T. Byram Karasu

T. Byram Karasu, M.D.

  • Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
  • University Chairman Emeritus Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
  • Dorothy and Marty Silverman Professor Emeritus in Psychiatry Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

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  • Albert Einstein College of Medicine Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus 1300 Morris Park Avenue Bronx, NY 10461

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Research Profiles

Professional Interests

Dr. Karasu, a graduate of the Department of Psychiatry of Yale School of Medicine, is a widely renowned psychiatrist, educator, author, master psychotherapist, and executive coach with extensive experience in the treatment of depression and personality disorders.  

Dr. Karasu is the founding chairman of UBA, a steadily growing non-profit behavioral health organization since its inception 1992, and co-founder of the Annual Tarrytown Leadership Conference, continuously successful since 1972. These and many other leadership experiences in widely divergent fields and his decades-long work with executives culminated in the publication of his highly praised book on leadership: The Mind of the Leader - A Psychological Primer on Leadership.

He is the editor-in-chief emeritus of the American Journal of Psychotherapy, and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). He chaired two commissions and one task force for the APA. The first commission reviewed all psychological and somatic therapies as practiced in the U.S. and studied their efficacy. The second commission established treatment standards for all psychiatric disorders. These commissions published six volumes, and were praised as being: “...twenty-five years ahead of its time,” by Atlantic Monthly, and “the best psychiatric book ever,” by Contemporary Psychiatry.  The APA Task Force, under Dr. Karasu's leadership, developed the first Practice Guidelines for Major Depressive Disorder in Adults.

He is a bestselling author whose works have been translated into many languages. He has published 22 books, including on the theory and practice of psychotherapy: Wisdom in the Practice of Psychotherapy; Deconstruction of Psychotherapy; The Psychotherapist as Healer; Life Witness: Evolution of the Psychotherapist; two popular books on spirituality: The Art of Serenity and The Spirit of Happiness; two novels: Of God and Madness and Gotham Chronicles: The Culture of Sociopathy; two books of poetry, Rags of My Soul and The Remnants of Time; and two books of philosophical reflections: Maxims Minimus: Reflections in Microstyle and Eight Brief Lessons on Life.

In addition to being a prolific writer, Dr. Karasu has been a visiting professor, scholar, and titled lecturer at many academic institutions, including: Harvard Bicennenial Lecturer at Mass. General Hospital; Alfred H. Stanton Lecturer at McLean Hospital; Hamilton Ford Lecturer at the Titus Harris Society; Hincks Memorial Lecturer at McMaster University; Ralph M. Patterson Memorial Lecturer at Ohio State University; Frederick L. Weniger Lectureship at the University of Pittsburgh; twice Royal College Speaker at Mount Sinai Hospital of the University of Toronto; Winkelman Lecturer at the Philadelphia Psychiatric Center; Frank O. Shobe Lecturer at Washington University; Nolan D.C. Lewis Visiting Professor and Scholar at the Carrier Foundation; Jeffrey Greenbaum Memorial Lecturer at Long Island Jewish Medical Center/Hillside Hospital; Susanne Housman Memorial Lecturer at the New York University Medical Center; Jacob E. Finesinger Lecturer at the University of Maryland at Baltimore; the Harry Stack Sullivan Speaker at Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital; Dean's Lecturer at Weill Cornell Medical College; and the John A. Graft Lecturer at the Mayo Clinic. He is the recipient of the Sigmund Freud Award of the Psychoanalytical Physicians' Association; APA Presidential Commendation; and the Yale University School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry Distinguished Alumni Award.

 

Selected Publications

Karasu TB: The Mind of a Leader – A Psychological primer on Leadership, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2023

Karasu TB: A Historical Reflection: We Are All Passing Through, Am J Psychotherapy 75:2, 2022

Karasu TB: The Remnants of Time, Archway Publishing 2021

Karasu TB: Eight Brief Lessons on Life, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2019

Karasu TB: Life Witness: Evolution of the Psychotherapist, Lanham, MD, Jason Aronson, 2013

Karasu TB: Maxims Minimus: Reflections in Microstyle, Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2012 

Karasu TB: Introduction. The Person of the Psychotherapist: Let’s Hear Not the Song but the Singer. Psychiatric Times 28(8):20, 2011

Karasu TB: Gotham Chronicles: The Culture of Sociopathy, Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2011

Karasu SR The Gravity of Weight: A Clinical Guide to Weight Loss and Maintenance, & Karasu TB: Arlington, VA, American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., 2010

Karasu TB Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy, in Comprehensive Textbook& Karasu SR: of Psychiatry/IX (Volume II). Edited by Sadock BJ, Sadock VA., Ruiz P., Philadelphia, PA, Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, pp. 2746-2775, 2009

Karasu TB: Rags of My Soul. Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2009

Karasu TB: Of God and Madness. Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.,  2006 

Karasu TB: The Spirit of Happiness. New York, NY, Simon & Schuster, 2006 

Karasu SR The Art of Marriage Maintenance. Lanham, MD, Jason Aronson, 2005

 Karasu TB: Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy, in Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry/VIII (Volume II). Edited by Sadock BJ, Sadock VA., Baltimore, MD, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, pp. 2472-2498, 2005

Karasu TB: The Art of Serenity. New York, NY, Simon & Schuster, 2003 

Karasu TB: The “last therapist” – the healer. Issues in Psychoanal Psychology 24:37-49, 2002

Karasu TB: Response to Dr. Irvin Yalom (Oskar Pfister Award Lecture “Psychiatry and Religion.”) Am J Psychotherapy 56:317-321, 2002 

Karasu TB: Therapeutic factors, in Encyclopedia of Psychotherapy, vol. 2. Edited by Hersen M, Sledge W. New York, NY, Elsevier Science, pp. 781-791, 2002 

Karasu TB: The Psychotherapist as Healer. Northvale, NJ, Jason Aronson, 2001

Karasu TB: The advanced practice of psychotherapy.  Harvard Rev Psychiatry 9:118-123, 2001 (also Greek translation, publisher, M. Pitsilidis S.A., 2001/2002)

Karasu TB, Practice guideline for the treatment of patients with major depressive disorder et al: (Revision) Am J Psychiatry (Suppl) 157:1-45, 2000

Karasu TB: Editorial on the millennium: The procession of times and paradigms.  (Lead article) Am J Psychotherapy 54:1-7, Spring 2000

Karasu TB: Spiritual psychotherapy. (Special article) Am J Psychotherapy 53:143-161, 1999

Karasu TB: The Psychotherapist’s Interventions: Integrating Psychodynamic Perspectives in Clinical Practice. Northvale, NJ, Jason Aronson, 1998

Karasu TB: Results and limits of the psychotherapy of depression. NÓOs. Aggiornamenti in Psichiatria 2(4):293-311, 1996

Karasu TB: Deconstruction of Psychotherapy.  Northvale, NJ, Jason Aronson, 1996

Karasu TB: Transtheoretical practice of psychotherapy. (Lead article) Am J Psychotherapy 49:484-503, 1995

Karasu TB: Conflict and deficit: toward an integrative vision of the self. Visions of the Self section. Am J Psychoanal 55:279-288, 1995

Karasu TB: A developmental metatheory of psychopathology. Am J Psychotherapy 48:581-599, 1994

Karasu TB: Depression: the relative merits of pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. The  Royal College of Psychiatrists, London, UK. Current Opinion in Psychiatry 6:184-190, 1993

Karasu TB, Practice guideline for major depressive disorder in adults. Am J Psychiatry et al: 150:1-26, 1993 (Suppl)

Karasu TB: Psychotherapy and depression. State of the Art in Clin Psychiatry I: 4-26, 1992

Karasu TB: Wisdom in the Practice of Psychotherapy. New York, NY, Basic Books, 1992 (reprint, Northvale, NJ, Jason Aronson, 2001)

Karasu TB: The worst of times, the best of times: psychotherapy in the 1990's. (Lead article) J Psychother Prac Res 1:2-15, 1992

Karasu TB: Developmentalist metatheory of depression and psychotherapy. Am J Psychotherapy 46:1-13, 1992

Karasu TB: Psychotherapy for Depression. Northvale, NJ, Jason Aronson, 1990

Karasu TB: La psychotherapie chez l'obsessionel. L'Encephale XVI: 355-358, 1990

Karasu TB: Toward a clinical model of psychotherapy for depression, II: integrative and selective treatment approach. (Lead article) Am J Psychiatry 147:269-278, 1990

Karasu TB: Toward a clinical model of psychotherapy for depression, I: systematic comparison of three psychotherapies. (Lead article) Am J Psychiatry 147:133-147, 1990

Karasu TB: Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy, in Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry/V and VI (Volumes II). Edited by Kaplan HI, Sadock BJ. Baltimore, MD, Williams and Wilkins, 1989, pp 1442-1461; 1995, pp 1767-1788

Karasu TB, Treatments of Psychiatric Disorders: A Task Force Report of the American et al: Psychiatric Association (Vols. 1-4). Washington, DC, APPI, 1989

Karasu TB: New frontiers in psychotherapy. (Festschrift article) J Clin Psychiatry 50:46-52, 1989

Karasu TB: The psychotherapy of the future. Psychosomatics 28:380-384, 1987

Karasu TB: Psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy. Psychiatric Annals 16:522-525, 1986

Karasu TB: The psychotherapies: benefits and limitations. Am J Psychotherapy 40: 324-342, 1986

Karasu TB: The "specificity vs. nonspecificity" dilemma: towards identifying therapeutic change agents. (Lead article) Am J Psychiatry 143:687-695, 1986

Karasu TB, The Psychiatric Therapies (Part I, The Somatic Therapies, Part II, The Psycho-et al: social Therapies). APA Commission on Psychiatric Therapies.  Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Association, 1984

Karasu TB: Recent developments in individual psychotherapy. (Lead article) Hosp & Commun Psychiatry 35:29-39, 1984

Karasu TB, Psychotherapy Research: Methodological and Efficacy Issues. APA Commissionet al: on Psychotherapies. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Association, 1982

Karasu TB: Psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy: towards an integrative model. (Lead article) Am J Psychiatry 139:1102-1113, 1982

Karasu TB: Editorial. Proving the efficacy of psychotherapy to government: a bureaucratic solution? Am J Psychiatry 139:789-790, 1982

Karasu TB: From Freudian psychoanalysis to experiential psychotherapies: an essay on recent trends. Academy Forum 25:13-17, 31, 1981

Karasu TB: The ethics of psychotherapy. (Lead article) Am J Psychiatry 137:1502-1512, 1980

Karasu TB: Psychotherapy of the medically ill. (Lead article) Am J Psychiatry 136:1-11, 1979

Karasu TB: Psychological and behavioral therapies in medicine. Psychosomatics 20:578-583, 1979

Karasu TB: Psychotherapies: an overview. (Lead article) Am J Psychiatry 138:851-863, 1977

Karasu TB: The world as a therapeutic community.  Int J Soc Psychiatry 20:134-138, 1974