Susan Coates

Susan W. Coates (born 1940) is an American psychoanalyst, who has worked on gender identity disorder in children (GIDC) and early childhood trauma.

Coates earned her BA from Sarah Lawrence College, her MA from Vassar College, and her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from New York University. She is a Clinical Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University.

In the 1970s, Coates developed the Preschool Embedded Figures Test, which she developed based on Herman Witkin's Embedded Figures Test to study field dependence-independence (FDI). This led to work on cognitive and behavioral sex differences in humans.

Coates was Director of the Childhood Gender Identity Service at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center from 1980 to 1997. She served on the American Psychiatric Association DSM-IV Subcommittee on Gender Identity Disorders. She is on the teaching faculty of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. In 1997, Coates was founding Co-Director of the Parent-Infant Program at the Center. She is the senior editor of the 2003 book September 11: Trauma and Human Bonds, an account of 9/11 related loss and trauma described by mental health professionals who also experienced the attacks and their aftermath.

Coates testified in the 1993 child custody trial between Woody Allen and Mia Farrow. She had treated their son, Satchel, between 1990 and 1992. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Coates provided mental health services to children and their parents at the Family Assistance Center set up by Disaster Psychiatry Outreach at Pier 94 in New York City.

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