Board of Directors
Phil Rose, PhD, Chair
Phil Rose (PhD) is a Canadian scholar, teacher, writer, and speaker. He has taught at a number of Canadian universities, published in several international academic journals, and is editor of the volume Confronting Technopoly: Charting a Course Towards Human Survival (2017). A performing musician, he is also author of the books Roger Waters and Pink Floyd: The Concept Albums (2015) and Radiohead and the Global Movement for Change: ‘Pragmatism Not Idealism’ (2016). The latter book represents the first application of Tomkins’ theories to the analysis of musical communication. Rose has also sought more broadly to demonstrate the general relevance of Silvan Tomkins’ affect-script theory to communication and cultural theorists, including in his 2013 article for the journal Explorations in Media Ecology titled “Silvan Tomkins as Media Ecologist”, and in his 2014 article for the International Journal of Communication titled “Musical Counter-Environments: Media Ecology as Art Criticism”. One of his current projects involves probing the phenomenon of ‘performance violence’ in connection with Affect-Script theory and the Mimetic Theory of the Franco-American scholar René Girard.
Lauren Abramson, Treasurer
The first article Lauren Abramson was assigned to read for her Biopsychology graduate program was Tomkins’ “What and Where are the Primary Affects?” The richness of the theory combined with sound empirical evidence therein set a standard for journal articles that left room for much disappointment in subsequent reading. After meeting Silvan Tomkins in 1987, she worked with him on the relationship between the face and personality during the last years of his life. Lauren continues to be excited by her ongoing exploration of the implications of Affect Script Psychology for personal and cultural awakening. Understanding and applying ASP in a variety of settings (medical, social work, psychotherapy, education, sailing, business, organizations) is a lifelong endeavor. Since 1995, Lauren has used Affect Script Psychology to build an innovative Restorative Justice/Conflict Transformation program in inner-city Baltimore (www.communityconferencing.org), and continues to write about the role of emotion in individual and collective conflict transformation, community development, and peacebuilding.
Paul Marshall, Board Member
Having come to the work of Silvan Tomkins through Vernon Kelly’s The Art of Intimacy and the Hidden Challenge of Shame, Paul believes that once you are properly introduced to it you can never un-see it. Paul has seen the benefits that an understanding of Affect Script Psychology can bring across all domains of our lives and it has informed his practice as a mediator, Barrister, consultant, coach, actor, director, father, husband and friend. As a co-founder of Emma, a management and energy consultancy, Paul combines Affect Script Psychology with the ontological approach developed by Fernando Flores in a variety of presentations and programs that enhance and develop team effectiveness – both internally as part of the culture of Emma and externally for groups from engineering undergraduate design groups through to corporate executive leadership teams.
Paul is currently serving his second term as President and Chair of the Management Committee for a NFP community theatre.
Nancy MacConnachie received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Virginia in 1988. She is a partner in The Westwood Group, a private practice in Richmond, Virginia. She also works with Family Practice Residents at the Virginia Commonwealth University Health Systems and as a consultant to a wilderness-based residential treatment facility focusing on emotional and social development for high school students
Nancy MacConnachie, PhD, Board Member
Daven Morrison, M.D., Board Member
David E. Morrison III, M.D., (Daven) is an adviser to senior management with a focus on the interpersonal at Morrison Associates, Ltd. His primary roles include leading individual consultations for executives, facilitating seminars, and developing new products. Daven has found Affect Script Psychology to be critical to understanding and thus effecting change in all his work. Management education programs developed by Daven include “Making Performance Management Discussions Work for You”, which is designed to help managers and their direct reports develop a sense of mastery around tough discussions on performance. This course has been adapted for internal training and education programs at Abbott, Accenture, Food Lion, Kraft and Motorola.Daven is a board certified psychiatrist. He graduated from Northwestern University in 1988 with a degree in Spanish Literature, and in 1992 from the University of Illinois College of Medicine. Daven’s psychiatric residency was completed at University Hospitals of Case Western in Cleveland in 1996. He was a Chief Resident his final year. He is an active Board member of the Tomkins Institute. He is also the program director and an Officer of the Academy of Organizational and Occupational Psychiatry and he is on the Committee for Work and Organizations of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry. He has been a regular presenter and researcher for the Institute for Fraud Prevention.
Maria McManus, MA, Board Member
Maria McManus comes to the Tomkins Institute after a career in User Experience Design for major websites such as iVillage and Disney. When she began consulting, writing and speaking about leadership on cross-functional teams, she discovered the work of Silvan Tomkins, causing her worldview and life trajectory to be forever changed. Now a graduate student in Positive Developmental Psychology at Claremont Graduate University, Maria is particularly interested in the good that can come from an expanded awareness of human beings as social creatures, designed to respond affectively to the world, with a powerful predisposition to want to matter to other people. Co-author of “The Geek Leader’s Handbook,” Maria is researching the distinction between interest-excitement and enjoyment-joy in positive affectivity.
Matt Casey, Board Member
Matt Casey is a Counsellor and Restorative Practice Consultant in New South Wales, Australia, where he conducts Restorative Practice seminars in Education, Christian Ministry, Law Enforcement and the Community Sector. In 2000 he joined Real Justice Australia and with Goulburn Family Support Service pioneered the evolution of Explicit Affective Practice through the application of Affect Script Psychology to the principles and Practice of Restorative Justice. He is the Chair of the Management Committee of the Goulburn Family Support Service and the Boards of the Conflict Resolution Service and Karinya House (For Mothers and Babies), both in Canberra. He is also the Vice Chair of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Council for the Pastoral Care of Prisoners. Matt recently retired from his role as the Director of Professional Standards and Safeguarding with the Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn. He was formerly a Detective Inspector in the NSW Police, a Field Commander for the Special Weapons and Operations Squad and Head of the School of Investigation & Intelligence at the NSW Police Academy. Matt is married to Pam; they live in Goulburn, New South Wales and have three children and four grandchildren.
Susan Leigh Deppe, M.D., Board Member
Susan Leigh Deppe, M.D., is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Cinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Vermont (USA) College of Medicine, where she teaches the psychiatry resident seminar on spirituality. She has been in solo private practice since 1990. In Don Nathanson’s APA course in the early 1990s, she was ecstatic to find a coherent, powerful paradigm for psychiatry and emotional experience. She applies Tomkins’ paradigm to psychotherapies, mood and anxiety disorders, spirituality, emotional development, ideology and political behavior, and restorative practices. She has taught affect and script in many settings, from psychotherapy to church groups, health professionals, and restorative practitioners. Dr. Deppe has taught extensively in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and has been a catalyst for the use of restorative practices in Vermont. A graduate of Iowa State University, the University of Iowa College of Medicine, and the University of Vermont/Medical Center Hospital of Vermont, Dr. Deppe has done years of advocacy, public education, and work on health care reform and environmental activism.