Publications and Presentations
Select Academic Writing
Rodríguez, A. (2027). The Violence of Good Intentions: On Progressive Spaces and Psychic Exclusion. In H. Ferguson & S. Klebanoff (Eds.), Title tbd. Routledge. (manuscript under preparation).
This chapter explores contemporary understandings of Sandor Ferenczi’s 1933 paper “The Unwelcome Child and the Death Instinct.” I examine the psychic toll of being unwelcome through experiences of othering, misrecognition, and fundamental misunderstandings within environments that profess inclusivity but enact discriminatory harm. I present three interwoven examples of feeling unwelcome in which a liberal self-concept masks subtle but persistent forms of exclusion and resistance to difference. A distinct form of psychic injury emerges when individuals encounter environments that profess inclusivity yet behave otherwise. The dynamic of exclusion masked by performances of welcomeness constitutes a form of aggression that is often disavowed by the other and internalized by the subject.
Rodríguez, A. (2027). Across the Divide: The Patient’s Experience of the Analyst’s Subjectivity in Cross Cultural Dyads. Psychoanalytic Inquiry. (manuscript in press).
This article examines the patient’s experience of the therapist’s subjectivity within cross-cultural dyads when the therapist belongs to a cultural majority group and the patient belongs to a subordinate group. I examine how internalized social hierarchies and structural violence manifest within therapy. The therapist’s capacity to tolerate being positioned and known as a representative of hegemonic authority—without resorting to defensive collapses into normative structures, premature disclosure, or anxious attempts at reassurance and reparation—opens the door to ontological transformation.
Rodríguez, A. (2026). White Dominant Norms in Latinx-White Couples. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 46(2).
In this article, I propose that an important element of a mixed-race person’s self-conceptualization of racial identity is derived from how their mixed-race parents avoid discussing racial stratification while enacting white-dominant norms. I argue that the interracial couple’s dissociation from racial stratification can work to maintain a racially split identity in their mixed-race children, preventing the development of a fluid, whole, integrated sense of mixed-race selfhood. I believe that it is necessary when working with mixed-race couples to not only explicitly discuss their mixed-race status, but to do so in a way that helps the couple see and understand their shared unconscious phantasies, manner of projections, assumption of particular roles in the relationship, and how those dynamics are hierarchically racialized to maintain white-dominant cultural ideals.
Rodríguez, A. (2026). Going for Depth While Striving to New Heights: Depth Therapy for First Generation, Low-Income College Students. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 46(1).
This article explores the psychological impacts of upward mobility experienced by first-generation, low-income (FGLI) students. Transcending the circumstances of their birth to rise in social class and status involves losses related to the cultural traditions they were raised in, which occur while navigating the foreign and inhospitable environment of college, institutions which were designed and structured for continuing-generation students of middle- and upper-class backgrounds. I present several clinical cases to illustrate the complex interaction of multiple intersecting identities and existential challenges which lie beneath a student’s initial presenting concern when entering therapy, demonstrating the importance and impact of depth therapy.
Rodríguez, A. (2025). We Are Still Here: Music, Memory, and the Sound of Colonial Defiance in Bad Bunny’s DtMF. Critica, 6(1), 40-43.
This brief essay explores the impact of music as a form of protest. I discuss how Bad Bunny’s Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawai’i functions as a powerful expression of anticolonial protest.
Rodríguez, A. (2025). “I Don’t Have to Hate You Yet”: Intersecting Identities of Mixed-Race Experience and Low-Income Backgrounds. In S.A. Aihiokhai, M. Daily, & L. Garrigues (Eds.), How First-Generation Students Navigate Higher Education Through an Embrace of Their Multiple Identities (pp. 72-89). Routledge.
In this chapter from Aihiokhai et al.’s book, I examine mixed-cultural identities through the lenses of race, class, and the college student experience to highlight the psychic conflict associated with mixed subjectivities. I draw on autobiographical experiences from graduate school to illustrate the dynamics of multiple, intersecting identities and the psychological conflicts that arise from them. This exploration aims to illuminate the unique talents and challenges faced by FGLI students to demonstrate that out of necessity and ingenuity, these students, drawing on skills shaped by their nonnormative backgrounds, infuse their fields of study with fresh and vital perspectives.
Rodríguez, A. (2025). A Few Brief Thoughts on Thomas Ogden and Ontological Psychoanalysis. Critica, 5(2), 60-63.
This brief essay examines the work of pioneering psychoanalyst Thomas Ogden, tracing the evolution of his thought as helps develop a shift in psychoanalysis from an epistemologically oriented framework to one increasingly rooted in ontological concerns. I explore how Ogden’s later writings shift the focus from knowing the patient to being with the patient, emphasizing lived, intersubjective experience.
Rodríguez, A. (2024). Disallowing Multiplicity: Internalized Hierarchies, Dissociation, and Unformulated Bits of Self in a Poor, Mixed-Race Kid. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 34(6), 716-734.
In this article, I consider how binary and categorical models of identity function as a means of maintaining hegemonic normative ideals. These frameworks necessarily create tremendous psychic tension for people with multiple, interrelated, mixed subjectivities, leading to aspects of self being rendered invisible, dissociated, and disavowed. Race theory, intersectionality, and queer theory are identified and considered as fields which have developed and elaborated upon nonnormative, nonbinary, and multitudinous subjectivities. A perspective of mixed-race experience is elaborated, and a new consideration of mixed-class experience is offered in which identity categories are considered from a nonbinary, fluid, and trans perspective which embraces a both/neither mentality. The author challenges the field of psychoanalysis to critically examine its unconscious transferences of the homogeneous analyst, as well as the structures, pedagogies, and theories within its institutions which maintain normative, binary standards of subjectivity.
Rodríguez, A. (Ed.) (2023). Know That You Are Worthy: Experiences From First-Generation College Students. Rowman & Littlefield.
Rodríguez, Adam J. (2020). Impressions: Improvisation, Jazz, Memory and Desire. Free Associations, 77.
In this creative paper, written in jazz structure, I reflect on how improvisation in jazz music has similarities to technique in psychotherapy. Focused study in the profession of psychotherapy is acknowledged as essential; however, what is learned must be learned so that it can be forgotten, at least consciously. What emerges is an intuitive interaction that is more free and more connected to truth, whatever that means.
Rodríguez, Adam J. (2016). Assessment of egg and sperm donors. In Walfish, S., Zimmerman, J., & Barnett, J. (Eds.), The Handbook of Private Practice. London, U.K.: Oxford University.
The assessment of egg and sperm donors is an important area of niche practice for mental health professionals. With the appropriate training, mental health practitioners can offer these much-needed services to prospective parents who are using assisted reproductive technologies (ART) to deal with infertility. Due to the invasiveness of these procedures, as well as their physical and emotional ramifications, many clinics and hospitals require a psychological evaluation of any individual who provides egg donation or becomes a gestational carrier or surrogate. This chapter describes the details of this niche area of practice and how the author developed an interest in it. The author covers its joys and challenges, the business aspects of this area of practice, guidance on developing this niche area of practice, and resources to assist in this process.
Select Public Writing
Rodríguez, Adam J. (2016). “Rupture and repair in the therapeutic relationship.” PSYCHED in San Francisco Magazine, May 20, 2016.
A brief reflection on thoughts and considerations when a difficult experience happens between therapist and patient. How can it be repaired? Thoughts for clinician and patient alike.
Rodríguez, Adam J. (2016). “On rupture and repair.” PSYCHED in San Francisco Magazine, March 28, 2016.
Some thoughts on the importance of repairing ruptures in relationships. People often focus on trying to prevent ruptures, yet they will inevitably occur. The repair is deeply important to growth and development of the relationship.
Rodríguez, Adam J. (2016). “Do opposites attract? Projection in couples.” PSYCHED in San Francisco Magazine, February 29, 2016.
A discussion of the dynamics in couples and relationships. I explore how we find in our partners elements of our own selves which are disavowed and identified in our partner. This dynamic can be comforting in that we remain connected to some part of our self which otherwise feels unallowable, but can also lead to frustrations and discomfort.
Rodríguez, Adam J. (2015). “White fragility: The damaging effects of power and privilege, Part III.” PSYCHED in San Francisco Magazine, December 28, 2015.
A reflection on how virtuous striving and white fragility may intersect, foreclosing fruitful conversations and mis-prioritizing needs.
Rodríguez, Adam J. (2015). “Internalized discrimination: The damaging effects of power and privilege, Part II.” PSYCHED in San Francisco Magazine, November 11, 2015.
Some thoughts on the internalization of racism, homophobia, and classism. Individuals from marginalized communities are vulnerable to internalizing external messages of discrimination and hatred.
Rodríguez, Adam J. (2015). “How can you not like the Beatles?: The Damaging Effects of Power and Privilege, Part I”. Huffington Post, December 10, 2015.
A discussion on the challenges of viewing the experiences of someone culturally-different as valid and understandable. The ability to “mentalize” is to consider another person’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences. We often have a difficult time mentalizing the experience of others from different cultures, and when their behaviors, values, and preferences do not match our own, we may pathologize them.
Rodríguez, Adam J. (2015). “Eliminating “Negative Emotions.” PSYCHED Magazine, August 31, 2015.
Some thoughts on toxic positivity and exploration of the importance of the ability to experience and tolerate one’s full range of emotional experiences. The concept of some emotions being negative, suggesting others are positive, is explored to better understand its faults and how they can be destructive.
Select Invited Talks
2026. Latinidad in the Gaps: Rethinking Identity, Loss, and the Analytic Frame. Oregon Psychoanalytic Center. Portland, Oregon.
2026. Dreaming the Analytic Third: The Psychoanalytic Vision of Thomas Ogden. The Psychotherapy Institute. Berkeley, CA.
2025. Mixed-Race, Mixed-Class, and Belonging in Psychoanalysis. Manhattan Institute of Psychoanalysis, One-Year Program (OYP). Manhattan, New York.
2024. An Introduction to the Work of Thomas Ogden: On Ontological Psychoanalysis. The Psychotherapy Institute. Berkeley, CA.
2023. Thomas Ogden: From the Epistemological to the Ontological. The Psychosocial Foundation.
2023. Upward Mobility and the Cross-Cultural Experience of First-Generation, Low-Income Students. Portland State University Student Health and Counseling Services. Portland, OR.
2023. Know That You Are Worthy: Understanding Inhospitable Aspects of the College Environment for First-Generation Students Through First-Person Narratives. 2023 NASPA Annual Conference, Boston, MA.
2020. Clinical Encounters with Internalized Hierarchies in Mixed Race and Class Experiences – Panel: Multiple Identities, Hidden Subjectivities, and the Biracial Upwardly Mobile Psychoanalyst. International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. Los Angeles, CA.
2020. Desire, Conflict, and Recognition: An Exploration of Unconscious Sexism in Early Training. Panel: Destroying Beauty: Envy and Aggression in Supervision. Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology. New York City, New York.
2020. Disallowing Multiplicity: Internalized Hierarchies and Unformulated Bits of Self in a Poor Mixed-Race Kid – Panel: Multiple Identities, Hidden Subjectivities, and the Biracial Upwardly Mobile Psychoanalyst. Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology. New York City, New York.
2018. Psychoanalysis in el barrio – Film. Panel Participant. Oregon Psychoanalytic Center, Portland, OR.
2017. Black Psychoanalysts Speak – Film. Panel Participant. Oregon Psychoanalytic Center, Portland, OR.
2016. Violence, Aggression, and Psychopathy: Understanding and Treating Evil. Taube Center, Belmont, CA.
2015. Gay Identity Development in Adolescence: Sociocultural Domains of Power and Privilege. Queer LifeSpace, San Francisco, CA.
2015. Culture & Art: Is Art Immune to Gentrification. Panel discussant, Notre Dame de Namur University Art Therapy Department, Belmont, CA.
2015. Dreams, Consciousness, and Restorative Social Justice – Two Lectures with Dr. Mark Solms – Co-moderator and panel discussant, San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis, Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California, Berkeley, CA.
2015. Panel – “Between the I and We: Becoming an American Student” – Richard Rodríguez. Panel Discussant with Richard Rodríguez, Dorothy Stang Center, Belmont, CA.
2014. Treating LGBTQ People of Color: Internalized Racism and Internalized Homophobia. California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, CA.
2014. Addressing Isolation, Social Support, and Life Satisfaction in First Generation College Students: The Role of Peer Mentoring. Notre Dame de Namur University.
2014. Pursuing post-doctoral fellowship options. California Pacific Medical Center, Professional Development Seminar, San Francisco, CA.
2014. What’s Next? Life After Internship and Professional Development. California Pacific Medical Center, Professional Development Seminar, Belmont, CA.
2012. Forensic Outpatient Psychotherapy: Working with Psychopathy. California Pacific Medical Center.
2012. Psychic Retreats: Working with Resistance in High Risk Sex Offenders. Pacific Forensic Psychology Associates, Inc., Post-Doctoral Fellow Training, Oakland, CA.
2011. Listening to the Patient: A Workshop for Medical Students. Pop Wuj Medical Clinic, Quatzaltenango, Guatemala.
2010. Bion and Psychotherapeutic Technique. California Pacific Medical Center, Psychiatry Residency Core Curriculum, San Francisco, CA.
2009. Careers in Mental Health: An Informational Seminar for 1st Generation College Students of Color. San Jose State University, San Jose, CA.
2008. The Mistranslation of Freud: Strachey and the Medicalization of Psychoanalysis. The Wright Institute, Berkeley, CA.