About the Program

Emory University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences offers a certificate in psychoanalytic studies through the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts (ILA). The ILA’s Psychoanalytic Studies Program (PSP) deals with the theory, application, and history of psychoanalytic thought and practice. It is not a clinical training program.

Designed to give students a thorough knowledge of psychoanalysis across a range of disciplines, the certificate requires participation in a bi-weekly series of informal talks by faculty and students, attendance at a monthly colloquia provided by faculty and psychoanalysts, completion of a four-course curriculum, and preparation of a substantial paper of publishable quality.

The program draws faculty from Emory College, the Law School, and the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine. In addition, faculty affiliated with the Emory University Psychoanalytic Institute, the Atlanta Foundation for Psychoanalysis, and the Atlanta Psychoanalytic Society participate in the program, linking the academy with the psychiatric and psychoanalytic communities. Some psychoanalytic studies program courses enroll both analytic candidates and graduate students, fostering a rare opportunity for dialogue between traditionally disparate worlds. For example, the Emory University Psychoanalytic Institute’s Extension Course in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, a 10-session course taught by the Institute’s faculty, is available to graduate students.

PSP students are provided a great deal of flexibility in designing courses of study to suit their unique needs and interests. Because psychoanalytic thought is not bound to one discipline, students are encouraged to cross disciplinary and intellectual boundaries. The program aims students in locating and enrolling in suitable courses across the university.