Concrete life circumstances – trauma, early abuse, neglect, and poverty – shape a person’s path and can lead to homelessness. This presentation by Stuart Perlman, PhD, Gerard Sobnosky, LMFT, FIPA, and Daniel Farrell, LCSW, aims to raise awareness of psychoanalytic and psychoanalytically informed work being done with the unhoused population.
The total number of Americans experiencing homelessness on a single night in 2024 was the highest ever recorded – 771,480 (as compared to 567,715 in 2019). In California, that estimate was 187,084 and in Los Angeles, the point-in-time estimated people experiencing homelessness was 72,308 in the county and 43,699 in the city.
During the presentation the three psychoanalysts will offer insight into the unique challenges for mental health practitioners in working with the unhoused, and strategies for addressing those challenges. Using his poignant oil portraits and documentary film Struggle In Paradise, Perlman will discuss his striking work interviewing and painting portraits of unhoused people in Los Angeles. Sobnosky will discuss his ongoing 5-year analysis of an unhoused man and will examine the concepts of the “unhoused mind”, and the “Diogenes paradigm” to help understand the patient’s subjective experience and the analytic work. Farrell will discuss his work with the homeless at a clinical and organizational level, including his current work as Chief Operations Officer at HELP USA, which provides transitional shelter and permanent supportive housing to thousands of clients and tenants across multiple U. S. states.
Gerard Sobnosky, LMFT, FIPA is a psychoanalyst and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in San Pedro, CA. He holds two master’s degrees in psychology and is on the faculty, Admissions Committee, and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Committee at the New Center for Psychoanalysis. He has presented at local, national, and international conferences, and is a former member of Board of Directors of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and former Vice President for North America for the International Psychoanalytic Studies Organization.
Stuart Perlman, PhD is a psychoanalyst and training and supervising analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis where he has been a member of the Board of Directors, and chairs of admissions and curriculum. Dr. Perlman graduated from the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute and was a faculty member. He was president of the Southern California Chapter of Division 39 of the American Psychological Association. He has published many articles in psychoanalytic journals and authored the book The Therapist’s Emotional Survival: Dealing with the Pain of Exploring Trauma. Perlman has painted oil portraits of over 250 homeless individuals, right where they live, collecting their life stories, art and music.
Daniel Farrell, LCSW is a psychoanalyst and Chief Operating Officer of HELP USA. Trained in psychoanalysis at the New York Institute for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, he is an Adjunct Professor at Hunter College’s School of Social Work, a published author of multiple papers on homelessness, and a speaker at regional, national, and international conferences.
