Deborah Spitz, M.D.

Education & Training

• B.A. Cornell University, 1971
• M.D. University of Pennsylvania, 1978
• Residency—The University of Chicago, 1982
• Fellowship in Inpatient Psychiatry—The University of Chicago, 1983
• American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, 1984

Clinical Interests

• Refractory Mood Disorders
• Psychotherapy
• Women’s Mental Health

Research Interests

• Psychiatric Education
• Faculty development
• Psychiatric Ethics, particularly the issue of autonomous choice in severe remitting and relapsing psychiatric disorders

Teaching

• The Resident as Teacher, summer, yearly for all residents
• Case Conference, weekly year-round, for all residents
• Introduction to Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, summer, yearly, PGY-2
• Psychodynamic Formulation and Continuous Case Conference, fall/winter, yearly, PGY-3
• Lecturer/Section Leader in Human Behavior, fall, MSII
• Lecturer/Section Leader in Clinical Pathophysiology and Therapeutics, winter, MSII

Society Memberships (selected)

• American Psychiatric Association, Scientific Program Committee, Distinguished Fellow
• Association for Academic Psychiatry, Past President and Distinguished Life Fellow
• American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Part I and II Committees
• Association of Women Psychiatrists, Executive Council
• Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry, Executive Council
• American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training

Selected Publications

• Spitz D. How Much Truth and How Much Reconciliation? Intrapsychic, Interpersonal and Social Aspects of Resolution.  In Potter N (ed) Trauma, Truth and Reconciliation: Healing Damaged Relationships, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006.
• Spitz D. “What if There Are Limits to Understanding?”  Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology 10(3):233-5, 2003.
• Spitz D. “What is the Role of Psychotherapy in Bipolar Disorder?—Part I and II”  Medscape Psychiatry & Mental Health  8(2) 2003.
• Spitz D, Riba M and Hansen-Grant S. “Residency Training Issues in Collaborative Treatment” in Riba M and Balon R, eds., Psychopharmacology and Psychotherapy—a Collaborative Approach, American Psychiatric Press, Washington, 1999.
• Spitz D. “How to Cut the Psychiatric Pie: The Dilemma of Character,” Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology 6 (4): 311-16, 1999.
• Spitz D. “Collaboration between Psychiatrist and Patient: How Avoidable is Paternalism?” Annual Review of Law and Ethics, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, 4:1996.
• Spitz D. “Treatment of the Seriously and Persistently Mentally Ill on an Acute Psychiatric Unit of a General Hospital,” in Stephen Soreff, ed., Handbook for the Treatment of the Seriously Mentally Ill, Hogrefe and Huber, Seattle, WA, 1996.

Selected Conferences & Presentations

• Negotiation: a Workshop for Chairs—with Worley L and Pato C, Association for Academic Psychiatry, Santa Fe, September 2008.
• So, You’re the New Training Director—Now What?  Issues in Transition, with Anzia J—Workshop, American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training, San Juan, 2007
• Jumping Off a Cliff—Unusual Career Trajectories in Academic Psychiatry, with Silberman E, Association for Academic Psychiatry, San Francisco, 2006 and APA, 2007.
• Careers in Psychiatry—Women who have made their own way, American Psychiatric Association, 2006.
• 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird:  Recovery and the relationship between doctor and patient, 8th International Conference on Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology: New Philosophies for Community Psychiatry—Recovery Oriented, Evidence Based, and Beyond. Yale University, New Haven, Oct 16-18, 2005.
• Depression in Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period, Medical Staff Grand Rounds, St Elizabeth’s Hospital, St Mary’s Hospital, Chicago IL, March 29, 2005.
• Medicine and Culture—Reflections on three years in the British National Health Service, Grand Rounds, Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago, Oct 14, 2004.
• Dissociative Disorders—Issues of Culture, Issues of Trust, with Kruger C, Potter N, Sar V, American Psychiatric Association, New York, 2004.
• Moral and Philosophical Issues in Psychiatry, with Fulford K, Sadler J, Schaffner K, Radden J and Phillips J—Presidential Symposium, American Psychiatric Association, San Francisco, 2003.
• Personal Identity and Bipolar Disorder, with Radden J, Potter N, Ghaemi N, American Psychiatric Association, San Francisco, 2003.
• Creating Narrative from Disjunction—The Clinical Picture, Symposium on Personal Identity and Bipolar Disorder, American Psychiatric Association, San Francisco, 2003.
• The Rules of the Club: Career Advancement for Women, with Stewart D, Matorin A, Gise L, American Psychiatric Association, Philadelphia, 2002.
• Psychiatry Without Borders: Breaking the Barriers, with Singh B, Upadhya G, Oepen G, American Psychiatric Association, Philadelphia, 2002.
• New Perspectives in Cross-Cultural Psychiatry--An Outsider Comes to the NHS, lecture,  Department of Psychiatry, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge University, Cambridge, U.K. April 2002.
• Melancholia:  Part of a Continuum of Experience, or a Discrete Entity?, Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry, New Orleans, May 2001
• Why Hospitalize?  Discussion Group, American Psychiatric Association, New Orleans, May 2001
• Toward an Integrative View of Mind and Brain—Developing a Neuroscience Curriculum, with Ahmed, Iqbal, Association for Academic Psychiatry, Vancouver, 2000
• The Limits of Rationality in Psychotherapy—Paper, Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry, Chicago, May 2000.
• Autonomy, the Psychiatric Patient, and the Psychiatrist—Commentary on “The Patient’s Right to Die in Dignity” by Raphael Cohen-Almagor—Conference on Biotechnology Challenges for Law and Ethics, The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study and Conference Center, August 1995

Other Activities

• Chair, University of Chicago Department of Psychiatry Residency Education Committee
• University of Chicago Department of Psychiatry Management Committee
• University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Promotions Committee, Honors and Awards Committee, Pritzker Initiative
• University of Chicago Graduate Medical Education Committee, Co-Chair Internal Review Committee