Education
MPH Family & Community Health / Quantitative Methods, Harvard University, 1998
PhD Clinical Psychology, Center for Psychological Studies, 1991
EdD Educational & Counseling Psychology, Northern Illinois University, 1987
MA Psychology, Sonoma State University, 1984
Certificate Italian Language, L'Universita per Stranieri Perugia,IT, 1981
BA Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, 1981
Biography
Professor Kevin Volkan is a psychologist, writer, and educator with over thirty years of clinical, corporate, and academic experience. He currently serves as Professor of Psychology at CI and was one of the founding faculty of the university.
Professor Volkan teaches a number of different courses. He is best known for his PSY 344 Psychology & Traditional Asian Thought, PSY 473 Bizarre Behaviors and Culture-Bound Syndromes, and HIST-PSY 340 History & Psychology of Nazi Germany courses, which are some of the most popular classes at CSUCI.
Before coming to CSUCI, Professor Volkan was a faculty member and Director of Assessment at Harvard Medical School where he researched ways to measure medical student and physician performance. While at Harvard, Professor Volkan also taught for the prestigious Harvard-Macy Institute, a joint program run by the Harvard Business, Education, and Medical schools. In this program he taught medical students and physicians from Harvard as well as from all over the world.
Professor Volkan is a licensed psychologist. He holds two doctorates in psychology, is a graduate of the Harvard School of Public Health, and a former Harvard Medical School faculty member. Dr. Volkan has testified before the United States Senate on pathological and dangerous fetishes. He has appeared many times on television and radio as a psychological expert. Professor Volkan has twice been a Silberman Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC.
Professor Volkan has practiced as a staff psychologist in a state hospital and in private practice. His clients included a diverse population of people representing a variety of socioeconomic strata and psychological distress. He has worked with people suffering from neuroses and personality disorders as well as individuals suffering from profound autism, psychoses, self-injurious behavior, and organic brain injury. Professor Volkan was awarded the Sustained Superior Accomplishment Award from the State of California for his clinical work.
Selected Publications:
BOOKS:
Volkan, K. & Volkan, V.D. (2022). Schizophrenia: Science, psychoanalysis, & culture. Oxfordshire, UK: Phoenix Press.
Volkan, K. (2016/1996). Dancing among the Maenads: The psychology of compulsive drug use. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.
PAPERS:
Volkan, K. (2021). Schizophrenia, Culture, and Culture-Bound Syndromes. Psychology Research and Applications, 3(1) 1-13.
Volkan, K. (2021). Hoarding and Animal Hoarding: Psychodynamic and Transitional Aspects. Psychodynamic Psychiatry, 49(1) 24-47.
Volkan, K. (2021). Bunkers, Bubbles, Monuments, and Walls - Pathological Narcissism, Nazi Germany, and Donald Trump. European Journal of Psychoanalysis, 14(2), 1-21.
Volkan, Kevin. (2020), Schizophrenia: Epidemiology, Causes, Neurobiology, Pathophysiology, and Treatment. Journal of Health and Medical Sciences, 3(4), 487-521.
Volkan, K. (2020) Encounter with the Demonic: Western, Eastern, and Object Relations Approaches. Psychology, 11, 1454-1470.
Volkan, K. (2020). Delusional Misidentification Syndromes: Psychopathology and Culture. Journal of Health and Medical Sciences, 3(3), 288-301.
Representative Courses Taught
- PSY 473 Bizarre Behavior and Culture-Bound Syndromes
- PSY 340 History & Psychology of Nazi Germany
Scholarship
Keywords
Clinical Psychology, Psychopathology, Psychoanalysis, Nazi Germany, Eastern Philosophy & Religion