Charles Raison, MD

Saturday, November 16th, 2024
10:30 AM – 12:00PM
UCLA Luskin Center

Psychiatry has long distrusted drugs that produce immediate effects on consciousness, with good reason.  When used on a regular basis, drug – from alcohol to heroin – that immediately improve mood or lessen anxiety reliably extract long term costs in misery that far outweigh any short-term relief or pleasure. 

Medications that produce long-term improvements in mood and anxiety without any appreciable immediate conscious effects have become the bedrock of modern psychopharmacology.  In addition to avoiding the obvious dangers inherent to drugs of abuse, the clinical effects of antidepressants align nicely with the reductionistic ethos that permeates psychiatry that sees consciousness as dependent on, and epiphenomenal to, the more basic unconscious neurobiological processes that drive who we are. 

Despite strong evidence linking the immediate conscious effects of psychedelics to their long-term therapeutic benefits, major pharmaceutical efforts are underway to remove these immediate effects, based on the conviction that the immediate psychedelic experience cannot have causal power, and its presence is unnecessary if only it could be separated from the basic neurobiological effects that these drugs must have to explain their efficacy.

Dr. Raison has taken a leadership role in the development of psychedelic medicines as potential treatments for major depression. He was named one of the world’s most influential researchers by Web of Science for the decade of 2010-2019. Dr. Raison received the Raymond Pearl Memorial Award from the Human Biology Association “in his contributions to our understanding of evolutionary biocultural origins of mental health and illness.” Dr. Raison has also won the 2024 Emory University Science on Spiritual Health Torch and Trumpet Award “for a career devoted to the mental and spiritual health of humanity by responding and attending to suffering with a compassionate heart and a keen scientific mind.” With Vladimir Maletic, he is author of “The New Mind-Body Science of Depression” published in 2017.


Please click here for more information (including CME accreditation and RSVP link).

This year’s Distinguished Psychiatrist Award recipient, Dr. Deborah L. Cabaniss, has dedicated her career to teaching clinicians how to think analytically and how to communicate psychodynamic principles in order to facilitate their incorporation into clinical work. Dr. Cabaniss joins us from Columbia University and the affiliated New York State Psychiatric Institute where she is a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and the Associate Director of Residency Training. She serves as Columbia University’s Director of Psychotherapy Training and sits on the Executive Committee of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research.  

Dr. Cabaniss has written several books aimed at teaching principles of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and has dozens of original articles to her credit. Her book Psychodynamic Formulation is mandatory reading in many psychiatric training programs. In addition to her extensive list of publications, she has served on the editorial boards of both the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association and The International Journal of Psychoanalysis.  

In her lecture titled “Psychodynamic Formulation: An Expanded Approach,” Dr. Cabaniss will discuss the steps of the DESCRIBE/REVIEW/METHOD for collaboratively creating psychodynamic formulations with an emphasis on the way that culture and society impact unconscious development. 

The lecture is free and open to all mental health professionals. 

2 hours of CME credit 

RSVPs are strongly encouraged. Any questions (and RSVPs) should be directed to Lela DeGolia at ldegolia@mednet.ucla.edu (310) 403-7840 

A trainees-only dinner and case conference with Dr. Cabaniss will be held in-person at the James West Alumni Center on the UCLA campus on Friday, September 9th, from 5:30PM – 8:30PM. Cocktails and dinner will be served from 5:30 – 6:30 PM, followed by a case conference from 6:30 – 8:30 PM. Please RSVP by Monday, September 5th, to Lela DeGolia at ldegolia@mednet.ucla.edu.

Cocktails & Early Dinner Provided.

Come out and help us welcome next year’s psychiatry interns and introduce them to members of the Department of Psychiatry! This event also provides an opportunity for residents and faculty to learn about mutual professional interests and opportunities for supervision and mentorship.

RSVP to Lela DeGolia (ldegolia@mednet.ucla.edu)

Beverly J. Stoute, MD, will be presenting How Our Mind Becomes Racialized Across the Developmental Cycle: Does the Black White Binary Define Us? Registration is required. Please see the DPSS 2021 page for more information and the registration link.