top of page

 

​Vita
 
I am a psychoanalyst in private practice and a psychosocial researcher. That means I am not only interested in ‘individual psychology’ but the intertwinement of the individual and the societal. My background is in psychology and the social sciences. I studied psychology, English and French in Marburg and Paris from 1995 to 1998. In 2003 I finished my studies in psychology at the University of Bremen, Germany (Diplom).
I received my Ph.D. from the University of Bremen in 2008. My dissertation examined the aftermath of the Holocaust in several generations of non-Jewish Germans after Auschwitz, which, amongst other publications, resulted in a book, published in January 2009. Das (Nicht-) Sprechen über die Judenvernichtung. Psychische Weiterwirkungen des Holocaust in mehreren Generationen nicht-jüdischer Deutscher. ((Non)Speaking about the Extermination of the Jews. Psychical Aftermath of the Holocaust in Several Generations of non-Jewish Germans).
In 2007 and 2008 I collaborated on a study on right-wing-extremist attitudes in Germany, including anti-Semitism, racism and nationalism, with Dr. Oliver Decker and Prof. Dr. Elmar Brähler at Leipzig University. The study was built on a triangulation of quantitative and qualitative methods and also culminated in a book of which I was co-author. Ein Blick in die Mitte. Zur Entstehung rechtsextremer und demokratischer Einstellungen in Deutschland. (A Glance At The Center. On the Genesis of Right-Wing-Extremist and Democratic Attitudes in Germany)
.
 
Thereafter, I was a Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin (Assistant Professor) in a project on gender relations in the medical profession: Career Paths and Career Breaks of Women Physicians under the auspices of Prof. Dr. D. Alfermann, University of Leipzig, Germany.
From April to September 2010 I was a visiting scholar at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (City University of New York).
 
In 2015 I obtained the certificate in psychoanalysis from the William Alanson White Institute in New York. In my clinical work I am engaged in a relational approach.

 

Research Interests​​​​​
 
My research is based on a combination of qualitative methods in the social sciences and psychoanalysis. I explore the psychosocial, i.e. the intertwinement of ‘the psychical’ and ‘the societal’ in the human subject. My academic roots were formed within a research tradition based on Freudian psychoanalysis and on the so-called Frankfurt school of Critical Theory (Adorno, Horkheimer).
 
Research Areas
 
Psychoanalysis, psychosocial studies, qualitative methods, right-wing-extremism, racism, anti-semitism, intergenerational transmission, trauma, stigma, studies in gender and sexuality. 

Professional Memberships
Since 2016 I am on the faculty of the William Alanson White Institute where I teach a required class on  "Gender, Sex & Sexuality".
Co-Editor of the Journal Psychoanalyse. Texte zur Sozialforschung (Psychoanalysis. Contributions to Social Research).
http://www.psychologie-aktuell.com/index.php?id=93

Associate Editor of the Journal Contemporary Psychoanalysis
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uucp20

International Research Group for Psycho-Societal Analysis (IRGfPSA)
https://psycho-societal.org

 

Supraregional Research Group on the Psychosocial Long-term Effects of the Shoah at the Sigmund-Freud-Institute in Frankfurt/Main.

 

Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society (APCS)
 
bottom of page