Scientific Meeting: Psychedelics and Psychoanalysis: Conflict or Confluence?

Daniel Brenner, M.D. is a board-certified psychiatrist and psychoanalyst with a private practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is the Founder and Medical Director at Cambridge BioTherapies, which offers ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, ketamine infusion therapy, and TMS. He received a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.D. from Tufts Medical School, and was a resident in Psychiatry at The Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School, where he served as Chief Resident in the Outpatient Department. Following residency, he was a Fellow at The Program For Psychotherapy at Cambridge Hospital. Dr. Brenner served as Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School from 2000-2010, and was a member of the teaching staff for the Introduction to Psychiatry course at Harvard Medical School. He is a graduate in psychoanalysis from the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and works with adult and adolescent patients in psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.

Charis Cladouhos, M.D. is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist and psychoanalyst with an interest in the treatment of trauma. She is also trained in EMDR, DBR, Ketamine and MDMA assisted psychotherapy. A faculty member at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and Tufts University School of Medicine, as well as the incoming Chair of the Psychoanalytic Special Interest Group for the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, Dr. Cladouhos has taught courses at BPSI on Developmental Trauma and Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy. She has been interviewed by the On the Couch IPA podcast on the topic of psychoanalysis and psychedelic-assisted therapy.  She has been course director of the Healer’s Art Elective at Tufts University School of Medicine and organized the first hospital-sponsored retreat for physicians at Tufts Medical Center during the pandemic. Dr. Cladouhos has a private practice in Waban, Massachusetts.

Lawrence Fischman, M.D. is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who practiced in New York and Maine for many years. In addition to his full-time private practice, he was a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center and later at Tufts University School of Medicine’s Maine Track program, where he currently serves on the admissions subcommittee. In 1983, Dr. Fischman published a paper comparing psychedelic drug states with dreams and psychosis in Schizophrenia Bulletin. He welcomes the recent resurgence of interest in the therapeutic uses of psychedelic drugs, and since retiring from practice in 2021 he has been co-teaching a course on the topic with Dr. Jeff Guss at Fluence and devoting more time to writing about psychedelics and psychoanalysis. He lives in coastal Maine, where he enjoys making pizza and designing with plants.

David Hellerstein, M.D. is a research psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He is Director of the Depression Evaluation Service (DES), which conducts studies of novel treatment of conditions including major depression, chronic depression, and bipolar disorder. Current and recent psychedelic studies include psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression (TRD); psilocybin for body dysmorphic disorder; psilocybin for anorexia nervosa; 5-MEO-DMT for treatment-resistant depression; and modifications of cognitive-behavioral therapy combined with psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression. Dr. Hellerstein has published over 150 scientific articles and book chapters on subjects including psychedelic drugs for treatment of psychiatric disorders, new medication and psychotherapy treatments of persistent depressive disorder and bipolar depression, neuroimaging of depression treatment, as well as supportive psychotherapy and behavioral activation therapy to improve outcomes of chronic mood disorders. His research has been published in JAMA Psychiatry, Molecular Psychiatry, Lancet Psychiatry, and other journals. His 2023 book The Couch, the Clinic, and the Scanner: Stories from Three Revolutionary Eras of the Mind uses narrative medicine techniques to explore the tumultuous changes in psychiatry in recent decades, with dominant models rapidly shifting from psychoanalytic, to DSM-based, to neuroscience-based, affecting definitions of disorders, and modalities and goals of treatment, and concluding with the still-undefined impact of resurging psychedelic interventions.

Shuli Sandler, Psy.D. is a clinical psychologist licensed to practice in New York and New Jersey. Her areas of specialty include working with the full age range of development from children through elder adulthood. She has experience diagnosing and treating anxiety disorders, depression, ADHD, Asperger’s, and academic difficulties. Dr. Sandler is a psychoanalyst and received her certification to practice psychoanalysis from New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute.  Dr. Sandler also provides psychedelic integration and Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.