Update: We are very sad to learn that Dr. Cowan passed away on Jan. 28, 2022. You can read the notice of her passing on the IAAP’s website.
Lyn Cowan, Ph.D. is a Jungian analyst, author, and lecturer in private practice in Eagan, Minnesota.
She earned a master’s degree in medieval history from the University of Minnesota, and holds a Ph.D. in psychology from The Union Institute in Antioch, Ohio. She spent two years in Zürich at the C.G. Jung Institute where she passed Propedeuticum in 1975, and then went on to complete her analytic training with the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts in 1980.
For ten years, Dr. Cowan held a professorship in the doctoral program at the Minnesota School for Professional Psychology. She served as president and Director of Training for the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, and spent two years teaching and lecturing at the C.G. Jung Center in Houston, Texas.
Dr. Cowan is the author of Masochism: A Jungian View, published by Spring Publications in 1982, Tracking the White Rabbit: A Subversive View of Modern Culture, published by Routledge in 2002, and Portrait of The Blue Lady: The Character of Melancholy, published by Spring Journal Books in 2004.
At the age of 11, Dr. Cowan developed a passion for horseracing, which continues to this day. In 2006, I attended her day-long lecture and workshop, The Mythic Hero & Psyche’s Call, which addressed the subjects of heroism, as it appeared in the collective psychological phenomenon of a racehorse named Seabiscuit, who Dr. Cowan called ‘a true mythic Hero,’ and vocation, or calling, that inner voice that prompts us to follow a certain path in life. Those topics, and more, are the subject of our talk today.
This interview was recorded on Tuesday, April 2, 2019. It’s 01:51:06 long and 96.9 MB. You can listen to it right here in your browser or download it directly to your computer. This episode is also available on iTunes (Apple Podcasts), Stitcher, Google Play, TuneIn, and Spotify.
SHOW NOTES
Masochism: A Jungian View by Lyn Cowan, Ph.D.
Tracking the White Rabbit: A Subversive View of Modern Culture by Lyn Cowan, Ph.D.
Adolf Guggenbühl-Craig Amazon author page
James Hillman Amazon author page
Thunder Snow Godolphin thoroughbred horseracing and breeding
The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell MSNBC
The Rachel Maddow Show MSNBC
Portrait of The Blue Lady: The Character of Melancholy by Lyn Cowan, Ph.D.
Melencolia I by Albrecht Dürer
Monmouth Park Oceanport, NJ
Saratoga Race Course Saratoga Springs, NY
Seabiscuit National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame page
Seabiscuit Heritage Foundation Ridgewood Ranch, Willits, CA
Winx Australian thoroughbred racehorse
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
Seabiscuit The Hollywood motion picture
Seabiscuit documentaries Amazon Prime Video
ADDITIONAL LINKS
Audio: “Eros Rules – Enjoy!” Lecture by Dr. Cowan recorded on Sept. 11, 2015; available from the Minnesota Jung Association
The Mythic Hero & Psyche’s Call Dr. Cowan’s 2006 lecture, “Seabiscuit: The Little Horse that Could, and Did, and Still Does,” and workshop, “Many Are Called – But How to Answer?” at the C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology in New York City
Barcelona 2004: Edges of Experience–Memory & Emergence Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Congress for Analytical Psychology, Edited by Lyn Cowan
A Clear & Present Danger: Narcissism in the Era of President Trump Revised Edition, with contributions by Speaking of Jung guests James Hollis, Thomas Patrick Lavin, and Nathan Schwartz-Salant