BIOGRAPHY

Gila Ashtor is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Arts & Sciences, and a Clinical Instructor in Psychology (Psychiatry) at Columbia University. She is the author of three books -  in critical theory/literature, clinical psychoanalysis, and a memoir.

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Gila specializes in Critical Theory, Psychoanalysis and Literature. Her book Homo Psyche: Queer Theory and Metapsychology (Fordham UP, 2021) is an intervention in contemporary debates within critical theory. Her book on clinical theory, Exigent Psychoanalysis: The Interventions of Jean Laplanche (Routledge, 2021) focuses on the theories of Laplanche in the context of contemporary Anglo-American psychoanalysis.

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Dr. Ashtor is also a licensed psychoanalyst, who completed her training at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR) in New York City. She has a special expertise in treating patients who struggle with issues related to their identity, feel estranged from themselves without knowing why, or who have trauma-related concerns. She is in private practice in New York City.

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In addition to her academic and clinical work, Gila is also a writer whose 'anti-memoir' memoir Aural History deals with the  psychological impact of childhood loss and grief on the development of selfhood.

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Dr. Ashtor has a B.A. from Brandeis University where she was a Wein International Scholar. She obtained an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Chicago and a PhD in English and American Literature from Tufts University. She also has an MFA in Nonfiction from Columbia University.

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