Online IOP for College Students and Emerging Adults in MA
For the past 40 years, the Austen Riggs Center has hosted leading scholars from diverse disciplines through its Erikson Institute Scholar-in-Residence Program. These scholars engage with us to share their expertise, deepen their research, and enrich the ongoing clinical and academic work at Riggs.
Introducing Our July 2025 Scholars-in-Residence
For the month of July, we are honored to welcome:
- Shira Nayman, PsyD, MA – writer, clinical psychologist, and consultant
- Louis Sass, PhD – distinguished professor and acclaimed author in psychology and psychiatry
Both scholars will pursue innovative projects that explore intersections between psychiatry, culture, spirituality, and the arts.
Dr. Shira Nayman: Literature, Therapy, and Spiritual Inquiry
While at Riggs, Nayman will focus on two major initiatives:
- Adapting Dark Urgings of the Blood for the Stage
Based on her novella featured in Awake in the Dark (Scribner), this work-in-progress explores the therapeutic relationship between a psychiatrist and a patient suffering from psychotic postpartum depression, raising compelling questions about trauma, memory, and identity. - Researching the Psychological Impact of Sacred Texts
Through interviews with clergy, scholars, and laypeople, Nayman investigates how sacred texts influence individuals' spiritual and psychological development. The project delves into personal narratives of faith, identity, and transformation.
Dr. Louis Sass: Cultural Psychiatry and Self-Disorder Theory
Sass will be pursuing two significant research efforts:
- Ethnographic Study of Indigenous Mental Health Concepts in Mexico
This nearly complete project in psychiatric anthropology examines traditional mental health frameworks—Susto (Fright), Locura (Madness), and Nervios (Nerves)—as understood by curanderas in the Michoacán region. - Expanding the Ipseity-Disturbance Model (IDM) in Schizophrenia Research
Dr. Sass continues his groundbreaking work on the self-disorder model for understanding symptoms along the schizophrenia spectrum, known as the IDM (Ipseity Disturbance Model). This research bridges clinical psychology, phenomenology, and neurobiology.
About the Scholar-in-Residence Program at Austen Riggs
The Erikson Scholar Program creates and maintains an exchange of ideas between academicians and clinicians to explore interactions between the internal and external worlds. This interdisciplinary program enriches our understanding of each, which often has application to larger societal problems.
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