiety.
In about 2007-8, I was recruited to teach for the China American Psychoanalytic Alliance (CAPA), eventually becoming a board member and originating their 3rd year course. After the publication of 101 Defenses in Chinese in 2011, I left CAPA and began teaching online for other groups. I visited China for the first time in 2009, lecturing at Peking University Dept of Psychology, Fu Dan Medical University in Shanghai, and at Zhe Jiang Medical School in Hangzhou.

Since then, I have returned frequently to China, and have taught 3-year courses (online and on-site in China) in dynamic psychotherapy at Shanghai Mental Health Center (Jiao Tong Medical School), Nanjing Yang Juan Group, Hangzhou Wang Shaoyu Group, Shenyang-Laobixi Group, and Hangzhou Lingyu International Psychology Center. I have also given courses at Tongji University, Jiaxing group, Kang Ning Hospitals in Hangzhou & Wenzhou, and Changzhou Military Hospital.

In 2018, I was appointed, through a Harvard University—Shanxi Medical University conjoint program, Distinguished Professor of Mental Health at Shanxi Medical University First Hospital. I am now completing that project, which has involved four visits to Taiyuan for 5-day teaching programs as well as online teaching.

In 2019, I was honored to be a keynote speaker at the 6th China Psychoanalytic Association’s Convention in Shanghai, where I presented a paper on Dynamic Supervision based on the Developmental Level of the Supervisee.

Rewards include: the Edith Sabshin MD Award for Teaching given by the American Psychoanalytic Association; the Gold Medal Award from the American College of Psychoanalysts (honorary society of psychiatrist-psychoanalysts); the Laughlin Distinguished Teacher Award from the American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians. In 2018, Shanxi Province granted me the honor of “High End Foreign Talent.”

I have authored 3 books which have been translated into Mandarin:
101 Defenses: How the Mind Shields Itself. (Shanghai: East China Normal University Press, 2011. 2nd Edition, with new translation April 2021).
Get the Diagnosis Right: Assessment and Treatment Selection for Mental Disorders (Beijing: Capital Normal University Press, 2018. 2nd Edition, with new translation planned for 2022).
Solutions to Difficult Problems in Psychotherapy (Beijing: Capital Normal University Press, 2016).

I grew up around New York City, then attended Cornell University where he majored in science and languages. I then studied medicine at Tulane Medical School in New Orleans and took his psychiatry residency at Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans, and received analytic fellowship training through the American Psychoanalytic Association, at the New Orleans Institute.