Dr. Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D. (a Psychological Corporation) is a licensed (PSY
11404)
clinical and
forensic psychologist who, after practicing
in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than twenty years, relocated in 1999 to Los Angeles, where
he currently resides and maintains a private psychotherapy practice in the Beverly
Hills area. (For more detailed information about Dr. Diamond's private practice, please refer to Psychology Today's online Therapist Directory.) In addition to specializing in adult psychotherapy, Dr. Diamond is a designated forensic
psychologist for the Los Angeles Superior
Court (Criminal Division), and formerly
served as a
forensic evaluator
and expert witness for the Superior Court of Santa Clara
County,
consulting on matters such as determining
competence to
stand trial, legal insanity, etc.
Dr. Diamond is currently a resident faculty member in the Department of Psychology at both Argosy University and Ryokan College in Los Angeles, teaching in both the Master's and Doctoral programs, was adjunct professor at John F.
Kennedy University Graduate School of
Professional
Psychology, and the Ignatius
University. He is assistant
clinical professor and former Training Clinic
Director at
Pacific Graduate School of Psychology (Palo Alto, CA). A
former pupil and
protégé of Dr. Rollo May, he has also taught
clinical courses at the
C.G.
Jung Institut-Zurich and the Institute of
Transpersonal
Psychology and conducted continuing education workshops at Santa
Clara
University, J.F.K. University, and the
Los Angeles Jung Institute. Dr. Diamond serves on the Board of Editors of both the Journal of Humanistic Psychology and the Colorado School of Professional Psychology Press, and is a member of both the American Psychological Association and the International Association for Jungian Studies (London). Professional publications
include articles
in
the San Francisco Jung Institute Library
Journal ,
the Journal of the
Society for
Existential Analysis, a chapter in the
popular
anthology
MEETING THE SHADOW: THE HIDDEN POWER OF THE
DARK SIDE OF
HUMAN NATURE (1991)
and his critically
acclaimed book
ANGER, MADNESS, AND THE DAIMONIC:
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL GENESIS OF
VIOLENCE, EVIL, AND CREATIVITY
Foreword by Rollo May. With a new Preface to the Fourth Printing
(SUNY Press, 1996/2007)
The current (2007) paperback version contains a new Preface to the Fourth Printing written by Dr. Diamond.
Anyone concerned about better understanding
ultraviolent events such as the vicious September 11th, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the D.C. area sniper shootings,
the spate of highschool massacres and the recent Virginia Tech shootings--as
well as the many other mass killings
and seemingly senseless acts of interpersonal and international violence happening
throughout the United States and elsewhere--will find in this volume some
provocative psychological speculations as to
why such destructive, evil deeds appear to be
proliferating within and without our culture, their
social, psychological and spiritual
significance, and
what the antidote to this evil epidemic of
violence might require of us. The following excerpt is from the book's Foreword:
"An excellent book. . . . I have always felt that Dr. Diamond's emphasis on the daimonic was extremely timely and important in our day. The myth of the daimonic covers vital, archetypal human experiences, as this work clearly illustrates."--Dr. Rollo May
This is an excerpt from the author's new (2007)Preface to the Fourth Printing:
"In hindsight, it seems obvious that during the tumultuous decade since this book's appearance, increasingly violent events proliferated dramatically: from multiple mass murders at schools and the workplace to monstrous episodes of parricide and infanticide to the detestable terrorist attacks on Sept 11, 2001. . . . While projecting the perennial problem of evil onto a few rogue nations or, for that matter, onto a particular nationality, ethnic group, religion, gender, culture, race, or individual is a highly dubious, dangerous and psychologically primitive defense mechanism, violence remains, as stated in this book, 'the preeminent evil of our day'. . . . Working productively with anger or rage in the psychotherapy process and the vicissitudes of doing or not doing so are topics discussed in detail in this text for the clinician's benefit. However, while far from being a traditional 'self-help' book, many of the ideas and concepts may be helpful to the general reader wrestling with anger or rage issues, other emotional or mental disorders, and the existential or spiritual puzzle posed by radical evil." (pp. xxiii-xxv)
Here are some other brief reviews from professional readers:
"This excellent book is unique in
making sense of the 'senseless violence' that
permeates American society today."--Dr. June
Singer, author of BOUNDARIES OF THE SOUL: THE
PRACTICE OF JUNG'S PSYCHOLOGY
"This is as clinically sophisticated a discussion of Rollo May's concept of the 'daimonic' as we are likely to see. Diamond lucidly exposes the passion at the core of our being human, does not flinch from examining the destructive pathologies that arise there, and identifies the telos of this strongly self-assertive energy, so glibly dismissed as narcissism. He discloses the daimonic as the self's essential capacity to claim and defend its own right to being itself." --John Beebe, M.D., author of INTEGRITY WITH DEPTH
"A fine book, well written, succinct, psychologically sound, and socially relevant."--John A. Sanford, author of EVIL: THE SHADOW SIDE OF REALITY and THE STRANGE TRIAL OF MR. HYDE
"Written with great vigor, clarity, and conviction, this book is fast paced and a pleasure to read."-- Dr. George B. Hogensen, author of JUNG'S STRUGGLE WITH FREUD
"A valuable work. Diamond's reach and his relevance are great." --E. James Lieberman, M.D., author of ACTS OF WILL: THE LIFE AND WORK OF OTTO RANK
"Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic explores the origin of anger and rage and how they can be canalized into constructive activity. This provocative book masterfully handles a complicated topic and ends with the credo that 'the indomitable human will and spirit to survive, create. . . and bestow meaning is the only sensible response to. . . violence and evil."--
Dr. Stan Krippner, AHP Perspective
"I like the timeliness of the work and how the author ties his concerns into social and clinical realities we all know boldly exist in our daily lives. I like the comprehensive scan of the cultural field around the phenomena of the daimonic and the author's practical concerns as a clinician to find more adequate ways of accepting, recognizing, and responding to the daimonic so that is does not become the destructive and demonic." --Dr. David J. Dalrymple, Vice President, National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis
"I hasten to endorse this remarkable book. The author covers every aspect of both evil and its curious connection with the creative daimonic. This study is balanced, objective and exhaustive. In a world that cannot forget Hitler and our modern atrocities, it is very timely." --Morton T. Kelsey, The University of Notre Dame
"Evocative, very thorough and succinct, Stephen Diamond's superb book will remain the seminal work on this shadowy subject for a long time to come." --Jeremiah Abrams, LCSW, co-author of MEETING THE SHADOW: THE HIDDEN POWER OF THE DARK SIDE OF HUMAN NATURE
"A comprehensive, very valuable work detailing the powers for good and evil of which humans are capable....[Dr. Diamond's] cataloguing of the history of the phenomenology of the unconscious--from medieval beliefs that the voices people heard were demons or angels, to Freud's Id, to Jung's Shadow--is [a] brilliant and indispensable resource for every student of human personality."--Ernest Becker Foundation Newsletter
"Powerful...Fascinating....Diamond's reach is ambitious: to consider the 'meaning' of human violence and evil....He asks what produces serial killers, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Bobbitt castration case, the O.J. Simpson murder trial, and explores more generally the male response to the rise of feminist anger. . . Enjoyable, extremely readable and accessible...A sincere, thought-provoking contribution to an important subject." --Journal of Analytical Psychology
"[R]ecommended. . . . draws on the discoveries of Freud, Jung, Adler, Rank, Reich, and Rollo May, as well as cultural and religious myths, to discuss with impressive scholarship and insight the origins and psychodynamics of destructive people."--Psychoanalytic Books
"In this remarkable book, Stephen Diamond follows the work of his mentor, Rollo May (1969), in focusing on the ancient Greek idea of the 'daimonic' which he distinguishes from the 'demonic'....Diamond stresses the dual nature of the daimonic and the failure of modern society to distinguish it from the wholly evil demonic as a factor in two, for Diamond, linked problems: first, the rampant outbursts of violence...,and second, the failures of contemporary cost-effective psychotherapies to address those forces in the human being that evoke antisocial behavior and at the same time have the capacity to free up the same individual's deepest creative energy."--Contemporary Psychology
"Revolutionary...the daimonic today is...the pursuing shadow of the human potential movement....Diamond's [courageous] book is a key to...understanding how to deal constructively with...anger and rage in psychotherapy and, most importantly, how to transform them creatively."--San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal
"Diamond shows how existential depth psychology can help us understand the anger and violence so rampant in American society. He explains how we are both subject to and responsible for powerful psychic forces active within us, forces which, depending on how we respond to them, can press toward either creative or destructive expressions. . . . Elegantly written, well researched, and clinically well informed. It is an important contribution."-- Michael Washburn, Ph.D., author of THE EGO AND THE DYNAMIC GROUND and TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY IN PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE, and editor of the SUNY series in the Philosophy of Psychology
"...an impressive piece of work. If current, conventional psychotherapies can grasp the notion of the "daimonic," it might even provide a bridge to the understanding of the deeper aspects of Jungian psychology."--Edward F. Edinger, M.D., author of EGO AND ARCHETYPE, THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE GOD-IMAGE and MELVILLE'S MOBY-DICK: A JUNGIAN COMMENTARY
(For much more
information on Dr.
Diamond's book, visit
SUNY PRESS, AMAZON.COM, BORDERS.COM and
BARNESANDNOBLE.COM).
Dr. Diamond's invited article appeared in a special edition of the Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, and is titled "Violence as Secular Evil: Forensic Evaluation and Treatment of Violent Offenders from the Viewpoint of Existential Depth Psychology" (Jan. 2003). (View or print this journal article for free on the web by searching for it by title at the International Association for Jungian Studies website. A revised version of this article has been published as a chapter in a textbook titled FORENSIC PSYCHIATRY: INFLUENCES OF EVIL, Tom Mason, ed., by Humana Press, 2005). Dr. Diamond also contributed a chapter titled "Psychotherapy, Evil, and the Daimonic: Toward a Secular Spiritual Psychology" to the recently published anthology, SPIRITUALITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH, L. Hoffman et.al, eds. (COSPP Press, 2005).
Watch also for the forthcoming publication of Dr. Diamond's invited review of a new book, "Healing with Death Imagery" (2007, Baywood Publishing Co.)edited by A & K. Sheikh, in the American Psychological Association's online journal PsycCRITIQUES.
Also look for the forthcoming (2009) publication of the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION (Springer), to which Dr. Diamond contributed several substantial articles.
As
this website evolves, it will include
links to other
sites of potential interest to visitors
seeking a further
understanding of depth psychology,
existential
psychotherapy, the psychology of
violence, evil, and creativity, and amplification of that specific psychotherapeutic orientation Dr.
Diamond has called
Existential Depth Psychology. It will also
include brief
excerpts from his book (view chapter
three,THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EVIL), reviews
of his book as well as
reviews he has written of other books, a
schedule of
upcoming workshops and lectures,
as well as any
media appearances. In 1996, Dr. Diamond delivered a
paper on "Myths of the
Unconscious" at the
SECOND WORLD CONGRESS FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY
in Vienna, Austria. His two half-hour segments taped in San Francisco (#'s 428 and 429) of the
nationally
syndicated
PBS program THINKING ALLOWED appeared regularly on local television stations around the country, and are still available directly from THINKING ALLOWED or the WISDOM CHANNEL.
Since the actual
broadcast dates vary from station to station,
check your
local listings and the
THINKING ALLOWED
website for
further
information.
Dr. Diamond now writes a monthly blog for PSYCHOLOGY TODAY titled "Evil Deeds," in which he discusses issues pertaining to both psychotherapy and forensic psychology. Readers can respond to postings at the Psychology Today site. As noted in some of his postings there, he is working on a new book, tentatively titled PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR THE SOUL.
On November 14, 2008, Dr. Diamond delivered the plenary presentation at the Existential-Humanistic Institute's Second Annual Conference in San Francisco. The title of his ninety-minute talk was "The Daimonic and Existential Depth Psychology: Putting the Punch Back Into Therapy."
CENTER FOR EXISTENTIAL DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY
In 2004, Dr. Diamond formally established the CENTER FOR EXISTENTIAL DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY in Los Angeles, offering clinical consultation groups and courses for licensed mental health professionals and advanced graduate students. Please call the CEDP for more information at (323) 651-1118 or e-mail at dr_sdiamond@hotmail.com.) The CENTER FOR EXISTENTIAL DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY is dedicated to the reconciliation, synthesis and fusion of depth psychology with existential analysis, creating a renewed form of psychotherapy befitting the particular demands of the twenty-first century: an "existential depth psychology." Freud's psychoanalysis flourished during the early and mid-twentieth century, but had petrified into an anachronistic caricature of psychotherapy as the new millennium arrived. Jung's analytical psychology fared better in recent decades, but requires a more clinical, concrete, existential grounding in order to carry the worthy torch of depth psychology into the coming century. Existential analysis--as developed by Rank, Boss, Binswanger, Frankl, May and others--addresses the post-modern symptoms of meaninglessness, anxiety, apathy, isolation and alienation, but suffers from hyperrationalism, desiccation and impoverishment to the extent that it persists in denying the vital depth dimension of the psyche, the "unconscious," "shadow," or the "daimonic." Instead of the existing partisan divisions, a union or marriage of these seemingly irreconcilable orientations is required, a truly transcendent synthesis to carry us together creatively into the future. The CENTER FOR EXISTENTIAL DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY will offer such a unique synthesis in its seminars, lecture series, publications, and post-graduate clinical training. If you have any interest in participating in or learning more about the Center, or would like to be on our mailing list, please feel free to contact me at: dr_sdiamond@hotmail.com or by telephone at (323) 651-1118
ANNOUNCEMENT
New telephonic clinical consultation conducted by Dr. Diamond available for licensed clinicians at CEDP. Focus will be on dealing with challenging cases utilizing the basic precepts of existential psychotherapy and depth psychology. Fee will be $50.00 per twenty-minute telephone consultation or $100.00 for forty-five minutes. Credit cards only. For more information, please contact Dr. Diamond at 323 651-1118 or dr_sdiamond@hotmail.com
VITAL LINKS
Read Dr. Diamond's blog "Evil Deeds" for PSYCHOLOGY TODAY
Institute of Transpersonal Psychology's audio library to listen to a 90 minute, 1996 discussion by Dr. Diamond about his book, Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic
Listen to Dr. Diamond's recent (3-22-08)guest appearance on a colleague's weekly 60 minute podcast
book information and
reviews
(Amazon.com)
SUNY Press (book
information)
"The Psychology of Creativity," a recent interview posted at the extraordinary and highly recommended website of Douglas Eby, M.A.
"Existential Psychology in Context" by Paul R. Minnillo
Book Review by Louis Hoffman, Ph.D. of Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic by Stephen Diamond
Anne Sippi Clinic--book review (see also home
page/
previous newsletters/June 1998 for chapter
excerpt)
my review of ANGER:THE
MISUNDERSTOOD EMOTION
by Carol Tavris
my review of TOUCHED WITH
FIRE by Kay
Redfield Jamison
my review of FREEDOM AND DESTINY by Rollo May
my review of PEOPLE OF THE LIE by
M. Scott
Peck
visit
Cain's
Self-Exploration Site (includes a review of my book as well as a
previously published essay titled
"Redeeming Our
Devils and Demons" from the popular
anthology
MEETING THE SHADOW
"Wod and the Daimonic" by
Eric Wodening
Commentary on Stefan Zweig's THE
STRUGGLE WITH THE
DAIMON by Goncalo Fonseca
"Lectio Praecursoria" by Ilkka Mayra, Ph.D.
(author of an extremely interesting new book
titled DEMONIC TEXTS AND TEXTUAL DEMONS:THE
DEMONIC TRADITION, THE SELF, AND POPULAR
FICTION, published by Tampere University
Press, Finland)
More (in Finnish only) from Mayra on the
daimonic
Rollo May booklist
my review of MY QUEST FOR BEAUTY
by Rollo
May
my review of PAULUS: TILLICH AS
SPIRITUAL
TEACHER by Rollo May
my review of THE CRY FOR MYTH by
Rollo
May
my review of POWER AND INNOCENCE
by Rollo
May
my review of THE DISCOVERY OF
BEING by Rollo
May
my review of LOVE AND
WILL by Rollo May
my review of THE
COURAGE TO CREATE by Rollo May
WONDER AND
ETHICS IN
THERAPY by Rollo May
Rollo May
biography
my review of MELVILLE'S MOBY-DICK
by Edward F.
Edinger
my review of THE WOUNDED JUNG by
Robert
Smith (see the full-length review/essay
by Dr. Diamond
of Smith's book, titled "Jung's Angry Genius"
in
Vol. 17, No. 4, 1999 of the
San Francisco Jung Institute Library
Journal)
my review of CREATIVITY AND
MADNESS:
PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES OF ART AND ARTISTS by
Barry Panter
et al.
Lecture on Rollo May's existential
psychology
Existential Psychology
Existential
Psychology, Logotherapy & the Will to Meaning
by Diana
Teresa de Avila
Rollo May page at Mythos &
Logos
W.B.
Yeats' Encounters with his Daimon
Socrates and his Daimon
VISIT THE
FREUD MUSEUM, LONDON
VISIT THE
FREUD
MUSEUM, VIENNA
FREUD PHOTO
ARCHIVES
VISIT THE ERNEST
BECKER FOUNDATION, and a review of my book in
the EBF
Newsletter, November 1998, vol. 5, issue
6
A
review of my book at METAPSYCHOLOGY
The
Existentialism Page
On Viktor Frankl
Existential Psychotherapy and
Counselling
RECOMMENDED READING
