Stephanie Swales, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology, received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Duquesne University and her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College. She is a practicing psychoanalyst and licensed clinical psychologist, providing treatment to children and adults at her office in Preston Center in Dallas.
Dr. Swales specializes in the theory and practice of Lacanian psychoanalysis and its intersections with critical psychology. She has published two books: Psychoanalysing Ambivalence with Freud and Lacan: On and Off the Couch (Routledge, 2019), co-authored with Carol Owens, and Perversion: A Lacanian Psychoanalytic Approach to the Subject (Routledge, 2012). Dr. Swales has also published numerous articles and book chapters. Her current research focuses on empathy and liminality. She is also a member of Community Assistance Research.
She is the Secretary for APA’s Division 24 (Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology), Founder of the Dallas/Fort Worth-area Lacan Study Group, Analyst, Secretary, and Faculty of the Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis, Past President of the Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology, Curriculum Committee member of the Dallas Post Graduate Program in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and reviewer for numerous journals in the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis.
Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, Aug. 2005 – Aug. 2011
Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (APA Accredited)
M.A. in Psychology, Dec. 2007
Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (APA Accredited)
May 2004 A.B., Cum Laude with honors in Psychology
Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Psychoanalyst, May 2019
Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis, San Francisco, California
Licensed Psychologist with Health Service Provider status in Texas (36416), Dec.,
2012
National Register of Health Service Psychologists (53627), Aug., 2012
May 2020—present
Associate Professor of Psychology
University of Dallas
Irving, Texas
August 2014—2020
Assistant Professor of Psychology
University of Dallas
Irving, Tex
Sept. 2013 – May 2014
Adjunct Instructor
University of Dallas
Irving, Texas
January 2012 – May 2012
Adjunct Instructor
Chicago School of Professional Psychology
Chicago, Illinois
August 2006 – May 2009
Adjunct Instructor
Duquesne University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Professional Memberships
American Psychological Association
American Psychological Association, Division 24: Society for Theoretical and Philosophical
Psychology American Psychological Association, Division 39: Psychoanalysis
Association for Psychoanalysis, Culture, & Society
Affiliated Psychoanalytic Workgroups (APW)
Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology
National Register of Health Service Psychologists
Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis
Dallas/Fort Worth Area Lacan Study Group
Professional Experience
May 2015—present: Private Practice, Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Dallas, Texas
Providing psychoanalysis and individual, couples’, and family psychotherapy for children
and adults
Book Publication
Swales, S. & Owens C. (2019), Psychoanalysing Ambivalence with Freud and Lacan: On and Off the Couch,
New York: Rutledge
Swales, S. (2012). Perversion: A Lacanian Psychoanalytic Approach to the Subject. New York: Routledge.
Shorter Publications
Swales, S., May, C., Nuxoll, M., & Tucker, C. Neoliberalism, guilt, shame and stigma: A Lacanian discourse analysis of food insecurity. J Community Appl Soc Psychol. 2020;1–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2475
Swales, S. (2020). Children’s fears during the pandemic. Pediatric Society of Greater Dallas, COVID-19 Newsletter, Spring 2020.
Swales, S. (2020). Session IV: “The Psychology of the Rich: Pausanias”. In G. Thakur & J. Dickstein (Eds.) Reading Lacan's Seminar VIII: On Transference. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Swales, S. (2020). Session XVIII: “Real Presence”. In G. Thakur & J. Dickstein (Eds.) Reading Lacan's Seminar VIII: On Transference. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Swales, S. (2019). Review of Jessica Benjamin’s Beyond Doer and Done To: Recognition Theory, Intersubjectivity, and the Third. Psychoanalysis, Culture, & Society, 24, 3, 371-375.
Swales, S. (2018). Metaphor of the Subject. In S. Vanheule, D. Hook, & C. Neill (Eds.) Reading Lacan’s Écrits: From ‘Signification of the Phallus’ To ‘Metaphor of the Subject’. London & New York: Routledge.
Swales, S. (2018). The Phobic and Fetish Objects. In C. Owens & N. Almqvist (Eds.) Studying Lacan’s Seminars IV and V: From Lack to Desire. London & New York: Routledge.
Swales, S. (2018). Transphobia in the Bathroom: Sexual difference, alterity, and jouissance. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society 23 (3), 290-309.
Owens, C. & Swales, S. (2018). Why the Zombies Ate My Neighbors: Whither Ambivalence?. In V. Sinclair & M. Steinkoler (Eds.) On Psychoanalysis and Violence: Contemporary Lacanian Perspectives. London & New York: Routledge.
Swales, S. (2017). Lacanian Psychoanalysis with Children: Framing Challenges and Inventions. In C. Owens and S. Farrelly (Eds.) Further Notes on the Child: Lacanian Psychoanalysis with Babies, Children and Teenagers. London: Karnac.
Swales, S. (2017). Neurotic treatment resistance in screen- or phone-based analysis. Psychoanalytic Perspectives, 14, 2, 175-192.
Swales, S. (2017). Review of Sergio Benvenuto’s What are Perversions? Sexuality, Ethics, Psychoanalysis. DIVISION/Review, 16.
Pruitt, S.L., Leonard, T., Xuan, L., Amory, R., Nguyen, O.K., Pezzia, C., Swales, S. (2016). Who Is Food Insecure? Implications for Targeted Recruitment and Outreach, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005–2010. Preventing Chronic Disease, 13.
For more publications, see CV.
Swales, S. (2020, March). Critiquing the empathy cure: Bullying, himpathy, and loving thy neighbor. Paper presented at the 2020 Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology
Midwinter Meeting, San Diego, CA.
Swales, S. (2020, February). The analytic act: Opening up the space for ambivalence. Paper presented at the 2020 The Analytic Act and Its Evidence conference, Los Angeles,
CA.
Swales, S. (Speaker). (2019, November 17). Building Flawed Characters: Exploring Anxiety and Empathy with Dr. Stephanie Swales [Audio podcast]. Radio interview conducted for podcast Subject Matter Expert. Retrieved
from https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/subject-matter-expert/id1488281839
Swales, S. (2019, October). Empathy with Extimacy. Keynote address presented at the 2019 Écrits Conference, Pittsburgh, PA.
Swales, S. (2019, October). On the Phobic Structure of Racism: Response to Sheldon George’s Keynote Address, “Psychoanalysis, Race and American Slavery: Rereading Pleasure and Discontent in Freud and Lacan”. Paper presented at the 2019 Psychology and the Other Conference, Boston, MA.
Swales, S. (2019). Empathy Reconsidered: Psychoanalytic Investigations. Paper presented at the 2019 Psychology and the Other Conference, Boston, MA.
Swales, S. & Owens, C. (2019, June). Liminal Technologies: Signature Dishes. Paper presented at the 20th anniversary conference of the Affiliated Psychoanalytic Workgroups, Dublin, Ireland.
Owens, C. & Swales, S. (2019, June). Liminal Creatures: Nil by Mouth. Paper presented at the 20th anniversary conference of the Affiliated Psychoanalytic Workgroups, Dublin, Ireland.
Swales, S. & Owens, C. (2019, May). Extimate ambivalence. Paper presented at the 2019 LACK III conference, Worcester, MA.
Owens, C. & Swales, S. (2019, May). Extreme prejudice. Paper presented at the 2019 LACK III conference, Worcester, MA.
Swales, S. (2019, March). Neoliberalism, shame & stigma: How the food insecure are affected. Paper presented at the 2019 Midwinter Meeting of the Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, Nashville, TN.
Swales, S. (2019, February). What is empathy? And how can I be empathic? Kappa Leadership Conference, Dallas, TX.
Swales, S. (2019, January). A Rite of Passage. Paper presented at the 2019 12th Clinical Study Days of the World Association of Psychoanalysis, Miami, FL.
Swales, S. (2018, October). Facing the Immigration Problem as Phantasmagoria. Paper presented at the 2018 conference of the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Owens, C. & Swales, S. (2018, October). Liminal Creatures: Nil by Mouth. Paper presented at the 2018 conference of the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Swales, S. & Owens, C. (2018, October). Liminal Technologies: Signature Dishes. Paper presented at the 2018 conference of the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Swales, S. & Owens, C. (2018, October). I Love You to Death: Putting Together the Pieces of Ambivalence. Paper presented at the October meeting of the Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology.
Swales, S. (2018, July). Liminal Technologies: Signature Dishes. Paper presented at the 2nd Psychoanalysis on Ice conference, Reykjavik, Iceland.
Swales, S. (2018, March). The Role of Empathy as an Epistemology in Psychodynamic Clinical Work. Paper presented at the Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology Midwinter Meeting, Phoenix, AZ.
Swales, S. (2017, October). Why the zombies ate my neighbours: whither ambivalence? Part II. Paper presented at the LACK: Psychoanalysis and Politics Now Conference, Colorado Springs, CO.
Owens, C. & Swales, S. (2017, October). Incandescent Modalities: some “Lacanian” psychoses. Co-authored paper presented at the Psychology and the Other Conference, Cambridge, MA.
Swales, S. (2017, October). Oedipal Guilt: what is hidden is forbidden. Paper presented at the Psychology and the Other Conference, Cambridge, MA.
Swales, S. (2017, March). The Spectacle of the Hysteric. Paper presented at the 2017 10th Clinical Study Days of the World Association of Psychoanalysis, Miami, FL.
For more presentations, see CV.
2019 University of Dallas King Haggar Scholar Award
2017 University of Dallas King Haggar Scholar Award
2015 Class of 1988 Alumni Faculty Development Award
2014 University of Dallas King Haggar Scholar Award
2012 Early Career Psychologist Credentialing Scholarship (from the National Register of Health Service Psychologists)
McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Dissertation Fellowship Award (2009- 2010)