I have fulfilled many diverse roles academically and clinically. My area of special interest and experience is in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and diagnostic neuropsychology.

My neuropsychological practice specialises in the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases that are rare such as Frontotemporal dementia, atypical Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s Dementia and Corticobasal Degeneration. I also have a special interest in the diagnosis of functional neurological disorders.

In my psychotherapeutic practice I enjoy exploratory psychoanalytic psychotherapy with high functioning individuals who want to understand themselves better, however my clinical interests are broad and I have experience in working with individuals who have presented with a diverse range of difficulties such as those who struggle with depression, individuals who repeatedly enter into destructive patterns of relating, and people who have difficulties with behavior that deviates from that which is understood to be orthodox or “normal” especially when these are sexual in nature.

Qualifications

M.Sc.Med.(Neuro)UCT

Ph.D.(Neuro)UCT

Post-doctoral fellowship in Neuropathology, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Stellenbosch

M.A.(Neuropsych) Cum Laude UCT

Candidate in Psychoanalysis, South African Psychoanalytical Association - component society of the International Psychoanalytical Association

Professional Memberships

Candidate: South African Psychoanalytical Association

Member: Health Professions Council of South Africa

Member: South African Psychoanalytic Initiative

Member: South African Psychoanalytic Confederation

International Psychoanalytical Association Research Training Program Fellow

Member: Cape Town Society of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Member: Psychological Society of South Africa, division of Clinical Neuropsychology

Member: International Neuropsychoanalysis Society

Previously: Elected Member: American Association of Clinical Anatomists

Member: The International Cochrane Collaboration

Academic Positions

Current:

Lecturer in Clinical Neuroanatomy, Neuropathology and Neuroimaging, University of Cape Town.

Previous:

Postdoctoral Fellow in Neuropathology, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Stellenbosch.

Visiting Clinical Neuroimaging Research Fellow, Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University.

“My work with patients enriches my life in that it provides meaning in life. We live lives of service in which we fix our gaze on the needs of others. We take pleasure not only in helping our patients change, but also in hoping their changes will ripple beyond them toward others. We are also privileged by our role as cradlers of secrets. Every day patients grace us with their secrets, often never before shared. The secrets provide a backstage view of the human condition without social frills, role-playing, bravado, or stage posturing. Being entrusted with such secrets is a privilege given to very few. Moreover, our work provides the opportunity to transcend ourselves and to envision the true and tragic knowledge of the human condition. But we are offered even more. We become explorers immersed in the grandest of pursuits—the development and maintenance of the human mind. Hand in hand with patients, we savor the pleasure of discovery—the "aha" experience when disparate ideational fragments suddenly slide smoothly together into a coherent whole. Sometimes I feel like a guide escorting others through the rooms of their own house. What a treat it is to watch them open doors to rooms never before entered, discover unopened wings of their house containing beautiful and creative pieces of identity.”

—Irvin Yalom

Academic background and clinical training

I obtained my first masters degree and doctorate from the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of Cape Town, specialising in Neuroscience. My respective thesises investigated the functional and structural neurobiology of Social Anxiety Disorder.

My clinical training and second masters degree was in Neuropsychology from the Department of Psychology at the University of Cape Town. I was supervised by Professor Mark Solms and my thesis was on parietal thalamo-cortical circuitry and dream cessation in patients with posterior cerebral artery territory infarction. During my internship, I was based in the Division of Neurology at Groote Schuur Hospital, where I rotated through the departments of Neurology, Neurosurgery, Internal Medicine, and Psychiatry.

I recently completed a five year Post-doctoral Fellowship in Neuropathology, in the Department of Pathology at the School of Medicine of the University of Stellenbosch where I developed a neuroimaging protocol to detect active demyelinating lesions in patients with Multiple Sclerosis without using intravenous contrast.

Since starting my clinical training I have become deeply immersed in the South African psychoanalytic community. I am a member of the South African Psychoanalytic Initiative and have been involved in the infant observation program of the Institute of Psychoanalytic Child Psychotherapy. I have also had the privilege of entering into my own longterm personal psychoanalysis. Internationally, I presented at the International Neuropsychoanalysis Association conference in 2014 in New York. I am a member of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society, and in 2017 I became a International Psychoanalytical Association Research Training Program Fellow, by completing the psychoanalytic research training program at the Sigmund Freud Institute in Frankfurt, Germany, where I was supervised by Professor John Clarkin of the Department of Psychiatry at the Weill Cornell Medical College.

Publications

  1. Herbert, E., Engel-Hills, P., Hattingh, C., Fouche, J. P., Kidd, M., Lochner, C., Kotze, M. J., & van Rensburg, S. J. (2018). Fractional anisotropy of white matter, disability and blood iron parameters in multiple sclerosis. Metabolic brain disease, 33(2), 545–557. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-017-0171-5

  2. Williams, T., Hattingh, C. J., Kariuki, C., Tromp, S. A., Van Balkom, A. J., Ipser, C. I., Stein, D. J., (2017). Pharmacotherapy for social anxiety disorder. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD001206.pub3

  3. Fouche, J. P., Du Plessis, S., Hattingh, C. J., Roos, A., Lochner, C., Soriano-Mas, C., Sato, J. R., Takashi, N., Nishida, S., Soo Kwon, J., Hoon Jung, W., Mataix-Cols, D., Hoexter, M. W., Alonso, P., OCD Brain Imaging Consortium, De Wit, S. J., Veltman, D. J., Stein, D. J., Van den Heuvel, A. (2017). Cortical thickness in obsessive compulsive disorder: a multi-site mega-analysis of 780 brain scans from 6 centres. British Journal of Psychiatry. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.115.164020

  4. Bas-Hoogendam, J.M., Van Steenbergen, H., Pannekoek, J.N., Fouché, J-P., Lochner, C., Hattingh, C.J., Cremers, H.R., Furmark, T., et al. (2017). Voxel-based morphometry multi-center mega-analysis of brain structure in social anxiety disorder. NeuroImage: Clinical. 16:678–688. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl. 2017.08.001.

  5. Howells, F. M., Hattingh, C. J., Syal, S., Breet, E., Stein, D. J., & Lochner, C. (2015). 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy in social anxiety disorder. Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, 58(C), 97–104. doi:10.1016/ j.pnpbp.2014.12.008.

  6. Hattingh, C. J., Ipser, J., Tromp, S. A., Syal, S., Lochner, C., Brooks, S. J., & Stein, D. J. (2012). Functional magnetic resonance imaging during emotion recognition in social anxiety disorder: an activation likelihood meta-analysis. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 347. doi:10.3389/fnhum. 2012.00347.

  7. Syal, S., Hattingh, C. J., Fouché, J-P., Spottiswoode, B., Carey, P. D., Lochner, C., & Stein, D. J. (2012). Grey matter abnormalities in social anxiety disorder: a pilot study. Metabolic Brain Disease, 27(3), 299–309. doi:10.1007/s11011-012-9299-5.

Awards and Honours

University of Cape Town Master’s Research Scholarship (2010)

University of Cape Town Master’s Research Scholarship (2011)

National Research Foundation Research Fellowship (2011)

Brain Behaviour Initiative Research Fellowship (2012)

European and South African Research Network in Anxiety Disorders Clinical Research Fellowship (2012)

National Research Foundation Doctoral Scarce Skills Scholarship (2014)

European and South African Research Network in Anxiety Disorders Clinical Research Fellowship (2014)

Mail and Guardian Top 200 Young South Africans in the Health Sciences Category (2017)

International Psychoanalytical Association Research Training Program Fellowship (2017)