Robert S. Wallerstein Lecture in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy

Each year, the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences invites a distinguished scholar to speak on campus as part of the Robert S. Wallerstein Visiting Lectureship in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. This lecture series is held in honor of the late Robert S. Wallerstein, MD, and focuses on showcasing psychoanalytic knowledge and clinical expertise that influence psychiatry, psychotherapy, and psychoanalysis.

The 2024 Robert S. Wallerstein Lecture in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy

The UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences will host the 18th Robert S. Wallerstein Lecture in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, from 1:00–3:00 p.m. PDT at the UCSF Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building. The event's keynote lecture, "My Journey as a Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Researcher: The Process of Studying Outcome and the Outcome of Studying Processes," will be delivered by this year's honoree, Jacques P. Barber, PhD, ABPP.

Immediately following Dr. Barber's presentation will be a discussion led by Xiaochen Luo, PhD, and George Silberschatz, PhD, followed by a question and answer session for audience participants.

This event is free and open to the public, but is geared towards a professional audience. It will also be streamed live online via Zoom. Registration is required.

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Earned CE/CME credits are expected to be available to purchase after the event. Details forthcoming.

About this year's honoree

Barber

2024 Wallerstein Lecture honoree Jacques P. Barber, PhD, ABPP

Jacques P. Barber, PhD, ABPP, is internationally known for his research on the efficacy of psychotherapy in treating depression, panic disorders, personality disorders, cocaine dependence and interpersonal problems. He is a professor and former dean of the Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology at Adelphi University, as well as an adjunct professor of psychiatry at New York University and professor emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry and in the Graduate Psychology Group at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Barber has published more than 290 papers, chapters and books, including Psychodynamic Therapy: A Guide to Evidence-Based Practice, which he coauthored with Richard F. Summers, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, and Practicing Psychodynamic Therapy: A Casebook, co-edited with Dr. Summers. He and his Adelphi colleague J. Christopher Muran, PhD, collaborated on a revised psychodynamic therapy research chapter in Bergin and Garfield’s Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change (7th Edition), considered “the bible of psychotherapy.”

He has won numerous awards for his scholarship. In addition to the Distinguished Career Research Award from the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology, Division 39 of the American Psychological Association (APA), Dr. Barbr has received two honors from the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy, Division 29 of the APA: the Distinguished Contributions to Teaching and Mentorship Award as well as the Distinguished Psychologist Award for Contributions to Psychology and Psychotherapy. He is a past president of the international Society for Psychotherapy Research and was a recipient of its early career award in 1996 and its Distinguished Research Career Award in 2014.

Previous lectureship honorees

About Robert S. Wallerstein, MD

Robert S. Wallerstein, MD

Robert S. Wallerstein, MD

Robert S. Wallerstein, MD, (1921—2014) was a distinguished psychiatrist, psychotherapy researcher, and psychoanalytic leader who left a legacy of a widened scope of theory and technique in the psychological sectors of psychiatry. He was an administrator who advocated for cooperation between psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers in achieving academic excellence and sought to develop a new profession, the Doctor of Mental Health. He also developed a departmental structure that worked across professional lines, leading to new ideas on research centers, educational plans, and high quality service delivery.

Dr. Wallerstein trained at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas, rising to become the foundation’s director of research and conducting a pioneering study called the Psychotherapy Research Project. He moved to the Bay Area in 1966 as the chief of psychiatry at Mount Zion Hospital, then joined the faculty of the UCSF Department of Psychiatry as a professor. Dr. Wallerstein served as department chair and director of the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute from 1975-1985, as well as a training and supervising analyst at the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute, and president of both the American and International Psychoanalytic Associations.

In addition, he was a prodigious and influential author who penned 20 books and more than 400 scholarly articles. His books included Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis: Theory, Practice, Research (1975), Becoming a Psychoanalyst (1981), Forty-Two Lives in Treatment (1986), The Talking Cures: The Psychoanalyses and the Psychotherapies (1995), Lay Analysis: Life Inside the Controversy (1998), Psychoanalysis: Clinical and Theoretical (1999), and Psychoanalysis: Education, Research, Science, and Profession (2003). In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of psychoanalysis, he received the prestigious Sigourney Award in 1991.

Dr. Wallerstein was a leader by consensus. With a remarkable ability of synthesis, he strived to bring together diverse schools of theory and treatment technique. He will be remembered as a dynamic and tireless leader who contributed extensively to every organization that he led.

Lectureship committee

  • Joseph Zamaria, PsyD, ABPP, chair
  • Kathryn DeWitt, PhD
  • Amy Wallerstein Friedman, LCSW
  • Adam Goldyne, MD
  • Mary Susan Hansen, MD
  • Mardi Horowitz, MD
  • Marc Jacobs, MD
  • Jonathan Shedler, PhD
  • George Silberschatz, PhD
  • Katherine Straznickas, PhD
  • William Wolfe, MD