Welcome

It is my honor to introduce you to the Contemporary Freudian Society, an extraordinary psychoanalytic organization for extraordinary times.  The Contemporary Freudian Society, or CFS, is the only psychoanalytic organization in North America that is based in two different cities, New York and Washington, DC. 

The geographical reach of our members and training candidates add to the rich fabric of our community, a group comprised of clinicians from all disciplines, as well as of academics and of practitioners from outside of mental health.  CFS’s members and candidates represent a range of generations. It is a place where the wisdom of those members of our community who bring decades of experience meets the younger generation’s zeal for challenging the status quo with typically generative results. 

In this way, CFS offers a particularly rich environment for learning the intricacies of psychoanalytic technique and theory at a deep level, for expanding the reach of psychoanalysis both in and outside of the office. Given the range of the geographical and generational makeup of the CFS community, combined with CFS’s more intimate size, the opportunities for learning from and sharing with one another are vast. Members and candidates alike regularly initiate and engage with projects, study groups, courses, trainings, continuing education presentations, and community service. 

From professional development programs such as the intimate environment of Psychoanalytic Brooklyn series, the annual multi-disciplinary Cultural Diversity programs, the recent series on the impact of COVID on clinical practice, as well as collaborations with the Melanie Klein Trust, ROOM and the Harlem Family Institute; opportunities for candidates such as the Difficult Case Conference series, the opportunity to gain child/adolescent analytic training along with the adult analytic program, our psychotherapy training program, the Anni Bergmann Parent-Infant Program.

I am grateful for my association with CFS.  It has not only been my professional home for the past 20 years, but it is also my community, a place where I have made some of my closest friends. It is a place where I know that, whatever topic or initiative interests me, there will be colleagues who are ready to explore with me.  CFS is an intellectually stimulating group.  It is also a warm and supportive group where not only the professional development, but also the wellbeing of its members and candidates are given utmost priority.