Draft:Dr. Karyne Messina

Dr. Karyne E. Messina (born in Marathon, Florida), is an American psychoanalyst, podcast host, and author who writes and speaks about projective identification, misogyny, solastalgia, racism, and populism.

Early Life and Education
Messina was born and raised in Marathon, Florida. She graduated from Atlantic University with her BA and from George Washington University where she earned her Master's and Doctoral degrees. In 1975, Dr. Messina began a one-year corporate fellowship at Tech-Mod Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of LTV Aerospace.

Career
As a psychoanalyst, author, and podcast host, Dr. Messina promotes the development of the mind and human relationships while also advancing scholarly and social progress.

Dr. Messina began seeing patients in the early 1980s and launched her own private practice in 1985, which she maintains today. She treats patients with a variety of mental diagnoses, conducts psychotherapy and psychoanalysis for children, adolescents, and adults, and offers early intervention to couples, families, and mother/baby pairs.

From 2013 to 2015, Dr. Messina held the position of Director of the Meyer Treatment Center at the Washington School of Psychiatry and was the Director of Continuing Education for Women at George Washington University.

Dr. Messina serves on the Council on Artificial Intelligence (CAI) at the American Psychoanalytical Association, whose mission focuses on the connections between AI and psychoanalytic practice, education, and theory.

She is also the chair of the scholarship and writing section of APsA’s Department of Psychoanalytic Education, an endeavor that encourages young writers to become confident and consistent contributors to the field of psychoanalysis.

Books
Dr. Messina is the author of numerous books that focus on the psychoanalytic implications of projective identification, misogyny, climate change, and political manipulation. Her books include Barbie and the Great American Identity Crisis (PI Press, March 2024), [https://www.amazon.com/Its-Not-Me-You-Narcissists-ebook/dp/B0CDN7QLD3/ref=sr_1_3?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Fwo8xshAFTUlGdbvj0hauyq1aVhu0Ej63VQPsU6Br3iTe8bevdgVWY95ezu9lNVh.LZ4LSBvDgiRJk3cKHKGi8EpmuK7np_tAJcPsBnb1Z3Q&dib_tag=se&qid=1710271519&refinements=p_27%3AKaryne+E+Messina&s=digital-text&sr=1-3&text=Karyne+E+Messina It's Not Me, It's You! How Narcissists Get What They Want and How to Stop Them] (Cascade, July 2023), Resurgence of Global Populism (Routledge, 2022), Aftermath: Healing from the Trump Presidency (PI Press, 2021), and Misogyny, Projective Identification, and Mentalization: Psychoanalytic, Social, and Institutional Manifestations (Routledge, 2019).

Podcast
Dr. Messina hosts a podcast on the New Books Network where she interviews authors of fiction and of nonfiction titles that intersect with psychoanalytic theory.

Solastalgia
Much of Dr. Messina's writing focuses on solastalgia, also known as the grief associated with a rapidly changing climate. In 2021, she co-chaired a conference entitled Awakening to the Existential Threat of Environmental Collapse, the focus of which was on how climate change threatens humanity and the unconscious processes associated with denialism. In her books, Dr. Messina examines the connection between environmental grief and the need for psychoanalysts and other mental health professionals to help patients address those feelings.

Projective Identification
At the heart of Dr. Messina's work is the concept of projective identification, the psychoanalytical concept coined by Dr. Melanie Klein. Projective identification is a defense mechanism where someone projects unwanted or unacceptable qualities onto someone else, who, in turn, internalizes those qualities and eventually believes these projections. Dr. Messina articulates that most narcissists employ projective identification to control and manipulate others.