Join us for an illuminating exploration of the hidden narratives and alternative histories that have shaped psychoanalytic practice from Los Angeles to the broader therapeutic landscape.

Hannah Zeavin will open our program by examining the overlooked histories of psychoanalysis and psychiatry, revealing how these forgotten chapters continue to inform and illuminate contemporary therapeutic practice. Her presentation will challenge therapists and scholars to reconsider their current knowledge base through the lens of these radical historical perspectives.

Following Zeavin, David James Fisher will focus specifically on Los Angeles’s unique psychoanalytic heritage, presenting his research “California Dreamin’: On the History of Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles With Special Emphasis on the Merger of 2005.” Fisher’s presentation will uncover the distinctive developments that made LA a crucial yet underexamined center of psychoanalytic innovation.

Perwana Nazif will moderate a lively discussion between our presenters, facilitating dialogue about how these historical insights reshape our understanding of psychoanalytic theory and practice today.

This program offers a rare opportunity to discover the untold stories that have influenced modern therapeutic approaches while exploring the specific cultural and institutional forces that made Los Angeles a unique laboratory for psychoanalytic thought.

PRESENTERS:

Hannah Zeavin, PhD is Assistant Professor of the History of Science in the Department of History and the Berkeley Center for New Media at UC Berkeley. She is the author of The Distance Cure: A History of Teletherapy (MIT Press) and Mother Media: Hot and Cool Parenting in the 20th Century (MIT Press). She is the Founding Editor of Parapraxis and cofounded The Psychosocial Foundation in 2021. She is at work on her third book, All Freud’s Children: A Story of Inheritance (US: Penguin Press; UK: Fern Press).

David James Fisher, PhD is Senior Faculty at the New Center for Psychoanalysis and Training and Supervising Analyst at the Institute of contemporary Psychoanalysis. He specializes in the history of psychoanalysis, the convergence of cultural history within psychoanalysis, and psychoanalytic applications to politics, movies, literature, and works of art. Dr. Fisher’s background is in European Cultural and Intellectual History. He has published four books: The Subversive Edge of Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 2025), Bettelheim: Living and Dying (2008), Cultural Theory and Psychoanalytic Tradition (2009), and Romain Rolland and the Politics of Intellectual Engagement (1988, 2011). He has been practicing psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in Los Angeles for 45 years.

Moderator:
Perwana Nazif, PhD is the Art Director of the Los Angeles Review of Books and a contributing editor at Parapraxis. She recently edited Institutional Psychotherapy as a Resistance Movement by François Pain (Semiotext(e), 2025) and teaches at the California Institute of the Arts.

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