Alice Lombardo Maher, M.D., is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City. She is a graduate of Barnard College and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She received her psychoanalytic training at the NYU Psychoanalytic Institute at New York University Medical Center and was a faculty member of the institute and medical school for 15 years.

Dr Maher believes that the same dynamics which underlie psychoanalytic theory and treatment – among them instinct, defense, self esteem, individual and group trauma, unconscious forces, interpersonal relationships and symbolic meanings – are at work within the greater society. Popular culture tends to dismiss these concepts or use them as weapons to marginalize, trivialize and ridicule the humanity of others. By treating society as the patient and prejudice as the symptom, Dr Maher believes that the psychoanalytic model can be applied in the struggle against stigmatization and hatred and in the service of human understanding. Her goal is no less than a Change in Our Consciousness.

Learn about the genesis of Changing Our Consciousess™ from Dr. Maher.

Lois Oppenheim, Ph.D. is Scholar Associate Member of the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and Honorary Member of the William Alanson White Society. She is Professor of French and Chair, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Montclair State University where she teaches courses in literature and psychoanalysis. She has authored or edited ten books, her most recent being A Curious Intimacy: Art and Neuro-Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 2005), and published over eighty articles. Dr. Oppenheim is on the Executive Boards of The Philoctetes Center for the Multidisciplinary Study of Imagination at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, the UK Network of Modern Fiction Studies, a past president of the international Samuel Beckett Society, and Visiting Scholar (2008-2009) at the Psychiatric Institute, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Dr. Oppenheim’s current research is in the area of neuro-psychoanalysis and creativity.

 

 

Susan Dansker is a marketing and communications consultant with a passion for crafting words and images into a synergistic whole. For over 25 years she has worked with institutions, corporations, and individuals in fields as diverse as education, health and social services, architecture, and filmmaking. She is a creative problem solver who listens to, shapes, and communicates ideas through web design, graphic design, photography, video, and the old-fashioned written word.

Max Rosenbaum is a student at Skidmore College, an accomplished videographer, and a political journalist whose writing has been published on The Huffington Post. He describes his occupation as "full time participant in the democratic system."

Bernice Arricale is a special education teacher and literacy specialist whose work with primary-age children and their teachers keeps redefining notions of what it means to be a "special needs" learner. Says Alice Maher, "Bernice has been my 'muse' for the past half century, and everything I've ever done has been filtered through the mirror of her discerning eyes. I know what I look like in large part because of the way she's reflected me back to myself. This project wouldn't exist if not for her."

We are pleased to announce our collaboration with director Sheryll Franko on our documentary film, How To Touch A Hot Stove™, currently in development. Sheryll Franko is a contemporary artist and filmmaker living and working in New York City. Current and past projects incorporate film, soundscape, public installations and performance art. She has studied at New School University, Vassar College and The City University of New York. Her work continues to be shown internationally.