Contact Information

Biography

Daniel Burston, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus and former Chair of Psychology at Duquesne. He holds doctorates in Psychology and in Social and Political Thought from York University in Toronto. Dr. Burston taught at Duquesne from 1992-2023. He specializes in the history of psychology and psychiatry, existential analysis, psychoanalysis, critical theory, psychology of religion, and antisemitism. He is the author of eight books and editor of three others. Dr. Burston created the Jewish studies Minor at Duquesne, and taught courses on antisemitism. He is the Editor in Chief of Kesher: Journal of the Association of Jewish Psychologists.

Education

  • Ph.D., Psychology, York University, 1989
  • Ph.D., Social & Political Thought, York University, 1985

View CV

Research Interests or Expertise

  • Psychoanalysis and Politics
  • Psychoanalysis and Religion
  • Analytical Psychology
  • Critical Theory
  • Existential Analysis
  • History of Psychology
  • Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis
  • Anti-Semitism

School

Undergraduate Courses
  • Introduction to Psychology as a Human Science
  • Special Topics: Anti-Semitism

Graduate Courses
  • Intro to Psychology as a Human Science
  • Emotion, Cognition, and Motivation

Edited Anthologies

  • Mills, J. & Burston, D., eds. 2024: Critical Theory and Psychoanalysis: From the Frankfurt School to Contemporary Critique. London: Routledge.Burston, D. & Jacobsen, K. 2025. Authoritarianism in all Its Guises: Perspectives on Right, Left and Center, London: Routledge.

Book Chapters
  • Burston, D., 2024. “Critical Theory, Left-Wing Authoritarianism and Anti-Semitism”, in Mills, J. and Burston, D., 2024, Critical Theory and Psychoanalysis; From the Frankfurt School to Contemporary Critique. London: Routledge.
  • Burston, D., 2025. “Psychoanalysis, Authoritarianism, Antisemitism and the Left: A Critical Theory Perspective”, in Burston and Jacobsen, eds., 2025.
  • Burston, D., 2025 “Irrational Authority, Irrational Doubt and Contemporary Left Wing Authoritarianism” in Erich Fromm and Left Strategy: Paths Toward Radical Transformation, edited by Joseph Fantauzzi, Maor Levitin and Terry Malley, Switzerland: Palgrave MacMillan.

Journal Articles


Other Publications
  • Burston, D. (2018). Authority, Tradition and the Postmodern University. Eidos.
  • Burston, D. (2018). It's Hip to Be Square: The Myths of Jordan Peterson. Psychotherapy and Politics International, 11.
  • Burston, D. (2018). Psychiatry and Anti-Psychiatry: Myth, Rhetoric and Reality. Eidos.
  • Burston, D. (2018). Psychiatry, anti-psychiatry and anti-anti-psychiatry: Rhetoric and Reality. Psychotherapy and Politics International.
  • Burston, D. (2018). Wooden Ships: Cultural Cohesion and Continuity in Freud and Erikson. Free Associations.
  • Burston, D. (2017). It Can't Happen Here: Trump, Authoritarianism and American Politics. Psychotherapy and Politics International, 15 (1), 9.
  • Burston, D. (2017). Pharisees, Freudians and The Fetishism of the Text: Catholic Triumphalism in Jacques Lacan. Psychotherapy and Politics International, 15 (1), 8.
  • Burston, D. (2016). A Forgotten Freudian: The Passion of Karl Stern, Karnac.
  • Burston, D. (2015). The Politics of Psychiatry and the Vicissitudes of Faith Circa 1950: Karl Stern's Psychiatric Novel. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 51 (4), 351-365.
  • Burston, D. (2014). Cyborgs, Zombies and Planetary Death: Alienation in the 21st Century. Humanistic Psychologist, 42 (3), 283-291.
  • Burston, D. (2014). Our imperiled age: An unfinished dialogue between Carl Jung and Karl Stern. International Journal of Jungian Studies, 6(3). doi: 10.1080/19409052.2014.923779
  • Burston, D. (2014). Alienation. In T. Teo (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology (pp. 76-82). New York: Springer.
  • Burston, D. (2014). Anti-psychiatry. In T. Teo (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology (pp. 109-115). New York: Springer.
  • Burston, D. (2014). Anti-Semitism. In T. Teo (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology (pp. 115-120). New York: Springer.
  • Burston, D. (2014). Humanism. In T. Teo (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology (pp. 915-918). New York: Springer.
  • Burston, D. (2014). Zionism. In T. Teo (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology (pp. 2093-2098). New York: Springer.
  • Burston, D. (2012). Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry in the 21st Century. The Psychoanalytic Review, 99 (1), 63-80.
  • Burston, D. (2011). Psychoanalysis, Psychiatry and Bipolar Disorder in the 21st Century. Irish journal for Lacanian Psychoanalysis, 46, 3-11.
  • Burston, D. (2011). Souvenirs sur Paul Roazen. Le Coq-Heron (207), 14-=21.
  • Burston, D. (2010). Authority, Effectiveness and Teaching in the Postmodern University. Philosophy in the Contemporary World, 17 (2), 12-24.
  • Burston, D. (2010). Pediatric Bipolar Disorder: Myths, Realities, Consequences. Journal for the History and Philosophy of Psychology, 12 (2), 1-10.

His books have been reviewed in: The New York Times Book Review, The New York Review of Books, The Boston Sunday Globe, The Boston Book Review, The New Republic, The Washington Times, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Guardian, The Economist, The New Statesman, The New Scientist, The Financial Times, The Globe and Mail, The Jerusalem Post, Library Journal, MacGill's Literary Journal, The Journal of the History of the Human Sciences, Radical Philosophy, The Australian Journal of Psychotherapy, The Canadian Journal of Psychology and the Canadian Journal of Sociology, and the Journal of Feminist Family Therapy.

Presentations

Since 1986, Burston has been an invited and/or keynote speaker at:

  • St. Elizabeth's Hospital (NYC)
  • The Autonomous University of Mexico (Mexico City)
  • The Mexican Institute of Psychoanalysis (Mexico City)
  • he Erich Fromm Society (Tubingen/Munich)
  • The William Alanson White Institute (NYC)
  • The Philadelphia Association (London)
  • The Washington School of Psychiatry (Washington, D.C.)
  • The Royal College of Psychiatry (London)
  • The Institute for the History of Psychiatry (Cornell
  • University Medical Center, NYC)
  • McMaster University (Hamilton, ON,)
  • Austen Riggs Treatment Center (Stockbridge, MA)
  • Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (Pittsburgh, PA)
  • The School of Psychotherapy, St. Vincent's Hospital, Dublin.

He has also given papers at the annual conferences of Cheiron, The American Academy of Psychoanalysis, The British Psychological Society, The American Psychological Association, the Eastern Psychological Association and the International Federation for Psychoanalytic Education.

Other scholarly work

Recent Interviews
March 16, 2022 Interview
DeWitt Wallace Institute
"Anti'Semitism in Carl Jung and his Inner Circle"

View Video Archive