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Psychology

M. Gerard Fromm, PhD, is a distinguished faculty member in the 

Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy

 of the Austen Riggs Center. He is the former first Evelyn Stefansson Nef Director of the Erikson Institute and former director of the Center’s Therapeutic Community Program. 

Dr. Fromm has taught at and consulted to a number of psychoanalytic institutes across the country. His current work includes psychoanalytically informed organizational consultation. In addition to his own practice, he is a past president of both the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations and the Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems in Boston. He directed the Center’s residential Group Relations Conferences for three years and has served on the staff of Group Relations Conferences in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Israel. Dr. Fromm was also a visiting Fellow in the Psychotherapy Department of University College, London, and a member of the Academy for Critical Incident Analysis in New York. 

Dr. Fromm continues to teach and present. His publications include a number of books: 

The Facilitating Environment: Clinical Applications of Winnicott’s Theory

 (with Bruce L. Smith, PhD) (International Universities Press, Inc., 1989); 

Lost in Transmission: Studies of Trauma across Generations

Taking the Transference, Reaching toward Dreams: Clinical Studies in the Intermediate Area

A Spirit That Impels: Play, Creativity and Psychoanalysis

raveling through Time: How Trauma Plays Itself out in Families, Organizations and Society

International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations

Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems

Division of Psychoanalysis, American Psychological Association

Certified in psychoanalysis by the American Board of Professional Psychology

Assistant clinical professor at the Yale Child Study Center

President of the International Dialogue Initiative (IDI)

Partner in College Health and Counseling Service Consulting Services

Distinguished Faculty in the Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy

Research Fellow at Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis

Resident and postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University

Robert Wood Johnson Fellow and postdoctoral fellow at Yale University School of Medicine 

Linda C. Mayes, MD, is a distinguished faculty member in the Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy. 

Trained as a pediatrician, Dr. Mayes’s research focuses on stress-response and regulatory mechanisms in young children at both biological and psychosocial risk. She has especially focused on the impact of prenatal substance use on children’s long-term outcomes. She has made contributions to understanding the mechanisms of effect of prenatal stimulant exposure on the ontogeny of arousal regulatory systems and the relation between dysfunctional emotional regulation and impaired prefrontal cortical function in young children. Dr. Mayes has published widely in the developmental psychology, pediatrics, and child psychiatry literature. 

Given the nature of her work with children at significantly high-risk for developmental impairments from both biological and psychosocial etiologies, Dr. Mayes also focuses on the impact of parenting on the development of arousal and attention regulatory mechanisms in their children, and specifically on how substance abuse impacts reward and stress regulatory systems in new parents. With other colleagues in the Center, she studies how adults transition to parenthood, especially when substance abuse is involved, and the basic neural circuitry of early parent-infant attachment using both neuroimaging and electroencephalographic techniques. She and her colleagues have developed a series of interventions for parents including an intensive home-based program called Minding the Baby.

Dr. Mayes's research programs are multidisciplinary, not only in their blending basic science with clinical interventions but also in the disciplines required including adult and child psychiatry, behavioral neuroscience, obstetrics, pediatrics, and neuropsychology.

Arnold Gesell Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology and Director of the Yale Child Study Center

Distinguished Visiting Professor in psychology at Sewanee: The University of the South

Doctor of Science (honoris causa) from The University of the South (1994)

Residency in psychiatry at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center

Graduate of the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute

David Reiss, MD, is a distinguished faculty member in the Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy of the Austen Riggs Center. 

Dr. Reiss was the Director of the Division of Research and the Center for Family Research at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., as well as Vivian Gill Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences there. He has published many articles and books investigating the relationship between genetic and psychosocial factors and forming testable models of behavioral development across the life span. Also trained in psychoanalysis, he has been committed to postdoctoral research training in psychiatry and the behavioral sciences.

Clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale

Adolf Meyer Award from the American Psychiatric Association

Distinguished Faculty in the Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy  

MD from Northwestern University Medical School

Psychiatric residency at Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

Fellowship and Advanced Fellowship in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at the Austen Riggs Center

James L. Sacksteder, MD, is a distinguished faculty member in the Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy of the Austen Riggs Center. 

Dr. Sacksteder served as the Medical Director/CEO at the Austen Riggs Center. He was also a lecturer at Smith College School of Social Work for over twenty years. A board-certified psychiatrist, he has been a dedicated clinician whose commitment to the Austen Riggs Center spans nearly four decades.

Dr. Sacksteder has written over twenty articles and book chapters on the treatment of anorexia nervosa, long-term psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy of severely disturbed patients, narcissism, object relations theory, and ego psychology. He is co-editor of 

 with Daniel P. Schwartz, MD, and Yoshiharu Akabane, MD: (International University Press, 1987).

MA in anthropology from Stanford University

A board-certified psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, family researcher, and organizational consultant, Edward R. Shapiro, MD, is a distinguished faculty member in the Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy of the Austen Riggs Center. He is the former Medical Director/CEO of the Center (1991-2011).

An organizational consultant for over thirty-five years, Dr. Shapiro has consulted with hospitals, mental health clinics, law firms, and family businesses. He has published over fifty articles and book chapters on human and organizational development, family functioning, and personality disorders, presenting papers in this country and abroad. He is the author of 

Finding a Place to Stand: Developing Self-Reflective Institutions, Leaders and Citizens

 (Phoenix, 2020). His book (with A. W. Carr), 

Lost in Familiar Places: Creating New Connections between the Individual and Society

, was published by Yale University Press (1991) as was his edited book, 

The Inner World in the Outer World: Psychoanalytic Perspectives

For a list (and downloadable copies) of Dr. Shapiro's publications, see: 

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Edward_Shapiro2/contributions

Professional Affiliations / Organizational Memberships

Founding member of the Psychoanalytic Society and Institute of the Berkshires

Advisory board member of Partners Confronting Collective Atrocities

Board member of the International Dialogue Initiative

Principal of the Boswell Group of New York

Clinical professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine

Certification in Psychoanalysis from the American Psychoanalytic Association

Fellow of the A.K. Rice Institute and the American College of Psychoanalysis

Felix and Helene Deutsch Scientific Award from the Boston Psychoanalytic Society

Research Prize from the Society for Family Therapy and Research

Philip Isenberg Teaching Award from McLean Hospital

Named 2007 “Outstanding Psychiatrist for Advancement of the Profession” by the Massachusetts Psychiatric Association

Named “Top Doctor” by U.S. News & World Report since 2011

Meet the Austen Riggs staff of therapists, nurses, administrators, and other healthcare professionals who work as a team on behalf of our patients. 

Staff Directory of Therapists and Teams | Austen Riggs

For more information on our residential treatment programs, or answers to any questions, please feel free to contact us. 

Meet Our Team

Erikson Institute Distinguished Faculty

M. Gerard Fromm, PhD, ABPP

Linda C. Mayes, MD

David Reiss, MD

James L. Sacksteder, MD

Edward R. Shapiro, MD

Contact Us for More

For more information on our residential treatment programs, or answers to any questions, please feel free to contact us.

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