MA and PhD in clinical psychology at Michigan State University

Predoctoral internship at the Michigan State University Counseling Center

Marilyn Charles, PhD, ABPP, is a staff psychologist, team leader, supervisor, and member of the therapy staff at the Austen Riggs Center.

During her predoctoral internship, she was part of the Multi-Ethnic Counseling Center Alliance (MECCA) and has continued to promote dialogues across difference in her roles as (former) president of Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of the American Psychological Association, (current) co-chair of APCS and international coordinator of the Psychoanalytic Track at UDEM. Her writing, teaching, supervision, and consultations have focused on encouraging the development of future generations of clinicians and on promoting higher standards of practice in the field.

A poet and artist herself, Dr. Charles has worked extensively with artists, writers, and musicians. She has a special interest in the creative process and is continues to investigate factors that facilitate and inhibit creativity. She also has a particular interest in the intergenerational transmission of trauma and its relationship to psychosis. She is actively engaged in mentoring, creating professional opportunities, creating opportunities for dialogue, and promoting community involvement for those in the helping professions, including her consultation work with 

 in Sydney, Australia, and with counseling centers and residential treatment centers in this country.

Professional Affiliations/Organizational Memberships

International Coordinator, Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM)

Member, Association for Psychosocial Studies (APS)

Teaching Associate in Psychiatry, Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School

Training Analyst with the Michigan Psychoanalytic Council and the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis

 and is a member of the editorial boards of numerous psychoanalytic journals

Co-Chair of the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society (APCS)

Winner of the American Board & Academy of Psychoanalysis (ABAPsa) Book Prize for 2020 in the Applied Category for her book co-edited with Jill Bellinson, PhD, entitled 

The Importance of Play in Early Childhood Education: Psychoanalytic, Attachment, and Developmental Perspectives

Creativity, psychosis, resilience, and the intergenerational transmission of trauma

Therapy Staff

Marilyn Charles, PhD, ABPP

Psychology

Team Leader/Staff Psychologist

, published "Tyranny of the Shoulds: The Press towards Conformity" in 

"Reflectivity seems hard to come by, impeding the epistemic trust so crucial to making meaning together and solving mutual problems. How we encourage growth—and greater maturity and care—in those around us remains a challenge. A psychoanalytic lens may help us more effectively grapple with the complexities underlying ideological fervor and push back against totalitarianism in oppressive structures wherever we encounter it."

Professional Publications

In this paper, Dr. Charles writes about how a psychoanalytic lens may help us more effectively grapple with the complexities underlying ideological fervor and push back against totalitarianism in oppressive structures.

Tyranny of the Shoulds: The Press towards Conformity

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