Elise Snyder

Elise Wechsler Snyder, MD, died on January 9, 2026, at the age of 91. She was born in New York City in 1934 and graduated from Queens College in 1954 and from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1958, where she was one of only ten women in a class of 120. She completed her internship and psychiatric residency at Einstein College of Medicine–Jacobi Hospital.

Dr. Snyder served as Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine and was a Visiting Professor at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China. She maintained a lifelong commitment to both teaching and clinical practice, specializing in psychotherapy and classical psychoanalysis.

Dr. Snyder’s influence extended far beyond the United States. In 2001, she began engaging with Chinese clinicians and scholars interested in psychoanalysis, leading her to found the China American Psychoanalytic Alliance (CAPA) in 2006. CAPA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing psychoanalytic training, supervision, and clinical work to Chinese mental health professionals using remote and in-person methods.

Under her leadership, CAPA became a major force in psychoanalytic education in China, offering multi-year training programs and Skype-based analysis and supervision long before teletherapy became widespread. CAPA has connected hundreds of American analysts with clinicians and trainees across China, helping to foster a new generation of psychoanalytic practitioners and broaden access to mental health care in one of the world’s most rapidly changing societies.

She served for over 33 years on the Board of Directors of the American Psychoanalytic Association, was a past President of the American College of Psychoanalysts, and held leadership roles across numerous professional committees.

In recognition of her contributions to psychoanalytic psychiatry, Dr. Snyder received the Sigmund Freud Award from the American Association of Psychoanalytic Psychiatrists and the Presidential Award from the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry.

She is survived by her two daughters, Margaret Hamilton, MD, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and Katherine Snyder, PhD, a professor of English literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and by her five grandchildren: Rebecca, Emily, Jessie, Sasha, and Theo.