Academic Life
Michael was born and raised in Castlebar, Co. Mayo and was educated at St. Patrick’s Primary School in Castlebar and then the Dominican College Secondary School in Newbridge, Co. Kildare. From 1965 – 1967 Michael spent two years studying Philosophy and Metaphysics at the Dominican House of Studies, Tallaght, Dublin. He then went on to study French and English in an Arts Degree at University College Dublin.
On completion of his primary degree Michael was offered a scholarship to the Centre Européen Universitaire de Nancy in France, where he studied Psychoanalysis and the Human Sciences and wrote his Master’s thesis on “Obsessional Themes in the work of Albert Camus.”
Since then he has continued to further his studies in Psychoanalysis with several diplomas in Jungian Psychology and Psychotherapy from the Jung Institute in Dublin. In the mid 90s Michael did three years of clinical study at the School of Psychotherapy, St. Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin where he wrote a thesis entitled “The Dream in Analysis” for his Masters Diploma in Clinical Psychotherapy. He then went on to receive an Advanced Diploma in Clinical Psychotherapy from the hospital.
A constant thirst for knowledge in his chosen profession led him to pursue an M. Phil in Psychoanalytic Studies from Trinity College Dublin where he wrote his final thesis to date: “The Road to the World: a Lacanian perspective on Desmond Egan’s A Song for my Father.”
Michael runs a busy Psychoanalytic practice in South County Dublin.