Contributors
Loray Daws, Ph.D., Reg. Psych., FAPA
Loray Daws is a Registered Clinical Psychologist with the Health Professions Counsel of South Africa and a Registered Psychologist with the College of Psychologists of British Columbia, Canada. He graduated from the University of Pretoria and served as a full time lecturer from 1998 to 2006. Since formally leaving the University of Pretoria he completed a three year post- graduate certificate in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for the disorders of self (personality disorders) and serves as faculty member at the International Masterson Institute for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in New York since 2010. Loray moved with his family to Vancouver Island in 2009 where he currently works as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. Never far from the academic field Loray still serves as assistant editor for Global Journal of Health Sciences , evaluator and international advisory board member of the International Journal of Psychotherapy (IJP), assistant editor at EPIS (Existential Psychoanalytic Institute and Society) and has published articles on dreaming, psychosomatic disorders (burning mouth syndrome and eating disorders) and the disorders of the self in journals such as the International Journal of Psychotherapy, Issues in Psychoanalytic Psychology, South African Rorschach Journal, and Clinical Counselling and Contemporary Psychotherapy. He also supervises and teaches in South Africa, Canada, the United States, Australia and Turkey and is currently a post-doctoral fellow at EPIS.
Victor L. Schermer, Ph.D.
Victor L. Schermer is a psychologist
and psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice in Philadelphia, PA. He is a Life Fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association. Author or co-editor of eight books and a regular contributor to professional journals, his most recent book, Meaning, Mind, and Self-Transformation: Psychoanalytic Interpretation and the Interpretation of Psychoanalysis (London: Karnac, 2015) explores the relationship between hermeneutical-existential philosophy and psychoanalytic theory and practice.
Michele Valentin, Ph.D.
Michele Valentin is a Professor of French (University of Montana) and researcher/teacher for EPIS—specializing in French textuality of Lacanian obedience. Topics: popular culture, French/US and West African cinema, politics and the arts.
Sunayana Baruah, M.Phil, MCP
Sunayana Baruah is completing an M.Phil. degree in Psychoanalytic Studies at Trinity College, Dublin on the 31st of July,2015. She also has a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Amity University, New Delhi. Sunayana’s studies focus on the amalgamation of traditional psychoanalytic systems with eclecticism in therapeutic approaches. Her other interests are existential psychotherapy and metaphysics. Besides writing, she invests her time in photography, gastronomic pursuits and yoga.
Brenna Gradus
Brenna Gradus is originally from the New York City suburbs of New Jersey. She now resides in Missoula, Montana as a third-year student of Philosophy at the University of Montana. She serves as both an Intern and Student Liaison for EPIS, and spends her spare time studying subjects including but certainly not limited to critical theory, psychoanalysis, and Eastern philosophy when she isn’t tending to her duties as Pet Care Specialist at Quick Paws Hiking Company.
Steven Goldman, Ph.D.
Steven Goldman, Ph.D. studied at St. John’s College (honors graduate), The University of Paris, Heidelberg University, and completed his doctorate in philosophy at the Claremont Graduate University (CGS fellow). Steve started teaching in the early 80’s – formerly at places like the UC Irvine, the Claremont Colleges, the Venice Community Adult School, the Art Institute of Portland, Pacific Northwest College of Art – and currently at Portland State University. Steve writes under the name ‘Steven Brutus’ and has several books out there including Important Nonsense (2012), which was named one of the best 100 books of 2012 on Kirkus Reviews “indie list.” Steve’s most recent book is Orientation in World Philosophy: A Companion for the Examined Life. Steve started dabbling in philosophical counseling in the 1980’s and has written extensively about the application of philosophy to therapy.
Robert S. Corrington, Ph.D.
Robert S. Corrington, PhD is the Henry Anson Buttz Professor of Philosophical Theology in the Graduate Division of Drew University in Madison, NJ. Author of ten books and many articles, his current book project is Deep Pantheism: Toward a New Transcendentalism, forthcoming from Lexington books in 2016. For decades he has been unfolding his philosophical perspective of “Ecstatic Naturalism,” that represents a new metaphysics of nature. His interests include, metaphysics, aesthetics, pragmatism, Continental Philosophy, and psychoanalysis.
Gary Kolb, Ph.D.
Dr. Gary Kolb is a clinical
psychologist with an active
practice in the State of
Washington, USA. He has
recently finished a program at
the Institute of Contemporary
Psychoanalysis in Los
Angeles, and is currently a
psychoanalytic candidate at
the Existential Psychoanalytic
Institute & Society. His current
research explores the effects
of technology on the psyche
from a psychoanalytic and
phenomenological perspective. He lives in Aberdeen, Washington with his wife and children.
Andrew Nutt, MA
Andrew has a degree in theology and biblical studies from Moody Theological Seminary and currently is finishing a degree in counseling psychology. He is an itinerant speaker and adjunct professor addressing suffering from a phenomenological and theological perspective. His research interest is in intersubjective ontology and the philosophic foundations of counseling theories, specifically relational models of healing. Andrew is a member of EPIS and lives in Alaska when he is not traveling or studying.
Professor Emeritus Roger Burggraeve, Ph.D.
Roger Burggraeve was born in Passendale, Flanders (Belgium), in 1942. Salesian of Don Bosco (priest). Licentiate in Philosophy (Rome, 1966). Doctorate in Moral Theology (Leuven, 1980). Associate Professor at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven (1980-1988). Professor (Ordinarius) from 1988 till 2007; now Emeritus Professor. Has taught at the Faculties of Theology, Pharmacy, Philosophy, Canon Law, Medicine (Dentistry, Sexuality and Family Sciences) courses of Fundamental Theological Ethics; Sexual and Relational Ethics; Faith, Biblical Thought, and Ethics; Faith, Values, and Ethics: on Emmanuel Levinas’ Ethical and Metaphysical Thinking; Perspectives on Religion and Meaning; Pharmaceutical Ethics. As Emeritus with an assignment he continued till 2010 to teach courses on “Bible and Ethics”, “Christian Sexual and Conjugal Ethics”, and “An Ethics of Growth for Difficult Pastoral and Educational Situations” at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven. He actually taught the same courses as Visiting Professor at the International Institute for Religious and Catechetical Sciences ‘Lumen Vitae’ (Brussels), Dharmaram College (Bangalore, India), in Congo, Kenya, and Canada. Since 1987 he was the Co-founder and Chair, and now he is the Honorary Chair of the Centre for Peace Ethics, KU Leuven.
Domains of research: the ethical and religious (Jewish) thinking of Emmanuel Levinas; the relationship between Christian faith and ethics; sexual, relational, marital and family ethics and education; ethics and (therapeutic/pastoral/educational) guidance; the relationship between bible and philosophy (with special attention for the dialogical Jewish philosophy of Rosenzweig, Buber and Levinas). He also developed an ethical model of growth for education, social welfare, and pastoral work. He is a member of several Ethical Committees (Caritas Catholica Flanders, Ethical Committee for Metally Disabled People, Flemish Welfare Union). He published more than 365 books, articles and contributions in English, Dutch, French, Italian, and Japanese on: Emmanuel Levinas; relational, sexual and marriage ethics; Bible and ethics; nationalism and holy war; education, pastoral guidance, social welfare and ethics; evil, judgement, revenge or retaliation, forgiveness and reconciliation.
He is last but not least Spiritual Director at the Holy Spirit College in Leuven, where 50 to 60 international priests (Asia and Africa) reside for studies in theology, philosophy or canon law.