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Key Takeaways
- The Houston Psychoanalytic Society (HPS) publicly offers educational events to extend psychoanalytic learning beyond closed professional circles.
- HPS programming includes lectures, study groups, and conferences with clear agendas and continuing education credits.
- Topics range from clinical concepts like dissociation and shame to developmental research and cultural analysis.
- Many events are accessible via Zoom, making psychoanalytic education available to both local and global audiences.
- Jeremy Orgel’s background in psychiatry and psychoanalysis reflects the type of professional engagement HPS programming supports.
Jeremy Orgel is a Texas based psychiatrist who provides integrative psychiatry and psychoanalytic services in both outpatient and telehealth settings. Jeremy Orgel joined Woodlands Internists in 2023 as a staff psychiatrist, where he conducts comprehensive psychiatric diagnostic evaluations, offers supportive psychotherapy, and refers patients to community psychotherapists when indicated.
With more than two decades of prior experience in San Francisco, including service as an attending psychiatrist and medical director at the Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatric Unit of St. Mary’s Medical Center, his background reflects sustained engagement with psychoanalytic and psychodynamic thought. His education at Columbia University, New York University School of Medicine, UCSF, and the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis informs his perspective on how organizations such as the Houston Psychoanalytic Society extend psychoanalytic learning to clinicians and the broader public through accessible programming.
Understanding Why and How the Houston Psychoanalytic Society Offers Public Events
Not all professional societies open their education to the public, but the Houston Psychoanalytic Society (HPS) does by publicly listing events and inviting a broader audience into its programming. On its events page, HPS organizes this work under “Psychoanalysis in Connection” and uses the tagline “The Cross-Fertilization of Psychoanalysis with Other Disciplines and Schools of Thought.”
HPS’s mission and guiding principles explain that approach. The Society promotes psychoanalytic and psychodynamic principles, builds a vibrant and inclusive local community, and serves a global audience. It sponsors accredited programs and social events, and creates networking opportunities for people who want to deepen their understanding of psychoanalytic thought and practice.
The events listing shows how HPS puts that mission into action. HPS offers lectures, multi-week study groups, and book discussions, and each listing specifies schedule, format, and credit information. Many programs run live via Zoom and offer CE credits, and some also offer CME credits for physicians. Agendas often include a presentation followed by Q&A, giving participants a consistent structure for approaching complex material.
Several offerings focus on clinical concepts that clinicians encounter across many therapy settings. A seven-week study group built around Nancy McWilliams’ Psychoanalytic Diagnosis invites clinicians to conceptualize cases and guide interventions. Other listings describe dissociation-focused lectures that define attunement as synchronized, bidirectional awareness and present it as a tool in therapeutic processes with dissociated self-states.
Other programming links developmental research to adult clinical work. The Infant-Parent Relationship conference connects psychoanalytic treatment of adults to infant-parent interaction and to empirical study of the parent-child relationship. The program description introduces epistemic trust as a capacity for learning from trustworthy people and explains how adversity can disrupt it, with developmental and adult-life consequences. It also discusses mismatch and repair in parent–child interaction, describes micro-reparation within dyadic exchanges, and connects meaning-making processes to analytic work.
HPS also applies psychoanalytic concepts to ideology and social power. “Thinking Where We Are Not” defines interpellation as a way to conceptualize subjectivity through participation in ideological tropes of power and frames dissociative enactment as unconscious participation in relatedness. The listing ties those concepts to clinical practice and states learning objectives focused on using interpellation clinically and working more deeply with dissociative enactment.
The Society also names shame directly rather than leaving it implied. A study group titled “Unspeakable Shame” describes shame as pervasive yet often unaddressed because it can feel elusive and uncomfortable for both therapist and client. The listing links shame to presentations such as depression, anxiety, addiction, and self-harm and frames the sessions as an exploration of shame’s role in treatment.
HPS also offers culture-based entry points for psychoanalytic reflection. “Black Films Through a Cultural and Psychoanalytic Lens” explicitly welcomes attendees, whether or not they have read the book, and describes Black film narratives across decades, including portrayals of struggle and success, cultural identity, and the effects of stereotypical racial tropes on cultural psychology. “Dream Interpretation and Empirical Dream Research” compares Freud’s and Jung’s dream theories, relates them to empirical dream research that developed after the discovery of REM sleep, and presents a psychodynamic model of dream work; the lecture description argues that dreams have meaning and that using dreams in psychotherapy can be helpful.
By keeping these events publicly visible, HPS shows how psychoanalytic and psychodynamic ideas can circulate beyond closed professional spaces. Across formats and topics, the Society offers structured learning with clear agendas and stated objectives, inviting clinicians and interested attendees to engage psychoanalytic thinking with more precision and context.
FAQs
Who is Jeremy Orgel?
Jeremy Orgel, MD, is a Texas-based psychiatrist providing integrative psychiatry and psychoanalytic services in outpatient and telehealth settings. His career includes over two decades of experience in San Francisco, along with training at Columbia University, New York University School of Medicine, UCSF, and the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis.
What is the Houston Psychoanalytic Society?
The Houston Psychoanalytic Society (HPS) is a professional organization that promotes psychoanalytic and psychodynamic principles through education and community engagement. It offers accredited programs, public lectures, and networking opportunities for clinicians and interested participants.
Why does HPS make its events public?
HPS publicly lists events to encourage broader access to psychoanalytic thinking and interdisciplinary dialogue. This approach supports its mission to build an inclusive community while extending learning opportunities beyond traditional professional boundaries.
What types of topics does HPS cover in its programming?
HPS events explore clinical themes such as dissociation, shame, attunement, and dream interpretation, as well as developmental research and cultural analysis. Programs often connect psychoanalytic theory to practical clinical application and contemporary social issues.
How are HPS events structured?
Many HPS programs include formal presentations followed by question-and-answer sessions to support structured learning. Events are frequently offered via Zoom and may provide CE or CME credits, making participation accessible and professionally relevant.
About Jeremy Orgel
Jeremy Orgel, MD, is a psychiatrist based in Texas who provides integrative psychiatry and psychoanalytic services in private practice and clinical settings. He previously practiced in San Francisco for more than two decades, serving as an attending psychiatrist and medical director at St. Mary’s Medical Center. Dr. Orgel completed his medical training at New York University School of Medicine, his residency at UCSF, and his psychoanalytic training at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis.
