December 3, 1999
Religious studies professor receives national recognition for research
La'Tesha Wilson, A'01 Intern in the Offices of Public Affairs and Publications
Associate
Professor of Religions Studies Tiina Allik has come a very long way in
the field of psychoanalytic research. She has worked with national organizations
and written numerous articles in her field of study. Now it appears her
work is finally receiving recognition.
Allik's family is originally from Estonia and immigrated to the United States during World War II. Allik, the first member of her family born in this country, pursued her education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she received a bachelor of science degree in 1972, a masters of arts in religion at the Westminster Theological Seminary in 1974, and a doctorate in theology in 1982 from Yale University Graduate School, Department of Religious Studies. "Education has always been very important to me, and I always enjoyed discovering how people think."
Allik began her teaching career as a teaching assistant at Yale in 1978. She later became an assistant professor of theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. "I was really excited about being at Loyola (Marymount). I taught classes I believed were beneficial and I had a few articles published."
While she left one Loyola for another in 1990, Allik continued her research. Over the course of her career, she has received four independent study research grants, the most recent from the Committee On Research and Special Training (CORST) of the American Psychoanalytic Association (APA) for $5,000 which was matched by the New Orleans Psychoanalytic Institute for a total of $10,000 over three years. The grant was given to support Allik's proposal for using psychoanalysis in her research. Specifically, her research will answer the question "Does psychoanalyzing the unconscious passional and personal motivations of theories (whether psychoanalytic, philosophical, or theological) necessarily amount to a reductionistic attack on the discrediting of the theory?" "I felt very honored to receive the grant. It will help me bring what I learn into the classroom and add more depth to those discussions."
Another career highlight came a few years ago when Allik was accepted into the New Orleans Psychoanalytic Institute. Since July 1996, she has participated in the pre-psychoanalytic clinical training program at Louisiana State University Department of Psychiatry where she has taken classes with psychiatry residents and worked with psychotherapy patients. She will begin classes next year at the institute.
If all of this is not enough, Allik also is working on a book of psychoanalytic and philosophical views on what it is to be human. "What I'm dealing with and have dealt with are ideas. If these ideas were to be used in everyday life, they would change the way people think. That's what I want to do. I want to teach people how to play and make use of the deeper parts of themselves that awaken the spontaneity and creativity of human life."
Allik is a member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, the New Orleans Psychoanalytic Institute, the American Academy of Religion, and the College Theology Society.