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Jack Drescher, MD, is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City.

Dr. Drescher trained at the William Alanson White Psychoanalytic Institute where he is a Training and Supervising Analyst and serves as a member of its Board of Trustees. He is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and a Faculty Member at Columbia’s Division of Gender, Sexuality, and Health. He is a Senior Psychoanalytic Consultant at Columbia’s Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research and Adjunct Professor at New York University’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. He is a National Faculty Member of the Florida Psychoanalytic Center.

Dr. Drescher is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Past President of the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry and a Past President of APA’s New York County Psychiatric Society.

Dr. Drescher served as Section Editor of the Gender Dysphoria Chapter in the DSM-5 Text Revision (DSM-5-TR) process. He served on APA’s DSM-5 Workgroup on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders and served on the World Health Organization’s Working Group on the Classification of Sexual Disorders and Sexual Health that revised sex and gender diagnoses in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). He served on the Honorary Scientific Committee revising the 2nd edition of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM-2).

Dr. Drescher is an elected Director-at-Large of the American Psychoanalytic Association and serves as a member of APsA’s Governance Committee of the APsA Board, the Committee on Public Information and the Committee on Gender and Sexuality. He previously co-edited APsA’s Psychoanalysis Unplugged blog on PsychologyToday.com. He serves as a consultant to the Sexual & Gender Diversity Studies Committee of the International Psychoanalytical Association, also serves on IPA’s Communications Committee and is the moderator of IPA’s Journal Club.

Dr. Drescher’s professional honors include:

Dr. Drescher is board certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and certified as a Fellow in Adult Psychoanalysis by the American Board of Psychoanalysis.

Dr. Drescher is Author of Psychoanalytic Therapy and the Gay Man (Routledge) and Emeritus Editor of the Journal of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health. He has edited and co-edited more than a score of books dealing with gender, sexuality and the health and mental health of LGBTQ communities. He has authored and co-authored numerous professional articles and book chapters as well. His publications have been translated into Italian, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Finnish and German.

Dr. Drescher has served as an expert witness in legal cases dealing with LGBTQ rights in California, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York and Wisconsin. Two of his published works were cited in a 2018 Indian Supreme Court decision that overturned colonial sodomy laws and decriminalized adult, consensual same-sex behavior (Navtej Singh Johar and others v. Union of India).

Dr. Drescher frequently speaks to both professional and lay audiences. In addition to speaking invitations at Grand Rounds throughout the New York metropolitan area and elsewhere, he has presented at meetings of the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the World Psychiatric Association. He is a frequent international lecturer and has been invited to speak in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Cuba, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Dr. Drescher is an expert media spokesperson on issues related to gender and sexuality and has appeared on ABC: World News Tonight, Good Morning America, 20/20, and Nightline; CBS: Sunday Morning; PBS: In The Life; CTV: AM Canada; CNN: Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper 360, Paula Zahn; Fox: The O’Reilly Factor, Fox News; MSNBC: The Most; NPR: On Point, Here and Now, To the Point. BBC: Radio 4.

Dr. Drescher’s expert views have also been sought and quoted by The Associated Press, Reuters, Time, Newsweek, People, Esquire, Agence France-Presse, The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Miami Herald, and numerous local media outlets.

FUTURE ENGAGEMENTS

2026

January 16: IPA Journal Club featuring Salman Akhtar, MD (via Zoom).
Paper to be discussed:
Deadness: Psychoanalytic Reflections. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2025, 85:213-235. The paper can be read here
Register here

February 4: Hunter College: “The Future of Conversion Therapy Bans”, New York, NY

February 7: Artel de la Recherche Psychanalytique: Conference on “The analysis of the money and the money of the analysis,” (via Zoom)

March 6: IPA Journal Club featuring Vittorio Lingiardi, MD & Nancy McWilliams, PhD: Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual, 3rd Edition (PDM-3) (via Zoom)

March 14: Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia: “Clinical Issues in the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Transgender and Non-Binary Patients.” (via Zoom)

April 10: IPA Journal Club featuring Austin Ratner, MD: The Psychoanalyst’s Aversion to Proof (via Zoom)

May 16-20: Annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, San Francisco, CA

June 11: Montefiore Einstein Department of Psychiatry Grand Rounds “Transgender Psychiatrists Speak: Reflections from Training, Patient Care, and Professional Practice,” Bronx, NY

June 12: IPA Journal Club featuring Beatrice Beebe, PhD: (via Zoom)

November 10: New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute: “Transgender Psychoanalysts Speak: Reflections from Training, Patient Care, and Professional Practice,” (via Zoom)

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