Remembering Derner’s Richard Hansen, PhD

A longtime member of the Derner faculty passed away in 2025-Richard Hansen, PhD, was extremely important not only to Adelphi's postgraduate psychology programs but to the entire psychoanalytic profession. Below is a tribute to Dr. Hansen's contributions to the field of psychology and the Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology.

Richard R. Hansen, PhD, ABPP (1948-2025) was a psychologist, psychoanalyst, teacher, supervisor, leader and mentor to countless trainees, colleagues and service organizations. He dedicated his professional life to advancing psychoanalysis as a humanistic discipline and was in private practice for nearly 50 years, continuing to see patients up until the time of his death. For more than 20 years, he also served on the faculty, executive board, and was committee chair and a supervising analyst in the postgraduate program in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy at the Adelphi University Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology. He received his BA in 1969 from Hofstra University, where he was the first undergraduate awarded a graduate teaching fellowship in the Department of Psychology. He earned his MS and certification in school psychology from Brooklyn College in 1971, his PhD from Fordham University in 1977, and his postdoctoral diploma in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis from Adelphi University in 1999, where he later joined the faculty.

His seasoned career began with his work as both a psychologist and an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College, City University of New York and Dowling College, after which he became a staff psychologist at the Advanced Center for Psychotherapy, where he specialized in psychoanalytic psychotherapy with children, adolescents and adults. He continued to work in a variety of settings and capacities, including at Kings Park Psychiatric Center and the Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center, Queens Hospital Center Affiliate, where he was a senior and supervising psychologist and later became assistant chief of psychology, coordinating psychological services in the Inpatient, Day Hospital and Partial Hospital programs. For more than 20 years, he taught and supervised in the doctoral programs in clinical psychology at Yeshiva University, Long Island University and the Suffolk Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis before joining the postgraduate training faculty at Adelphi.

Dr. Hansen was a dedicated service leader to many psychoanalytic organizations, including the Nassau County Psychological Association, Adelphi, the Accreditation Council for Psychoanalytic Education, and the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis, where he received board certification in psychoanalysis with the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP), the highest qualification any psychologist can be awarded in North America. He was also awarded Fellow status with the American Psychological Association (APA) and Honorary Fellow status with the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA). Dr. Hansen played important roles within organized psychoanalysis at the national level. He taught many advanced courses in psychoanalytic technique and was a frequent presenter at Division 39: Psychoanalysis annual meetings of the APA. His dedication as a leader in the field led to his appointment as president of the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis.

Dr. Hansen was a compassionate, principled, ethical and caring human being toward his patients and others in general. He was a gifted clinician and independent thinker, and his passion for the field was contagious. Toward the end of his life, he became disillusioned with the increasing politicalization and polarization of the field. Until he became ill, he fought this in any way he could. Once his illness compromised his level of energy, he directed his attention to the pure goal of healing souls through psychoanalysis. He remained committed to this work up until only weeks before his death. A Festschrift is being planned in memory of his honor and dedication to the profession he so inspired and loved.