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Community Psychoanalysis: Bringing the Individual and the Communal Together

Author(s) : Neil Altman

Reviews and Endorsements

This is the badly needed definitive textbook, an inspiration for every student of Psychoanalysis in the Community. Altman fills a need for Departments of Psychology, Psychoanalytic Institutes and nationwide courses in Community Applications of Psychoanalysis. Lucidly explaining the origins of psychoanalytic work in communities, Altman begins with Freud’s free clinics and ends with modern theories of group interactions, group psychological processes, and connects us with nonlinear processes at work unseen and seldom appreciated by those of us working one on one in private offices. A tour de force, written boldly and honed by real-life work in the streets and public spaces of the world. A masterpiece.
Gilbert Kliman, MD, receipient of the Janusz Korczak award for world’s best book concerning the nurture and well-being of children, Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s Rieger Award, APSA’s Humanitarian Award, APSA’s Freud Award, IPA’s 2025 award for psychoanalytic research influencing other fields

One of the most valuable contributions of Community Psychoanalysis, which aims to veer the profession away from its predominantly individualistic orientation, is the hard-won insight that communities are not undifferentiated groups, just as individuals can hardly be autonomous and autotelic. If people are singular entities, so are communities, Altman argues powerfully, paving the way for a psychoanalysis in the community that considers intrapsychic dynamics in the necessary context of social dynamics. Magisterial in its overview of the translations and adaptations of European psychoanalysis circulating in an international frame, the work is incisive and pragmatic in defining what psychoanalysis is, what the critical stakes of community psychoanalysis are, and what the discipline's very survival depends on. Altman proves himself a virtuoso analyst in the inner city, yet again, and additionally a historian of the social dimensions of psychoanalysis from its inception.
Ankhi Mukherjee, University of Oxford, author of Unseen City: The Psychic Lives of the Urban Poor

Community Psychoanalysis: Bringing the Individual and the Communal Together accomplishes what it sets out to do. It has a breadth, scope and historical focus that bridges global and national events. The push for community psychoanalysis continues to be a challenge, yet there are initiatives that may yet yield greater results. This book will certainly contribute to moving this effort forward.
Luz Towns-Miranda, Ph.D.

Altman’s groundbreaking book shatters the boundaries of traditional psychoanalysis, charging the field to confront its own exclusivity and social blind spots. In a world where the social matrix shapes every psyche, Altman urges us to “take the red pill”—to see how power, community, and context pulse through every analytic encounter. Challenging the old model of the private office and high fees, he envisions a vibrant, flexible “community psychoanalysis” that lives in the real world, embracing diversity, unpredictability, and group dynamics. With passion and urgency, Altman demands a psychoanalysis that listens deeply, adapts boldly, and works for all, not just the few.
Rev. Sheila P Johnson, MPS, LP, Chair and President, Harlem Family Services, Inc.