Kevin Volkan

Kevin Volkan EdD, PhD, MPH is a founding faculty member and professor of psychology at California State University Channel Islands, where he researches and teaches courses on psychopathology and atypical behaviors, personality theory, as well as Nazi Germany and Eastern philosophy. Dr. Volkan also currently serves as adjunct faculty for Pacifica Graduate Universty's clinical psychology doctorate program where he teaches courses on psychopathology. He holds doctorates in clinical and quantitative psychology, is a graduate of the Harvard School of Public Health, and a former Harvard Medical School faculty member and administrator.

Dr. Volkan’s clinical training and experience is in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, though he also has experience using a wide variety of other modalities in clinical practice. He has practiced clinical psychology as a staff psychologist in a state hospital and in private practice. Dr. Volkan’s clients included a diverse population of people representing a wide variety of socioeconomic strata and psychological distress. He has worked with people suffering from drug addiction, neuroses, and personality disorders as well individuals suffering from autism, organic brain injury, and schizophrenia. Dr. Volkan was awarded the Sustained Superior Accomplishment Award from the State of California for his clinical work. His current practice is centered upon psychodynamic embodied dreamwork.

Dr. Volkan is considered to be an expert on extreme and atypical psychopathologies and has testified before the United States Senate on pathological and dangerous fetishes. He has made numerous appearances on television, radio, and podcasts as a psychological expert. His current research sits at the intersection of psychoanalytic theory, measurement, and human-computer interaction. Dr. Volkan's work focuses on how AI systems interact with users in unconscious ways that are unintended. He hopes to publish in this area in the near future.