Leadership Roles

Mark D. Smaller — June 25, 2014

Mark D. Smaller, PhD, this month assumes the role of president of the American Psychoanalytic Association, having served as president-elect since June 2012. Dr. Smaller, the first social worker elected president in APsaA's 100-year history, will serve until June 2016.

Dr. Smaller received his bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and his master's and doctorate degrees in social work from the University of Chicago. He trained in child, adolescent and adult psychoanalysis at the Chicago Institute of Psychoanalysis, from which he graduated. He is on the faculty of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis and the Institute for Clinical Social Work.

In addition to his private practice in Chicago and Saugatuck, MI, Dr. Smaller is the founding director of Project Realize, an in-school treatment and research project at Morton Alternative High School located in Cicero, IL.

Dr. Smaller has served APsaA in a number of leading roles: as chairman of the Committee on Public Information, the Committee on Social Issues and the Committee on Foundations. In 2008 he received the American Psychoanalytic Association's Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Smaller is a former director and current trustee of the Neuropsychoanalysis Foundation, located in New York.

As he looks forward to his term in office, Dr. Smaller describes his commitment to moving psychoanalysis beyond the office setting, We need to raise public awareness of the value of psychoanalysis not only as an effective treatment method, but also underscore its application in solving social issues, enriching literature and the arts, facilitating effective business and management, and its usefulness in the everyday lives of children and families.

Geralyn Lederman, Ph.D.
Director of Public Affairs

The American Psychoanalytic Association
309 East 49th St., New York, NY 10017
212-752-0450 ext. 29 | apsa.org