Issues of gender and sexuality have been at the forefront of Dr. Diamond’s clinical and scholarly work. She specializes in life cycle transitions, including puberty, transition to college, marriage or the development of enduring partnerships, the transition to parenthood, the recalibration of relationship and work commitments when children leave home, retirement, and changes in body image during the aging process. Such transitions may catalyze a shift in the experience of oneself in relation to others and in relation to the bodily/sexual self. These transitions can alter an individual’s experience of self regardless of gender, class, or economic status, and can potentially evoke dormant conflicts and create new ones at both the intrapsychic and psychosocial level.
For several years, Dr. Diamond has spearheaded a research project on the transition to co-education at Wesleyan (1968-1978) that focuses on the lived experience of the students and faculty who participated in opening up Wesleyan to be a more diverse and inclusive place. She has presented the findings from this study in several WESSEMINARS (2010, 2017 2020,2022), in which Wesleyan women from across the decades came together to talk about their experiences on campus. The major goals of this project are to give a voice to the challenges and struggles faced by the pioneering female students who were at Wesleyan during the first ten years of co-education, to explore what has changed and what has remained the same for women at Wesleyan, and to encourage exploration around the issues of gender parity (or lack of it) in academic and social life that may continue to be relevant to women at Wesleyan and other institutions today.
Dr. Diamond is also interested in the psychology of intimate partner violence and coercive control in relationships. She has consulted for organizations that offer safety, shelter, and counseling for women who have experienced domestic violence. Most recently, Dr. Diamond served as the moderator for Behind Closed Doors: A frank conversation about domestic violence in the community, a panel discussion on intimate partner abuse sponsored by the Sag Harbor Cinema’s “Projections” education initiative and The Retreat, a domestic violence shelter and advocacy group.
Publications & Media
Books and Monographs:
Diamond, D., Blatt, S., and Lichtenberg, J. (Eds.) (2007). Attachment and Sexuality. New York: Analytic Press, Taylor and Francis Group.
Doane, J.A. & Diamond, D. (1994). Affect and Attachment in the Family: A Family Based Treatment of Major Psychiatric Disorder. New York: Basic Books. Italian translation: (1995). Affetti e attaccamento nella famiglia: Trattamento amiliare dei piugravi disturbi psichiatrici. Italian edition, Raffaello Cortina Editore.
Appelbaum, A. H. & Diamond, D. (Eds)(1993). The Impact of Gender on Transference and Countertransference. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 13. Hillsdale, N.J: Analytic Press.
Book Chapters:
Diamond, D. (2011). Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette: Costumes, girl power, and feminism. In A. Munich (Ed.), Fashion and Film (203-231). Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Diamond, D. and Yeomans, F. (2007). Oedipal love and conflict in the transference/countertransference matrix: its impact on attachment security and mentalization. In D. Diamond, J. Lichtenberg, and S. Blatt (Eds), Attachment and sexuality (pp. 201-255). New Jersey: Analytic Press.
Diamond, D. (2007). Loss, mourning and desire in midlife: Francois Ozon’s Under the Sand and Swimming Pool. In A. Sabbadini, (Ed.), Projected shadows: further psychoanalytic reflections on European cinema (pp. 145-159). Hove and New York: Brunner-Routledge.
Diamond, D. and Blatt, S.J. (2007). Introduction. In D. Diamond, J. Lichtenberg, and S. Blatt (Eds), Attachment and sexuality (pp. 1-26). New Jersey: Analytic Press.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications:
Diamond D. (2012). Sexuality and attachment in patients with severe narcissistic personality disorders. Implications for therapeutic process and outcome. Persönlichkeitsstörunge, 16, 49–67.
Diamond, D. (2009). The Fourth Wave of Feminism: Psychoanalytic perspectives. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 10 (4), 213-223.
Diamond, D. (1999). Narrating Desire and Desiring Narration: A Psychoanalytic Reading of The English Patient. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 80(2), 385-389.
Diamond, D. (1992). Gender-specific transference reactions of male and female patients to the therapist’s pregnancy. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 9(3), 319.
Diamond, D. (1989). Father-daughter incest: Unconscious fantasy and social fact. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 6, 421-437.
Invited Lectures and Presentations:
Diamond, D., De Filippis, M., Lee, J. and Taraba, S. (2022, April). The Second Wave of Coeducation at Wesleyan (1968-1978): What Has Changed & What Remains the Same . Presented as a WesSeminar. Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT.
Diamond, D. (2010, May). Panelist and Presenter. Women at Wesleyan University: The Second Wave of Coeducation, the Transitional Years. Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT.
