Ben Kafka, PhD

Ben Kafka, Ph.D., L.P., is an associate professor of clinical psychoanalysis in the Department of Psychiatry at the Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. He’s also a fellow at the DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine. He works with adults, young adults, and adolescents in private practice in Greenwich Village.

Alongside his clinical practice, Dr. Kafka has had a long career as a teacher and writer, including nearly two decades as a professor of the history and theory of communication at NYU. Over the years he’s also been visiting faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton; the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute; and the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis. He’s the author of The Demon of Writing: Powers and Failures of Paperwork (Zone Books, 2012) as well as several dozen articles, essays, and reviews. He’s currently working on a book that investigates the interpersonal dynamics that make us feel “crazy” (gaslighting, double binds, mind games, passive aggression, etc.).

Dr. Kafka received his B.A. from Brown, his Ph.D. in History from Stanford, and his clinical training from the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR), with additional training through the Melanie Klein Trust. He serves on the boards of the Foundation for Community Psychoanalysis and the New York Institute for the Humanities.