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
Kevin Volkan, Ph.D., Ed.D., M.P.H., is founding Professor of Psychology at California State University Channel Islands and previously served as Chair of Psychology. He is also affiliated with graduate programs at Roma Tre University in Rome and Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara.
One focus of Dr. Volkan’s scholarship is large scale human aggression and group psychology. His work examines how aggression becomes organized socially and politically, how pathological leadership shapes collective identity, and how fear, narcissism, projection, and regression can become embedded in group life. His book Human Aggression, War, and Genocide is a major recent work on the psychological foundations of organized violence. Dr. Volkan has also published widely on psychopathology, psychoanalysis, culture, and psychotherapy. His books include How the Mind Works: Concepts and Cases in Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and Schizophrenia: Science, Psychoanalysis, & Culture.
Dr. Volkan’s recent work sits at the intersection of psychology, psychoanalytic theory, and artificial intelligence (AI). His research examines how AI inherits, amplifies, and re-presents distinctly human patterns of reasoning, conflict, distortion, and self-understanding. His work examines AI interpretability, AI psychology, and AI governance. This inquiry extends into clinical concerns including the emotionally meaningful ways people engage with AI, including forms of attachment and transference toward systems that appear responsive, authoritative, or empathic. He argues that AI systems may create special risks for vulnerable users, complicate psychotherapy, psychiatric assessment, and mental health decision-making.
Selected Publications:
BOOKS:
Volkan, K. (2026). Artificial Intelligence and the Ghosts in the Machine. (Submitted for Publication).
Volkan V.D. & Volkan, K. (2025). Human Aggression, War, and Genocide: The Psychological Roots of Violence. Durham, NC: Pitchstone Press.
Volkan, K. & Volkan V.D. (2023). How the Mind Works: Concepts and Cases in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. Oxfordshire, UK: Karnac.
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. (2026). The Uncanny Valley: AI, Transference, and the Artificial Other. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, (In Press).
Volkan, K., & Volkan, M. T. (2026). Artificial Intelligence as a Mirror of Human Psychopathology, Psychodynamic Psychiatry, (In Press).
Volkan, K. (2026). Haunted by Innovation: AI, Psychoanalysis, and Growing Up in Palo Alto. Critica, 6(2), 70-72.
Volkan, K. (2024). Why War?” Revisited- Reflections on Psychoanalysis and Human Aggression. Critica, 5(1).
Volkan, K. (2023). The Jinn: Islam, Exorcism, and Psychology. Journal of Social and Political Sciences, 6(3), 1-14.
Volkan, K. (2021). Hoarding and Animal Hoarding: Psychodynamic and Transitional Aspects. Psychodynamic Psychiatry, 49(1) 24-47.
Volkan, Kevin. (2020), Schizophrenia: Epidemiology, Causes, Neurobiology,
Pathophysiology, and Treatment. Journal of Health and Medical Sciences, 3(4), 487-521.
Representative Courses Taught
- PSY 473 Bizarre Behavior and Culture-Bound Syndromes
- PSY 340 History & Psychology of Nazi Germany
Scholarship
Keywords
Artificial Intelligence, Clinical Psychology, Psychopathology, Psychoanalysis, Group Psychology