Steven H. Cooper, Ph.D.
Clinical Professor of Medical Psychology (in Psychiatry)
Training and Supervising Analyst
Private Office
275 Central Park West, Suite 1C
New York, NY 10024
Areas of Interest
I am interested in both clinical and theoretical psychoanalysis. I have done writing in the areas of comparative psychoanalysis (especially the evolution of psychoanalytic concepts), defense theory, transference-countertransference engagement, and in the last ten years how play informs all psychoanalytic work. In the area of writing, in addition to a book on play in psychoanalysis, I have written several other books that focus on elements of the analyst's subjective participation in clinical analysis. I teach seminars in each of these areas.
Professional Biography
I did my analytic training at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute from 1981-1986. I became a Training and Supervising analyst there in 1995 and maintain a TASA appointment there now. I introduced five new seminars into the curriculum there including the widening range of patients for analytic work, a seminar on the evolution of basic concepts in psychoanalysis and seminars on both Relational theory and the Independent Tradition.
I love psychoanalytic theory but I don't subscribe to one school or another. I have been influenced by Freud, Klein, Winnicott (by far my largest influence), Fairbairn, Bion, Ogden, Mitchell, and Laplanche. Among contemporary theorists I'm most interested in the work of Ogden and Michael Parsons.
I have served multiples terms on the editorial boards of IJP, JAPA, and Contemporary Psychoanalysis. I was editor in chief of Psychoanalytic Dialogues for a five year term.
My four books have examined the psychoanalytic relationship, focusing on the intersubjective matrix as a way of understanding what our patients are feeling and communicating. Over the last ten years or so I have been thinking about how play is the theoretical logic that underlies all of psychoanalytic process.
I love psychoanalysis, practicing, teaching, supervising, and learning.
Selected Presentations and Publications
Cooper, S. H. (2022) The limits of intimacy and the intimacy of limit: Play and its relation to the bad object. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 70: 241-261.
Cooper, S. H. (2022) The activity of neutrality. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 91(2):355-369.
Cooper, S. H. (2021) Donald Winnicott and Stephen Mitchell’s Developmental Tilt Hypothesis Reconsidered. Psychoanalytic Dialogues. 31:3, 355-370.
Cooper, S. H. (2021) Toward an Ethic of Play. Psychoanalytic Quarterly. 90: 373-397.
Cooper, S.H. (2018). Playing in the Darkness: Use of the Object and Use of the Subject. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 66(4):743-765.
Cooper, S.H. (2015). Clinical Theory at the Border(s): Emerging and Unintended Crossings in the Development of Clinical Theory. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 96(2):273-292.
Cooper, S.H. (2015). Reflections on the Analyst’s “Good Enough” Capacity to Bear Disappointment, with Special Attention to Repetition. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 63(6):1193-1213.
Grant Support
NIMH Grants from 1980-1988 studying psychodynamic concepts such as conflict and defense in personality disorder - BPD, AntisocialPersonality Disorder and Bipolar Type 2
MacArthur Foundation subsidiary grants in which Mardi Horowtiz was the chief investigator. He was the receiver of these grants (genius award) and I was able to receive funding from him to study the relationship between psychodynamic and cognitive contracts.
APsA grants to study personality disorder, 1986-1988
Education and Training
B.A., Washington University, 1973
Ph.D., DePaul University, 1978
Northwestern University, 1978, Internship
Northwestern University, 1979, Postdoctoral
Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, 1988