Austen Riggs Online Education

The Erikson Institute of Austen Riggs Center is pleased to provide online continuing education (CE) / continuing medical education (CME). CE/CME credit is provided through video/audio courses with an emphasis on psychodynamic psychotherapy. CME/CE certificates are provided upon completion. Credit is available for those with an MD, PhD, PsyD and social workers at this time.  All mental health professionals and students are welcome to experience course offerings and can be provided with a certificate of completion. As a registered member of this educational platform, your courses and transcripts are available on demand. REGISTER to have access to courses. Check back to see new course offerings and thank you for browsing.

A Collaboration with the Freud Museum Vienna and the Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center

Roundtable 1: After Vienna: A Conversation with Otto Kernberg, MD and Thomas Kohut, PhD (Recording)

The opening roundtable examined the experiences two prominent psychoanalysts, Otto Kernberg and Heinz Kohut who were forced to emigrate from Vienna as the Holocaust approached. Dr. Kernberg spoke about his life and career considering his emigration experience, and Tom Kohut, PhD, spoke about how the emigration experience of his father Heinz Kohut influenced his personal and professional life and work. How both men have shaped American psychoanalysis was examined. This discussion was moderated by Nancy McWilliams, PhD.

Roundtable 2: Refugee Psychoanalysts 1920-1955: Enriching Psychoanalysis in the Americas

The second roundtable examined the experience of emigrant analysts in the United States and the history of forced migration of psychoanalysts from Europe. 

Roundtable 3: Genocide: What Psychoanalysis Lost in the Holocaust

In this third roundtable, panelists discussed what was lost when entire institutes were destroyed through emigration, war, and genocide. While some institutes like the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society were re-established, the roundtable looked at the ways the individuals, their families, organizations, and the field grappled with loss and death in the post-war period. 

Roundtable 4: Beyond Forced Emigration: Contemporary Émigré Experience in Psychoanalysis

The field of psychoanalysis in the 21st century has been shaped by the history of emigration in the 20th century—this fourth panel looks at the way that today’s immigrant psychoanalysts experience identity, otherness, and place and how those histories will continue to change the field.

These roundtables are part of "From Despair to Hope: The Holocaust, Immigration, and Psychoanalysis in North America," a collaboration between the Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center and the Sigmund Freud Museum honoring the late Anton O. Kris, MD. 

This program is supported in part by Steven C. Ackerman and grants from the Stockbridge Cultural Council and the Lee Cultural Council, local agencies that are supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

Educational, Non-Credit Event Recordings 

The Erikson Institute supports a number of educational, non-CE/CME programs throughout the year and are happy to make the recordings available to the public.  

Below is a listing, by date, of recorded programs available; click on each one to view: 

• 2/10/23: Apocalyptic Times and the Missing Debate (Jonathan Sklar, LRCP, MRCS, MBBS, FRCPsych, TQAP)
• 1/12/23: 2022 Media Prize Winner--Cured
• 7/23/22: Repairing Trust and Rebuilding Relationships with All Members of the Community, Riggs-Yale 2022 
• 4/8/22: The Social Industry of Distributed Fascism (Richard Seymour, PhD)
• 2/17/22: Large Group Identity, Fallen Idols, and the Capitol Siege (Molly Castelloe, PhD, and others)
• 2/4/22: The Language of Belief–Religious Conversion in 18th Century Iroquoia (Scott Stevens, PhD) 
• 1/12/22: Wit v. United Behavioral Health (Eric M. Plakun, MD, and others)
• 10/18/21: 2021 Media Prize Winner–Orchestrating Change  
• 7/29/21: Memoir, Twinship and Mental Health (Marilyn Peterson Haus and others)

For any questions, please reach out to education@austenriggs.net