Stephen Ticktin

Stephen Ticktin, BA, MA (Phil), MD. I am originally from Toronto and did my BA and MA in philosophy here, and then went to medical school initially with an eye to becoming a psychoanalyst. En route, I encountered the writings of R.D.Laing and David Cooper, who properly introduced me to existentialism and phenomenology, which led to a critical perspective as regards psychiatry and psychonanalysis. As a result I went to London England in 1978 to study with the Philadelphia Association (Laing’s outfit). Between 1978 and 1991 I worked in the British National Health Service, completing my psychiatric training in 1983 and apprenticed with Laing in existential therapy simultaneously. During that period I started the British Network of Alternatives to Psychiatry and the Supportive Psychotherapy Association. As well, I joined the editorial collective of Asylum: Magazine for Democratic Psychiatry. Between 1991 and 2004 I went into private practice and taught critical psychopathology at Regent's College School of Psychotherapy and the New School of Psychotherapy in London, and became a member of the Society of Existential Analysis. I returned to Canada in 2004 and am currently working as a GP Psychotherapist.