Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute

01/24/2026

Today we recognize International Education Day and the power of education to connect people across cultures, generations, and lived experiences. At CPI, education is central to how we train clinicians, support lifelong learning, and deepen understanding of the human mind.

If you are interested in learning more about our education programs, we invite you to join one of our upcoming Education Program Open House events. Virtual open houses will be held February 3 and 5, 2026, with an in-person event on February 27, 2026.

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01/22/2026

Happy Birthday to Our Founder, Franz Alexander!

Today marks the anniversary of the birth of Franz Alexander, the Hungarian-American psychoanalyst who found the Institute in 1932. Alexander was born 135 years ago today in Budapest. He is pictured here with British analyst John Bowlby, as well as fellow Institute analysts Gerhard and Maria Piers. Gerhard Piers would succeed Alexander as Institute director.

In her latest book, Alexander’s granddaughter, Ilonka Alexander, shares the most recent findings of her ongoing research into the life and work of her grandfather. Franz Alexander often seems like a towering and imposing figure in the psychoanalytic world, working tirelessly to promote the discipline.

By contrast, the man portrayed in The Lost Legacy of Franz Alexander is often quite unsure of the value of the contributions he has made, and wonders whether he has lived up to the example set by his father, philosophy professor Dr. Bernard Alexander.

Ilonka Alexander quotes from her grandfather’s own writings to document this father-son relationship: “Ironically, despite his brilliant mind, [Franz] Alexander speaks repeatedly of his insecurity and internal conflict caused by an unclear sense of self. He thought his father was nearly perfect and yearned to impress him.”

Despite this insecurity, or perhaps because of it, Franz Alexander brought many significant and lasting changes to the study of the mind. One of the most significant of these changes was the research he and his clinical staff at the Institute made into the ways stress in the external environment affects the body as well as the mind.

While the term “psychosomatics” has largely fallen out of favor, the concept of the link between external and internal phenomena survives in the term “mind-body connection.” The link survives as well in the clinical disciplines of consult-liaison psychiatry and psychoneuroimmunology.

Ilonka quotes her grandfather as saying the following: “The body never lies, it is the consistent and reliable diary of our lives, detailing our internal experiences through its reactions and states.”

01/21/2026

We honor the life and legacy of Dr. Elise Snyder.

Dr. Snyder was a psychoanalyst, teacher, and bridge builder whose work shaped generations of clinicians and patients far beyond any one place or country.

At the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, she was a vital force in expanding distance learning, helping to make psychoanalytic education accessible across borders. Through her deep commitment to international teaching, especially with Chinese students, she fostered meaningful clinical and intellectual exchange and helped cultivate psychoanalytic thinking in new cultural contexts.

By bringing psychoanalytic ideas to China and supporting students from abroad through innovative learning models, she created space for emotional depth, reflection, and healing where it had not been widely accessible before.

Countless lives were changed because of her commitment, courage, and belief in the power of being seen and understood.

Her work reminds us that beneath suffering, anger, and despair is a human longing for recognition and care. Elise met that longing with steadiness, intellect, and deep compassion.

We are grateful for her life, her teaching, and the paths she opened for others to walk forward. May her memory continue to guide our work and our listening.

We invite those who knew Elise to share a memory, reflection, or moment of learning in the comments as we honor her life and legacy.

12/17/2025

Do good with burritos tomorrow 🌯❤️

Join us for our Chipotle fundraiser supporting the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute. When you eat at Chipotle, a portion of your order helps support psychoanalytic education, training, and community mental health.

🗓 Thursday December 18
⏰ 4–8 PM
📍 8 E Madison St Chicago
💻 Order online for pickup using code Y2W3HCC or show the flyer in store

Comment below your go to Chipotle order ⬇️

Thank you for supporting CPI and eating for a good cause 🌯✨

and

11/20/2025

Want to stay connected with everything happening at CPI? Our monthly newsletter shares updates on programs, community events, clinical insights, and stories that highlight the work happening across the Institute.

Subscribing is the best way to stay informed, learn about new offerings, and hear how our community continues to grow.

Join our email list through the link in our bio and stay in the loop with all things CPI! You can also access the link here: http://eepurl.com/iOi1eA

10/10/2025

Today is World Mental Health Day 💚

At the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, we believe everyone deserves access to compassionate, high-quality mental health care. Our mission is to train the next generation of psychoanalysts and psychotherapists and to ensure care is available to all who seek it.

Support our mission and help strengthen the future of mental health care: https://chicagoanalysis.org/donate/ or visit the link in our bio!

10/06/2025

💡 Why do so many people now choose to give through a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF)?

Because DAFs can make generosity simpler, smarter, and more impactful.

With flexibility, simplicity and easy ways to grow giving, a DAF help many supporters do more for the causes they care about most.

On DAF Day, October 9, you can use your DAF to support CPI and be part of a nationwide wave of giving. 🧡

👉 Learn how to give this DAF Day: Click the link in our bio! Or visit: https://chicagoanalysis.org/donate/

09/25/2025

In Memoriam: Jonathan Lear (1948–2025)

We mourn the passing of Professor Jonathan Lear, John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the Department of Philosophy. A towering figure in modern philosophy and psychoanalysis, his work bridged rigorous thought and humane understanding.

From Radical Hope to Imagining the End, his writing challenged us to think deeply about ethics, culture, loss, and what it means to live well. He taught here from 1996 until his passing, shaping generations of students, colleagues, and readers.

We extend our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and all who were touched by his intellect and generosity. His legacy endures in the conversations he started, the minds he inspired, and the care he gave to ideas and to people. He will be profoundly missed by our faculty and the entire CPI community.

We invite you to share your favorite memory or words in honor of him in the comments 🤍

06/18/2025

Dear Institute community,

Ilonka Alexander is the granddaughter of Institute founder Franz Alexander. She is also a psychotherapist herself, as well as the author of several books about her grandfather and her family.

In the photo below, Ilonka's grandmother Anita Venier Alexander is pictured with an unidentified man. If anyone would like to help her with her current research project and might know who the man in the picture is, please reply in the comments.

Thank you in advance for your help.

06/11/2025

Is burnout creeping in this summer?

You’re not unmotivated or broken. Burnout is a real response to prolonged stress — and it deserves real care. You deserve true rest.

Our Summer Support Series is here to help you recharge. For the first week, we’re focusing on small ways to recognize and recover from burnout so you can reconnect with yourself.

🌿 Therapy can be part of your reset. Visit the link in our bio!
📩 Message us to learn more!

06/06/2025

Kudos to Our Authors!

Congratulations to former Institute Dean Neal Spira! His new article, "Mind and Body: Whatever happened to psychosomatics?" has just come out in The American Psychoanalyst magazine, a publication of the American Psychoanalytic Association.

In his article, Spira traces the concept of psychosomatics back to the 1895 book, "Studies on Hysteria," by Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer. He then goes on to discuss the founding of the Chicago School of Psychosomatic Medicine by Helen Flanders Dunbar and Institute founder Franz Alexander.

Spira continues to follow the development of psychosomatic thinking up to the recent past. He examines the considerable scientific evidence for a mind-body connection before addressing the question, "What happened?" Among the possible explanations Spira offers for the decline of interest in psychosomatics is the possibility that "a combination of public disappointment [in some of the early promises of psychoanalysis] and professional lack of interest may have converged and impacted on the pursuit of the connection between psychic distress and somatic disease."

One of the most likely contributors to the decline of psychosomatics, Spira says in conclusion, is the rise of medicalization, or the focus on patients' physical symptoms of distress and their treatment with drugs, to the exclusion of social contributors that lead to emotional symptoms of distress. He ends on a positive note, though, saying that "there is also a great opportunity for us to remember where we came from and to reassert our interest in the frontier between the" mind and the body.

You can read Spira's new article at the link below.

Whatever happened to psychosomatics?

06/05/2025

Congratulations to the 2025 graduates of our Psychoanalytic Education Program and our Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program! Below are the candidates who have completed their studies with the Institute and who will be honored tomorrow evening at the Institute's headquarters at 8 South Michigan in Chicago:

Psychoanalytic Education Program Graduates:

Lori He Liang

Bobbie Davis (Child & Adult Program)

Lolly Connolly

Sharron He

Peter Shaft (Child/Adult)

Sepideh Firouzi

Alexandra Hedberg

Summer Wang

Jim Grabowski

Sultan Al-Owidha

Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program Graduates:

Neal Swartz

Karyn Sandlos

Taotao Huang

Lin Zhou

Shirley Zhang

Tianyi Ma

Irene Zhang

Cecilia Wu Xi

Anna Belozer

Rachel Du

Ren Zhe

Noha AbdulGhaffar

Suad Hashim