Professor Peter Fonagy, PhD, FBA, is Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis and Head of the Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology at University College London; Chief Executive of the Anna Freud Centre, London; and Consultant to the Child and Family Programme at the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Baylor College of Medicine. He is also Director of UCL Partner’s Mental Health and Well-Being Programme and is National Clinical Lead of Improving Access to Psychological Therapies for Children and Young People. He is a Senior Investigator for the National Institute of Health Research. He is a clinical psychologist and a training and supervising analyst in the British Psycho-Analytical Society in child and adult analysis. His clinical interests centre around issues of borderline psychopathology, violence and early attachment relationships. His work attempts to integrate empirical research with psychoanalytic theory.
A major focus of Professor Fonagy’s research has been an innovative research-based dynamic therapeutic approach, called Mentalization Based Therapy, which was developed in collaboration with a number of clinical sites both in this country and in the US. Professor Fonagy is also engaged in major collaborative programmes exploring developmental psychopathology from an attachment-mentalization perspective. Another thread of his work involves UK research collaborations concerned with the effectiveness of psychosocial treatments. He has published over 500 chapters and articles and has authored or edited a large number of books.
