Research and Publications
My research interests include psychotherapy for youth, psychoanalysis, and the intersection of psychoanalysis and evidence-based practice.
I bring these interests together in my academic work as well as in the clinical teaching of psychology, psychiatry, and social work trainees I conduct at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Evidence-Based Practice and Psychoanalytic Praxis course I teach at Harvard Medical School.
Youth Mental Health Crises and the Broken Social Link: A Freudian-Lacanian Perspective
"Freud said adolescence was a chance at a cure, one that often enough ends in complete devastation. The western world seems to be traversing a volatile adolescence, searching for a new form of maturity. Carl Waitz’s book is a stunning guide for a world without any rites of passage."
Jamieson Webster, author and psychoanalyst
"The kids are not ok – smart and kind they may be, but anxious and overworked; suicide second to accidents as a killer of teens. This meticulously argued and solidly researched book addresses burning questions relevant to youth mental health. Combining Lacanian psychoanalysis with sociology and anthropology, Waitz builds an indispensable clinical tool that opens new intellectual vistas."
Patricia Gherovici, psychoanalyst and author o
Lacanian Psychoanalysis and Eastern Orthodox Christian Anthropology
“In today’s world, we need faith, but one that is grounded in the essential mysteries that mark the human journey. In this volume, Waitz and Tisdale make a plea for the place of the inexplicable in both psychoanalysis and religion, inviting a reading of each that advocates for, not knowledge, but rather a learning that can continue to enrich our lives and spirits rather than closing down possibilities. For those attempting to move beyond pleasure and fear towards an ethic of personal responsibility, this is an important volume.”
Marilyn Charles, PhD, ABPP Staff Psychologist/Team Leader, Austen Riggs Center; Teaching Associate in Psychiatry, Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School; Training Analyst, Michigan Psychoanalytic Council, Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis
“In the Orthodox Christian world, psychoanalysis and psychotherapy have been met with suspicion, even prompting some theologians to invent a distinctive form of ‘Orthodox psychotherapy.’ This book provides an excellent introduction to Lacanian psychoanalysis, which is then brought into dialogue with Orthodox anthropology. The result is an authentic engagement that avoids reductionisms and mutual exclusivities. The authors succeed in demonstrating how theological anthropology could benefit from psychoanalysis, and vice versa. A must read for all interested in what it means to be human.”
Aristotle Papanikolaou, Professor of Theology, Fordham University
Archbishop Demetrios Chair in Orthodox Theology and Culture
Co-founding Director, Orthodox Christian Studies Center
Selected publications
Immersion in the mother: Lacanian perspectives on Borderline states
Waitz C. Psychoanalytic Review, 106(1), 29-47. (2019).
Acting out and psychoanalytically informed treatment in inpatient adolescent psychiatry
Waitz C. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 39(3), 209-216. (2022). https://doi.org/10.1037/pap0000405
Implementing Patient-Reported Outcome Measures on an Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatry Unit: A Feasibility Study
Waitz C, Caracansi A, Kaufman K, Campbell E, Anglemyer E, Anglero-Diaz Y, Paden S, Zou B, Ibeziako P. Psychological Services, 22(1), 112-119. (2024). https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/ser0000851
Surveying Child and Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatric Units: Demographics, Policies, and Practice.
Waitz C, Wolff J, Leffler J, et al. (2024). Evidence Based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/23794925.2024.2426178
Psychoanalytically Informed Care and Behavioral Medicine: Consideration and Recommendations for Evidence-Based Practice in Institutions.
Waitz C, & Bekkeli K. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 41(1), 1-7. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1037/pap0000489
Inpatient Psychiatry Patient Reported Outcomes: Adolescent Emotional Distress, Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors.
Ibeziako P, Kaufman K, Caracansi A, Anglero-Diaz Y, Anglemyer E, Paden S, Zou B, Campbell E, Waitz C. (2025). Psychiatric Research and Clinical Practice.
Selected Presentations
Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors in Adolescents: Psychoanalytically Informed Care
2023, Massachusetts Association for Psychoanalytic Psychology
Subjectivity, relationship, and the displacement of risk in psychotherapeutic and psychiatric treatment
2023, Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology (Division 24, American Psychological Association) Annual Spring Meeting
Suppressing Subjectivity: The Costs of Semantic Drift in Evidence-Based Practice in Psychology
2023, American Psychological Association Annual Convention
Helping or Harming?: Effectiveness and Iatrogenesis in Child/Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatry Units
2023, American Psychological Association Annual Convention
Understanding the Youth Mental Health Crisis: Bringing Theory to Public Health
2024, American Psychological Association Annual Convention