Alessandra Lemma, D. Clin. Psych
/Professor Lemma’s inventive theoretical and clinical contributions address contemporary issues such as body modifications, transgender identities, and the impact of new digital technologies on the mind and body, especially applied in youth mental health. Lemma has disseminated her analytic knowledge world-wide, thus promoting psychoanalysis outside the confines of institutes and providing fresh psychoanalytic approaches to treatment in the UK and Europe.
Addressing a deep understanding of how modern identity finds its way through our physical self, her work explains widespread social phenomena in young people (e.g., tattooing and cosmetic surgery). By translating clinical insights into everyday discourse, Lemma brings the ‘person in the street’ along and introduces them to the unconscious fantasies of modern teens.
In addition, her approach to depression, Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT), builds on her work to define the essence of a psychoanalytic approach to brief psychotherapy, providing a template for the only psychodynamic approach recognized by the UK National Health Service. DIT is remarkable for being the sole publicly funded brief psychodynamic approach delivered within the British socialized health system and is now available free to patients. Lemma tackles tough issues in mental health, particularly youth mental health, that genuinely concern opinion leaders, young people, and the broader public.
Professor Lemma, a Doctor of Clinical Psychology, is a Chartered Clinical and Counselling Psychologist, Psychoanalyst, a Visiting Professor, Psychoanalysis Unit, University College London, and a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society.