What is the EPIS Institute & Society and What Do We Do?

The Existential Psychoanalytic Institute & Society is a contemporary and forward-thinking psychoanalytic institute offering educational programs, book publishing and research education programs, publishing books and advancing research in the history and application of psychoanalysis in clinical and theoretical settings. Most importantly, we seek to chart a course for understanding human subjectivity using the tools of psychoanalysis to reduce human suffering and its consequences. As such, a good portion of our research involves conflict resolution, mediation, and practical applications of non-violence in science, law and social policy. In addition, our work touches on fields like conflict resolution. Through rigorous research we examine the historical past of psychoanalytic thought using critical theory, phenomenology and other disciplines, for example helpful branches of mathematics including game theory, set theory, category theory, and all logics as a foundation for projects. 

Through our educational programs, publications, research, professional networking opportunities and EPIS radio show broadcasts, we facilitate these goals in collaboration with our members, faculty, students, colleagues and communities. 

Our Work and Educational Programs 

Our work is continually evolving, but currently comprises educational programs, quarterly meetings, professional networking opportunities, the EPIS Press publishing house, our weekly EPIS Radio Show, and academic conferences.

What Makes Us Different?

Our work has real world applications in education, science, law and conflict resolution, social policy, clinical psychology, and community programs. Therapists and counselors associated with EPIS have strong private practices in psychology, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis and professional mediation in individual and organization contexts. Academics associated with EPIS are professors in philosophy, psychoanalysis, psychology, history and related fields.  

Our publishing house, EPIS Press, was founded in 2004, with a mission to offer a publishing experience different from larger presses such as Karnac, Tavistock and Routledge. We publish manuscripts in phenomenology, psychoanalysis and critical theory and have published works in theory and literature focusing on the human condition and how humans interface with their environmental and social contexts. EPIS Press has also published titles from the professionals and academics at the BCS Dispute Resolution Research Institute in mediation/negotiation, psychoanalysis, and game theory. In 2012, we began publishing the academic journal Presencing EPIS. Upcoming projects include the relationship of psychoanalysis to global warming and ecosystem protection. 

Our educational programs are unique, progressive and rigorous. We don’t seek accreditation by an outside, bureaucratic accrediting body that would limit the scope of our programs and the opportunities we offer students. Many of our programs offer publication possibilities through EPIS Press and EPIS Journal. All our graduates are entitled to become part of the research or teaching faculty. 

The location is virtual, allowing access for an international, diverse student body who may be pursuing a range of professional, research and creative practices that broaden and deepen their contributions to the learning experience. 

Our curriculum is not limited to phenomenology, classical psychoanalysis, or existential psychotherapy/analysis. We also teach French deconstruction, critical theory, semiology, cultural criticism, and all related scientific disciplines, including neuro-psychoanalysis. 

Our September 2023 curriculum offers rich opportunities for students who are beginning study, seeking professional development, or arriving at study from diverse professional and educational backgrounds. Jump to our curriculum page to learn more or contact Dr. Kevin Boileau, PhD, Dean of Faculty, for more information, at kbradref@gmail.com.

Read Full Post »

Heidegger and psychotherapy

Some members of EPIS are interested in the question of whether Heidegger has anything of value to add to psychotherapy. One can interpret an existentialized Heidegger espousing the ideal of authenticity; in this scheme, an individual experiences anxiety about the absurdity of life, lives fully in the present, and creates a world through a prism of radical freedom. Unfortunately, existentialism has been criticized as an unrealistic philosophy because of the labyrinth of concrete realities of human existence, that we are too embedded in a world of facticity to approach anything like the authenticity Heidegger espouses. In addition, some have interpreted radical freedom as absolute freedom–especially in the wake of the early Sartre–and this ideal runs afoul of most of our moral sensibilities. That is, a number of us have trouble equating authenticity with creating our lives as works of art if this results in ultra-selfishness and an “anything goes” ethos. On the other hand, existentialism is still motivating because it is perhaps a not-so-unfeasible alternative to empiricism, positivism, and determinism. One of our research projects as EPIS argues that the sort of scientific positivism that has embedded itself in 20th and 21st century psychology distorts and minimizes a fuller reality of the nature of our humanity. Heidegger registers this concern in the “Letter on Humanism,” in which he politely attacks modernism and the metaphysical humanism that results.

One of the sub-questions that emerges is whether there is a gap between psychological positivist theories about humans and the sort of dialogue that occurs in the consulting room.

Positivist theories about human psychology seem to avoid the moral element in psychotherapy which, in my opinion, is fatal to the ideals of the psychotherapy about which I am acquainted. So let us pose a constellation of related questions: Ought psychotherapy include moral discourse? Why? What is it that leads to the need for psychotherapy in the first place? Does this have anything to do with the rise of modern technology? Let us recall that in preindustrial societies, individuals experienced meaning and direction by following tribal, local, communal customs, and religious orthodoxies. Following these rules created psychological security; in contrast, as faith in these orthodoxies broke, industrialization arose, and modern individualist economies presenced themselves. Individuals have since become isolated and set adrift. It is no wonder that folks look for a sense of belonging–anywhere–no matter that they unwitting become “organizational men” or mired in fundamentalist orthodoxies with fascist and military-styled temporal logics. It is thus this situation of isolation from cultural sustenance that founds much of modern psychological illness, in my opinion. I will continue to pose these sorts of questions in following segments, keeping in mind the possibility of Heidegger’s contribution to the development of a psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic model. KCB

Read Full Post »