César A. Alfonso, M.D.

César A. Alfonso, M.D. is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, Adjunct Professor at the University of Indonesia, and Visiting Professor at University of the Philippines College of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University in Thailand, and at the National University of Malaysia. He serves as Editor of Psychodynamic Psychiatry (2020-present). Born in Cuba, he spent formative years in Spain and Puerto Rico before pursuing undergraduate studies at Yale University, and graduate and postgraduate studies in medicine, psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine, and psychoanalysis at New York Medical College. Dr. Alfonso served as President of the American Academy of Psychodynamic Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis in 2010-2012. He served as Chair of the Psychotherapy Section of the World Psychiatric Association in 2017-2023 and as President of the World Federation for Psychotherapy (2023-2026). His recent work includes the care of visually impaired persons, bidirectionality and comorbidity, the psychodynamics of addiction, the psychodynamics of suicide, psychotherapy as a biological treatment, psychoanalysis and creativity, cultural anthropology and psychotherapy, and the design and implementation of psychotherapy training programs worldwide. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, and of the American Academy of Psychodynamic Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis. He served as a Teichner Scholar twice with Visiting Professorships at Northwell Staten Island and the University of Iowa and provided psychotherapy supervision to their trainees for a decade afterwards. He has over 100 publications, including four edited books: Advances in Psychodynamic Psychiatry (Guilford Press, 2018), Suicide by Self-Immolation -Biopsychosocial and Transcultural Aspects (Springer Nature, 2021), the 5th Edition of Tasman’s Psychiatry (Springer Nature, 2024), and Cohen’s Comprehensive Textbook of AIDS Psychiatry, 3rd Edition (Springer Nature, 2027 est.). For the past 34 years he has kept a private practice in the Upper West Side of New York City. For the past 17 years he’s been the Chief Psychiatrist at the Lighthouse Guild Behavioral Health Clinic, a mental health clinic dedicated to the care of persons with vision loss or who are blind.