Each year, the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences invites a distinguished scholar to speak on campus as part of the Robert S. Wallerstein Visiting Lectureship in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. This lecture series is held in honor of the late Robert S. Wallerstein, MD, and focuses on showcasing psychoanalytic knowledge and clinical expertise that influence psychiatry, psychotherapy, and psychoanalysis.
The 2025 Robert S. Wallerstein Lecture in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy
The UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences will host the 19th Robert S. Wallerstein Lecture in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, from 1:00–3:00 p.m. PDT at the UCSF Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building. The event's keynote lecture, "On the Double Provenance of the Unconscious," will be delivered by this year's honoree, Francisco J. González, MD.
Immediately following Dr. González's presentation will be a discussion led by Oluwatosin Adebiyi, MD, MPH, followed by a question and answer session for audience participants.
This event is free and open to the public, but is geared towards a professional audience. It will also be streamed live online via Zoom. Registration is required.
This program is approved for up to 3 AMA PRA Category 1™ CME/CE credits, which are managed by the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis (SFCP). To receive credits, you will need to complete a program evaluation, which will be sent a week after the program ends. Completion of the evaluation is required to request credits. CME/CE credits are free for SFCP members and cost $45 for non-members. Payment can be made when you complete the evaluation.
Registration for this event will open soon.
About this year's honoree
Francisco J. González, MD
Francisco J. González, MD, is a personal and supervising analyst, community psychoanalysis supervising analyst, and faculty member at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC), where he also helped found and serves as co-director of the Community Psychoanalysis Track. He is also a faculty member at the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis.
Dr. González's teaching and writing focus on the articulation of the social within individual and collective psychic life, including in the domains of gender, sexuality, racialized difference, immigration, film, and groups, and has been the recipient of the Symonds Prize (2009), the APSA Ralph E. Roughton Paper Award (2017), and co-recipient of the JAPA Award for the Best Published Paper (2019). He serves on the editorial boards of Psychoanalytic Dialogues, the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and Parapraxis, and served on the Holmes Commission on Racial Equality in American Psychoanalysis. He practices privately in San Francisco and Oakland and in the public domain at Instituto Familiar de la Raza in San Francisco.
Previous lectureship honorees
- 2024 - Jacques P. Barber, PhD, ABPP (video)
- 2023 - Mardi Horowitz, MD (video)
- 2021 - Alicia F. Lieberman, PhD (video)
- 2019 - Mark Solms, PhD (video: part 1 | part 2)
- 2018 - George Silberschatz, MD (video: part 1 | part 2)
- 2017 - Deborah L. Cabaniss, MD
- 2016 - Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD
- 2015 - Beatrice Beebe, PhD
- 2014 - Morris Eagle, PhD
- 2013 - Regina Pally, MD
- 2012 - Robert Michels, MD
- 2011 - Arietta Slade, PhD
- 2010 - Salman Akthar, MD
- 2009 - Peter Fonagy, PhD, FBA
- 2008 - Glen O. Gabbard, MD
- 2007 - Nancy McWilliams, PhD, ABPP
- 2006 - Otto F. Kernberg, MD
About Robert S. Wallerstein, MD
Robert S. Wallerstein, MD
Robert S. Wallerstein, MD, (1921—2014) was a distinguished psychiatrist, psychotherapy researcher, and psychoanalytic leader who left a legacy of a widened scope of theory and technique in the psychological sectors of psychiatry. He was an administrator who advocated for cooperation between psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers in achieving academic excellence and sought to develop a new profession, the Doctor of Mental Health. He also developed a departmental structure that worked across professional lines, leading to new ideas on research centers, educational plans, and high quality service delivery.
Dr. Wallerstein trained at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas, rising to become the foundation’s director of research and conducting a pioneering study called the Psychotherapy Research Project. He moved to the Bay Area in 1966 as the chief of psychiatry at Mount Zion Hospital, then joined the faculty of the UCSF Department of Psychiatry as a professor. Dr. Wallerstein served as department chair and director of the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute from 1975-1985, as well as a training and supervising analyst at the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute, and president of both the American and International Psychoanalytic Associations.
In addition, he was a prodigious and influential author who penned 20 books and more than 400 scholarly articles. His books included Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis: Theory, Practice, Research (1975), Becoming a Psychoanalyst (1981), Forty-Two Lives in Treatment (1986), The Talking Cures: The Psychoanalyses and the Psychotherapies (1995), Lay Analysis: Life Inside the Controversy (1998), Psychoanalysis: Clinical and Theoretical (1999), and Psychoanalysis: Education, Research, Science, and Profession (2003). In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of psychoanalysis, he received the prestigious Sigourney Award in 1991.
Dr. Wallerstein was a leader by consensus. With a remarkable ability of synthesis, he strived to bring together diverse schools of theory and treatment technique. He will be remembered as a dynamic and tireless leader who contributed extensively to every organization that he led.
Lectureship committee
- Joseph Zamaria, PsyD, ABPP, chair
- Kathryn DeWitt, PhD
- Amy Wallerstein Friedman, LCSW
- Adam Goldyne, MD
- Mary Susan Hansen, MD
- Mardi Horowitz, MD
- Marc Jacobs, MD
- George Silberschatz, PhD
- Katherine Straznickas, PhD
- William Wolfe, MD
Learning objectives
Upon completion of this activity, the learners will be able to:
- Describe the definition of "belonging" in group terms according to the theory of group analyst Rene Kaes
- Describe what is meant by the double provenance of the unconscious and give an example
- Explain how community psychoanalysis uses principles of conventional psychoanalysis such as unconscious process and counter/transference
ACCME accreditation statement
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
AMA credit designation statement
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this live activity for a maximum of 3 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Disclosure statement
The APsA CE Committee has reviewed the materials for accredited continuing education and has determined that this activity is not related to the product line of ineligible companies and therefore, the activity meets the exception outlined in Standard 3: ACCME's identification, mitigation and disclosure of relevant financial relationship. This activity does not have any known commercial support.
