I am an American psychological & medical anthropologist working in Sydney, Australia. I hold PhDs in both Anthropology and Psychoanalysis, and my theoretical focus centers on the integration of these two fields through the emergent paradigm of “cultural psychodynamics.” My geo-cultural emphasis is Latin America, with a long-term ethnographic focus on the Tzotzil-speaking Chamula Maya of highland Chiapas, Mexico.
My work has been published in Current Anthropology, American Ethnologist, Social Science and Medicine, Language & Communication, Ethos, Journal of Ethnobiology, as well as in various edited volumes. In 2018 and 2011, I was awarded the Boyer Prize for Contributions to Psychoanalytic Anthropology (awarded by the Society for Psychological Anthropology), and in 2005 I won the Peter Loewenberg Essay Prize in Psychoanalysis and Culture (formerly the CORST Essay Prize, awarded by the American Psychoanalytic Association). I am currently working on two books—one on “pathogenic emotions” among the highland Maya, and another on highland Maya dream culture. See my CV and publications for additional details.
Currently, I am a Permanent Lecturer (= US Asst. Professor) at Macquarie University, and a Research Associate / Adjunct Faculty member at New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles, California.
Kevin P. Groark, Ph.D. 