The Div. 39 Fund for Psychoanalysis has been renamed the Marsha D. McCary Fund for Psychoanalysis in honor of its founder and devoted leader. The fund has been established to increase public awareness of the benefits of psychoanalytic principles and treatments, and the applicability of psychoanalytic thought to clinical, organizational, and social problems.  

The fund has been established to recognize and promote the contributions of psychoanalysis to psychology as a science and profession. It encourages and supports programs in education, research, and service that will advance the profession and keep the psychological community and the public informed of developments in psychoanalytic scholarship, research, and practice. 

The fund will target populations that are in need of support, such as early career professionals, students from diverse backgrounds, and therapists working with underserved populations.

Fund for Psychoanalysis Committee

• Dennis Debiak, Chair
• Steve Axelrod
• Mary Beth Cresci
• Diana Diamond
• Bill MacGillivray
• Joe Schaller
• Arlene (Lu) Steinberg

Grant recipients*

2023 - Assessing the Value of Psychoanalytically-Informed Education and Treatment ($10,000)

Nicki Dawson, Ph.D., is a Counseling Psychologist from Johannesburg, South Africa. She is the Research Development and Training Lead at the Ububele Educational and Psychotherapy Trust. This grant will provide an opportunity to confirm the value of psychoanalytically-informed work in a South African context.

2022 — Undergraduate Education on Psychotherapy ($7,000)

Stephanie Kors, MA, of the Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard University “Effectiveness and empirical basis of mental health curriculum in Introduction to Psychology courses”

2021 — Psychoanalytic Treatment in a Community Setting ($6,000)

Nicole Daisy-Etienne, PhD, of Adelphi University. The grant was given for her work with the Derner Hempstead Child Clinic

2020 — Psychoanalytic Research on Important Public Issues ($6,000)

Katie Lewis of the Austen Riggs Center “Longitudinal Adaptation to Loss During COVID-19: An Attachment Perspective”

2019 — Articulating the Value of Psychoanalysis for the Public ($6,000)

Linda Michaels and The Psychotherapy Action Network “Re-Brand Talk Therapy for the Next Generation”

2018 — Dissertation Research in Psychoanalytic Psychology ($5,500)

Esen Karen (City College of New York “The Development of Facial Morphing Task to Assess Self and Other Differentiation.”  Michael Palumbo (City College of New York) “The effect of therapist mentalization on patient symptoms and attachment security.”

2017 — Innovation in Psychoanalytic Education ($5,500)

Francisco J. Gonzalez: “Educational Innovation Towards a Community Psychoanalysis”
The grant was given to help fund the initial development of a Community Psychoanalysis Track for candidates at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California.

2016 — Direct Community Service ($6,000)

James Grabowski: The Kedzie Center - Pequeños Exploradores/Little Explorers.
The grant was to help develop an eight-week program that supports parental attunement and responsiveness to the developing young child.

2015 — Research ($4,000)

Felicitas Rost: Combining Formal Qualitative Methodology with Outcome Findings to Explore and Elucidate the Sleeper Effect Observed in a RCT on the Effectiveness of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for Depression
The grant was given to study the “sleeper effect” in psychodynamic therapy, that is, the findings that participants in psychodynamic therapy continue to make gains after termination of treatment (in contrast to the erosion of gains after other forms of treatment). ​

2014 — Articulating the Value of Psychoanalysis for the Public ($4,000.)

Anne Dailey and Ann Prum: The Talking Cure.
The grant was given to a psychoanalyst and filmmaker duo to help develop a documentary on the history of the “talking cure” from the 20th to the 21st centuries. 

*By year, RFP area and grant amount. Grant size varies based on size of endowment and market rates of return.