All the scholarly work I do is grounded in psychoanalysis, but I range widely in the way I employ psychoanalysis to make sense of the world. Some of the work I do involves qualitative and case-based research; some involves the use of historical and anthropological methods, with an emphasis on intellectual history ; some involves theory-building in, and criticism of, psychoanalysis itself. My work has been published in journals including Psychoanalytic Dialogues; Studies in Gender & Sexuality; Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society; and the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies.

The unifying intellectual questions that guide my work include: how does White Supremacy shape psychic and social life? In particular, how does White Supremacy graft onto crucial psychological functions (like defense mechanisms) to influence how people relate to and express their desires, aggression, and emotions (especially shame)? What leads some people, communities, and institutions to become particularly invested in White Supremacy and other supremacist ideologies, particularly when on paper you might not think they would? What is so persuasive and compelling about White Supremacy and the social movements (like fascism) that capitalize upon it? How can we marry the best of psychoanalysis with the best of other theoretical and political traditions, like anarchism, to develop strategies for practicing clinically and organizing social and institutional life in ways that help people resist abuse and coercive control, making it harder for fascist ideas and politics to take root? In particular, how do we help people engage aggression ethically?

Currently, I have three book projects at various stages of completion that address different aspects of these questions. The first of these, under the working title “Bound to Lose: How Psychoanalysts Became Useful Idiots for Fascism,” is an intellectual history of authoritarianism in psychoanalysis from Freud forward, with a focus on recent efforts by fascist propagandists to make a beachhead in psychoanalysis. “Bound to Lose” is under contract with Routledge and slated for released in 2025. The second book, under the working title “Field Theory: Agrarianism and Analysis,” explores how and why psychoanalysis came to be alienated from rural communities and issues, and critiques psychoanalysis through the lenses of agrarian philosophy and case studies of rural clinical practice. I am particularly interested in the strangeness of the fact that psychoanalysis does not consider food, water, or land in its metapsychological models of human motivation, desire, and relationships, an oversight I begin trying to correct in the book. The third book, title TBD, is a comparative case analysis of US school shootings, with a focus on the role White Supremacy played in bringing about these shootings; this book is a synthesis of my dissertation research and ongoing research I have conducted with my lab at MCLA.

I have a variety of ongoing empirical research projects on topics including BIPOC experiences of discrimination in psychoanalytic professional organizations; comparative case analyses of the role of Whiteness in US school shootings; and the intellectual history of psychoanalysis. I also have a series of articles under review or forthcoming that, taken together, offer an expansive and at times lacerating critique of contemporary psychoanalytic theory, praxis, governance, and culture. This body of works explores the role of authoritarianism and possessive investment in dominant social identities (e.g. Whiteness, cisgender heterosexuality, and affluence) in producing a psychoanalysis that is too often bigoted, moribund, and academically unfree. I also have manuscripts in preparation that offer an array of policy prescriptions and other responses to these issues, including recommendations for addressing embedded racism in the profession, mapping out new cooperative models for psychoanalytic institutes, and bolstering structures to protect and promote academic freedom in the profession.