Rory Varrato, PhD candidate in the Philosophy and Education Program at Teachers College, has been awarded a 2024-2025 fellowship position with the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA). Approximately fifteen Fellows are selected from across the country each year for this highly competitive award.

As explained on the APsA website, “the Fellowship Program is designed as an early-career initiative for future leaders and educators in the fields of academia, mental health, psychiatry, psychology, social work, and multidisciplinary endeavors. It provides an opportunity to gain knowledge about psychoanalysis and become involved in your local and national psychoanalytic community.”

Fellowship winners will have all expenses paid to attend APsA’s 2025 National Meeting at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, CA. Moreover, “Fellows will attend scientific sessions and be invited to present clinical, research, and other material at a variety of seminars and workshops. Fellow will be assigned an APsA mentor. The mentor relationship is a central component of the fellowship, and Fellows have the option of requesting a second mentor to facilitate their professional development. They will also receive subscriptions to various psychoanalytic publications.”

Rory is currently a scholar at the Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis in New Haven, CT. Some of his psychoanalytic research interests include the philosophy and pedagogy of psychoeducation; the etiology and treatment of borderline personality disorder; and the critical sociopsychoanalytic theories of Erich Fromm, especially his conception of socialist humanism.Read more about the APsA Fellowship Program here, in Esther Rashkin’s 2010 American Imago article, “The American Psychoanalytic Association Fellowship: A Unique Opportunity for Academics and Multidisciplinary Educators and Researchers.”