Daniel Kriegman is an American psychologist and writer whose work focuses on the interface between psychoanalysis and evolutionary biology. He is a founder of the Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Institute of New England, and was a faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis. He was formerly Chief Psychologist and the Director of Supervision and Training at the Massachusetts Treatment Center for Sexually Dangerous Offenders, as well as the Clinical Director for the maximum-security, intensive-treatment unit for adolescents in Boston.
Kriegman is co-author, with Malcolm Slavin, of The Adaptive Design of the Human Psyche: Psychoanalysis, Evolutionary Biology, and the Therapeutic Process, a book that created the psychoanalytic paradigm known as evolutionary psychoanalysis, and co-editor, with J. G. Teicholz, of Trauma, Repetition, & Affect Regulation: The Work of Paul Russell. He has published over 30 scholarly articles and book chapters on topics related to the evolutionary understanding of human behavior and the theory and practice of psychoanalytic approaches to psychotherapy.
He has a full-time private practice providing psychoanalytic treatment to individuals, couples, and families in Newton, Massachusetts, as well as specialized work in forensic psychology (e.g., expert witness testimony in cases involving the prediction of dangerousness).
He is the founder of Zuzu's Place, [1] which is developing a cooperative housing alternative to the mental health system for people who have been diagnosed with major mental illnesses.
Kriegman is also one of the founders of an open source religion called Yoism and is the author of "The Word according to Yo."
The Adaptive Design of the Human Psyche: Psychoanalysis, Evolutionary Biology, and the Therapeutic Process, with Malcolm Slavin ISBN 0-89862-795-8 (Guilford Press, 1992).
Trauma, Repetition, & Affect Regulation: The Work of Paul Russell. Teicholz, J. G. & Kriegman, D. (Eds.), 1998. New York: The Other Press.
Articles
Kriegman, D. & Biederman, I. (1980). How many letters in Bidwell's ghost? An investigation of the upper limits of full report from a brief visual stimulus. Journal of Perception and Psychophysics, 28, 82-84. Featured in Scientific American, 252, 2, 126-127, 1985.
Kriegman, D. & Solomon, L. (1985a). Cult groups and the narcissistic personality: The offer to heal defects in the self. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 35, 2, 239-261.
Kriegman, D. & Solomon, L. (1985b). Psychotherapy and the "new religions": Are they the same? Cultic Studies Journal, 2, 1, 2-16.
Kriegman, D. (1988). Self psychology from the perspective of evolutionary biology: Toward a biological foundation for self psychology. In A. Goldberg (Ed.), Progress in Self Psychology, Vol. 3, (pp. 253–274). Hillsdale, New Jersey: The Analytic Press.
Slavin, M. O. & Kriegman, D. (1988). Freud, biology, and sociobiology. American Psychologist, 43, 658-661.
Kriegman, D. & Knight, C. (1988). Social evolution, psychoanalysis, and human nature. Social Policy, 19, 2, 49-55.
Kriegman, D. & Slavin, M. O. (1989). The myth of the repetition compulsion and the negative therapeutic reaction: An evolutionary biological analysis. In A. Goldberg (Ed.), Progress in Self Psychology, Vol. 5 (pp. 209–253). Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.
Slavin, M. O. & Kriegman, D. (1990). Toward a new paradigm for psychoanalysis: An evolutionary biological perspective on the classical-relational dialectic. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 7, 5-31.
Kriegman, D. & Slavin, M. O. (1990). On the resistance to self psychology: Clues from evolutionary biology. In A. Goldberg (Ed.), Progress in Self Psychology, Vol. 6, (pp. 217–250). Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.
Kriegman, D. (1990). Compassion and altruism in psychoanalytic theory: An evolutionary analysis of self psychology. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 18, 2, 342-367.
Slavin, M. O. & Kriegman, D. (1992). Psychoanalysis as a Darwinian depth psychology: Evolutionary biology and the classical-relational dialectic in psychoanalytic theory. In J. Barron, M. Eagle, and D. Wolitzky (Eds.), The Interface of Psychoanalysis and Psychology (pp. 37–76). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Kriegman, D. (1996). On the existential/subjectivism-scientific/objectivism dialectic in self psychology: A view from evolutionary biology. In A. Goldberg (Ed.), Progress in Self Psychology Vol. 12, (pp. 85–119). Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.
Kriegman, D. (1996). The effectiveness of medication: The Consumer Reports study. American Psychologist, 51, 10, 881.
Kriegman, D. (1998). Interpretation, the unconscious, and psychoanalytic authority: Toward an evolutionary, biological integration of the empirical/scientific method with the field-defining, empathic stance. In R.F. Bornstein & J.M. Masling (Eds.), Empirical Perspectives on the Psychoanalytic Unconscious (pp. 187–272). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Slavin, M. O. & Kriegman, D. (1998). An evolutionary biological perspective on psychoanalysis. In Robert Langs, (Ed.), Theories in Psychoanalysis (pp. 255–296). NY: International Universities Press.
Slavin, M. O. & Kriegman, D. (1998). Why the analyst needs to change: Toward a theory of conflict, negotiation, and mutual influence in the therapeutic process. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 8, 2, 247-284.
Slavin, M. O. & Kriegman, D. (1998). Bigger than both of us: Double binds, conflicting interests, and the inherent paradoxes of human relatedness. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 8, 2, 317-327.
Slavin, M. O. & Kriegman, D. (1998). Paradox and conflict, meta-communication and negotiation in psychoanalysis: Response to Dr. Ringstrom's discussion. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 8, 2, 293-296.
Slavin, M. O. & Kriegman, D. (1998, in press). Conflicting interests and the creation of a third space. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 8, 3.
Kriegman, D. (1998). Evolutionary psychoanalysis: An advance in understanding the human psyche or a phylogenetic fantasy. Contemporary Psychology, 43, 2, 138-139.
Kriegman, D. (1998). Of quantum leaps and oxymorons: A reply to Langs. Contemporary Psychology.
Kriegman, D. (1999). Trauma, conflict, and countertransference: A discussion of Peter Thomson's paper. Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis, 7, 1, 59-62.
Kriegman, D. (1999). Parental investment, sexual selection, and evolved mating strategies: Implications for psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 16, 4, 1-26.
Kriegman, D. (2000). Evolutionary psychoanalysis: Toward an adaptive, biological perspective on the clinical process in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. In P. Gilbert and K. Bailey (Eds.), Genes on the Couch: Explorations in Evolutionary Psychology (pp. 71–92). East Sussex, England: Psychology Press.
Kriegman, D. (2002). Interpreting & Negotiating Conflicts of Interests in the Analytic Relationship: A Discussion of Salee Jenkins's Clinical Case. In A. Goldberg (Ed.), Progress in Self Psychology, Vol. 18, (pp. 87–112). Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.
Kriegman, D. (2006). The reduction of sexual offense recidivism following commitment and psychodynamic treatment: A challenge to the dominant cognitive-behavioral model. The Journal of Sexual Offender Civil Commitment: Science and the Law, 1, 90-98.
Kriegman, D. (2014). The New Salem Witch Trials: Evaluating bias in expert witness conclusions of “sexual dangerousness. Part One.” Sex Offender Law Report. 15(4) Jun./Jul.
Kriegman, D. (2014). The New Salem Witch Trials: Evaluating bias in expert witness conclusions of “sexual dangerousness. Part Two.” Sex Offender Law Report. 15(5) Aug./Sep.
A Psycho-social Study of Religious Cults From the Perspective of Self Psychology (University Microfilms International, 1980), can be found here.
Appendix A to this doctoral thesis describes the recruitment process by which followers are inducted into a religious cult, Guru Mahara Ji's Divine Light Mission.
