Psychoanalysis and Climate Change with Linda Emanuel & Rita Teusch

This 6-week course will delve into the psychological roots of and possible responses to climate change; to start, we will consider an overview of the nature of climate change and nature and psychological origins of climate denial / climate anxiety.

This field is required.
This field is required.
This field is required.

6 Sessions: Oct. 14, 21, 28, 2025; Nov. 4, 18, 25 2025
Time: 5:00 - 6:15 PM EST

All courses will take place online. Seminar sessions are not recorded
Registration Deadline: October 10, 2025

Registrants are expected to be able to attend all sessions in their entirety. Should your availability change, please contact the BPSI Team (team@bpsi.org) to remove your course registration and allow other interested participants to attend.

 

Psychoanalysis and Climate Change: finding this neglected thread in our theory and practice

This 6-week course will delve into the psychological roots of and possible responses to climate change; to start, we will consider an overview of the nature of climate change and the nature and psychological origins of climate denial / climate anxiety. Then we will consider how different psychoanalytic schools of thought contribute to the above understandings, starting with Kohutian, then Existential Analysis, then Bionian, and neuropsychoanalytic approaches. We will then consider needed psychoanalytic contributions to people facing the consequences of climate change – climate migration, epidemics, and political strife;the final week will be devoted to considering theoretical and clinical advances in psychoanalysis that may be responsive to the challenges climate change.

This course is inspired by the Climate Conversations hosted by Rita Teusch and Delia Kostner at BPSI this year and a version of it is being taught as an elective at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute currently where it has been enthusiastically received. Works by H Searles, J Dobbs, S Kassouf, M Boss, S Bodnar, W Bion, V Kast, J Durban and others will be read and discussed; these discussions will be framed by introductory presentations about background theory and intersected with case discussions. 


Instructors

Linda Emanuel, MD, PhD

Linda Emanuel, MD, PhD is a member of BPSI and a Training Analyst at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute where she trained as an analyst. Prior to this she work as an academic physician in palliative medicine, running the Buehler Center on Aging, Health & Society at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. Linda also lives on a one-acre eco-farm, where she also see patients from a Thoreau-replica cabin. This has allowed her (and her patients) extensive and deep reflection about the interconnections between the human psyche in the larger world, reflections that began long ago during Linda's PhD years studying neurophysiology.
Rita Teusch, PhD, is a key inspirer, supporter, and possible co-teacher of this course. It is too early for her to know if she can commit to co-teaching, however, so I have not put in a second instructor entry for her.

Rita Teusch, PhD

Rita Teusch, Ph.D. is a psychologist and Training and Supervising Analyst at BPSI. She teaches Freud, Klein, and clinical seminars and is interested in the social surround. She is a Lecturer in Psychiatry (Psychology) part-time at Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Health Alliance. She has a special interest in trauma and eating disorders and is currently co-editing a book on Climate Change in the Consulting Room. 
This course is open to beginning and intermediate licensed mental health clinicians and trainees on the path to licensure. Continuing Education credits are not offered for this course.

Scholarships are available for BPSI programs.

FEE:

$375 Course Fee
$50 Early Career Clinicians, Residents and Students
$350 Early Bird (available until 10/03/2025)  Use Code at Checkout: EB2025CC

The fee is waived for BPSI Members, Trainees, and Partners. Scholarships are available upon request.

 

Explorations in Mind: Community Education at BPSI is made possible by the generous support of BPSI Members and friends. To make a gift to BPSI, contact Carole Nathan (cnathan@bpsi.org or 617-266-0953 x101),
go to www.bpsi.org, or send mail to BPSI, 141 Herrick Road, Newton Centre, MA 02459.

 
Program Administrator
Jackson Doty: jdoty@bpsi.org

Program Chair
Natasha Lifton, PhD: natashalifton@gmail.com
Linda Emanuel, MD, PhD: l-emanuel@northwestern.edu
 
 
Event Cancellation Policies & Procedures
Any program participant requesting their individual program registration be canceled, must submit their request in writing via email to Jackson Doty at jdoty@bpsi.org. For fee-based events, a request for cancellation (and refund using the original form of payment) must be received no later than 48 hours in advance of the event. Requests received later than 48 hours prior to the event will not be processed or accepted. All approved refunds are subject to a $10.00 administrative fee. If BPSI cancels an event, all registrants will receive a full refund of fees paid (no administration charge) no later than two business days following the scheduled date of the event, using the original form of payment.
 
Grievance Policy
Please address any questions or concerns about your experience at this or any program or event you have attended at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute to the Program Chair(s), via the Senior Administrator/Continuing Education Administrator, BPSI, 141 Herrick Road, Newton Centre, MA 02459; team@bpsi.org; 617.266.0953.
 
The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Inc., 141 Herrick Road, Newton Centre, MA 02459, does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, age, sexual orientation, national origin or handicap in the admissions to or administration of its educational programs, scholarship programs or employment.