Derner Ranks 4th in Psychology-Psychoanalytic Studies

According to the Center for World University Ranking, Adelphi University acheived fourth place in 2017 for its scholarly contributions in the area of Psychology-Psychoanalysis.

We love Derner and we are confident that it is in fact one of the greatest programs worldwide. However, a good psychologist always inquires, investigates, delves deeper, and stays curious. As the stellar clinicians that the faculty trained us to be, we asked, “How does this make you feel?” Dr. Bob Bornstein said he feels proud, “This formal recognition of our contributions is a great honor, and is testament to the quality of our program, and the excellent scholarly work of Derner’s students and faculty.” Then he added, “We should have been ranked third, the voting was obviously rigged.”

2017 Rankings by Subject, Center for World University Ranking (www.cwur.org/2017/subjects.php#Psychology, Psychoanalysis)

Dr. Bob Mendelsohn feels proud too and says, “This is an impressive win.” Dr. Josephs feels happy and satisfied that he was able to contribute to the ranking, given that he publishes often with psychoanalytic journals: “Adelphi is a major contributor to psychoanalytic psychology only behind Harvard, NYU, and Columbia, but ahead of Yale.” Dean Jacques Barber says, “I am pleased with the recognition as we are a special place.” Finally, Dr. Chris Muran summarizes it all by saying, “This is a real tribute to the legacy of Derner!”

As the faculty expressed their joy, we students asked, “What made them think that way?” Dr. Josephs explained, “The ranking is based on the number of articles published by a school in psychoanalytic journals in combination with the impact factor of the journals.” Dean Barber shared that the ranking reflects scholarship within psychoanalytic-psychology journals related with a university, and for him this was a testament to Derner’s effort toward encouraging scholarship within our student body. Dr. Bornstein further clarifies, “This reflects Derner’s strong reputation within the psychoanalytic community.”

We follow up with, “What does that mean to you?” For Dr. Muran this is a source of pride, and he hopes the faculty and staff will feel the same, “I hope this will serve as an encouragement as we continue to develop and integrate analytic theory and practice to meet the current demands of the field.” Dr. Mendelsohn hopes this means that Derner will continue to be recognized as the home of Psychotherapy Integration which started at SUNY Stony Brook with central contributions from two of our faculty members, Dean Emeritus George Stricker and Dr. Jerry Gold. In addition, Dr. Mendelsohn hopes that this will help us get more funding. “Fundraising work has a special place for me, as several members of my family got their doctoral education from Derner.” He also thanks Dean Barber, Dr. Muran, and Director of Practicum Training Dr. Jonathan Jackson who have always committed to bringing in funds in order to offset the tuition costs.

Finally, we ask, “What do you want to do about it?” Well, of course… We want to push up ahead so we rank 1st. Dr. Josephs, Dr. Bornstein, Dean Barber, and Dr. Muran are encouraging students to publish more articles in the major psychoanalytic journals given that this contributes to the ranking. The Dean reminds us that Derner has implemented a new dissertation track in order to support the doctoral students’ work. “I would love to see more of our Ph.D. students’ work being published as a recognition of the hard work you all put in your scholarship.” Dr. Josephs shares, “as an editor at the International Journal of Psychoanalysis for the last ten years I’d be happy to help any student develop papers that could get published in those journals.” Dr. Bornstein is encouraging students to present at psychoanalytic conferences and he stresses that we need to inform our non-analytic colleagues about our research, “We must build on this achievement by moving beyond the psychoanalytic community, and letting the broader psychological community know about our theoretical and empirical work.”

Dr. Josephs concludes by saying, “I think it is good that our niche is one of the few remaining bastions of psychoanalytic psychology…I hope that in the future we can maintain or even increase our rank.” Similarly, Dr. Bornstein shares, “Psychoanalysis was once at the center of mainstream psychology, but over the years it has become marginalized. I believe that psychodynamic concepts will soon re-emerge as central to psychological science and practice, and we are well-positioned to be at the forefront of this effort.” We hope that you agree with our analytic findings and you will help us implement the treatment.