Jungian analyst Polly Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D. — Polly Young-Eisendrath © Curtis B. Johnson

Polly Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D. is a Jungian analyst and author in private practice in central Vermont.

She holds a Master of Arts in Psychology & Mythology from Goddard College and later went on to attend Washington University St. Louis where she earned a second master’s degree in Clinical/Medical Social Work and a doctorate in Developmental & Counseling Psychology.

Dr. Young-Eisendrath trained as a Jungian analyst with the International Association for Analytical Psychology, receiving her degree in 1986.

Together with her late husband Ed Epstein, she created Dialogue Therapy for Couples, outlined in her first book, Hags & Heroes: A Feminist Approach to Jungian Therapy with Couples, published by Inner City Books in 1984 and just re-issued this year.

In 1997, she presented “Gender, Myth, & Desire” for the sixth annual Fay Lecture Series in Analytical Psychology. Her lectures were published as the book, Gender & Desire: Uncursing Pandora, available as a free download from Texas A&M University Press. And in 2011, she sat down with Academy Award-winning screenwriter John Patrick Shanley to take part in the Rubin Museum’s Red Book Dialogues.

In the Fall of 2018, she began the podcast Enemies: From War to Wisdom with co-host Eleanor Johnson to explore human hostilities and what to do about them. That same year she developed “Real Dialogue,” a method for dealing with opposition and chronic conflict for use at home, at work, and in the world, and in 2022 co-authored the book, Dialogue Therapy for Couples & Real Dialogue for Opposing Sides: Methods Based on Psychoanalysis & Mindfulness.

She has been a lifelong Buddhist practitioner in the Zen, Tibetan, and Vipassana lineages, and in 1971 took formal Zen vows with Philip Kapleau Roshi at the Rochester Zen Center. In 2014, she created Enlightening Conversations, a non-profit organization sponsoring conversational conferences between psychoanalytic scholars/practitioners and Buddhist teachers, as well as scientists conducting research in areas relevant to the conversations between the two traditions.

Dr. Young-Eisendrath is the founder and director of the Institute for Dialogue Therapy, past president of the Vermont Association for Psychoanalytic Studies, and a founding member of the Vermont Institute for Psychotherapies. Currently, she works as a Clinical Supervisor and Consultant in Leadership Development at Norwich University, and as a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Vermont.

She is the author, co-author, editor and co-editor of many books and articles (links are below). Her most recent works are The Present Heart: A Memoir of Love, Loss & Discovery (2014), Love Between Equals: Relationship as a Spiritual Path (2019), and the essay “From Akron to Bodhgaya: Suffering & Individuation” published last year in the book, Eastern Practices & Individuation, edited by Ep. 113 guest Leslie Stein.

This interview was recorded on Wednesday, June 28, 2023. It’s 56:56 long and 44.1 MB. You can listen to it right here in your browser (click the play button in the bar below) or download it directly to your computer. It’s also available to stream on our YouTube channel.

SHOW NOTES

Gather Up Your Brokenness: Love, Imperfection & Human Ideals Video presentation by Polly Young-Eisendrath at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago, Dec. 9, 2016

June Singer (1919-2004) Jungian analyst

Boundaries of the Soul: The Practice of Jung’s Psychology by June Singer, Jungian analyst

The June Singer Clinic for Psychotherapy at the C.G. Jung Center Offering affordable, Jungian-oriented psychotherapy in Evanston, Illinois

Speaking of Jung, Ep. 113 Jungian analyst Leslie Stein on Eastern Practices & Individuation: Essays by Jungian Analysts

Daryl Sharp Jungian analyst and founder of Inner City Books

From Akron to Bodhgaya: Suffering and Individuation Polly’s essay in the book Eastern Practices & Individuation

At Home with AJA: Polly Young-Eisendrath Polly’s video presentation with the Association of Jungian Analysts, May 19, 2023

Salvador Minuchin, M.D. Minuchin Center for the Family

The Geography of Thought: How Asians & Westerners Think Differently...and Why by Richard E. Nisbett, Ph.D.

Tiger Writing: Art, Culture, & the Interdependent Self by Gish Jen

Terminator 2: Judgment Day Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger

Dialogue Therapy for Couples

Institute for Dialogue Therapy Foundational Training in Dialogue Therapy™ and Real Dialogue™ in Three Sessions. In-person classes with founder Polly Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D., Susan Lillich Ph.D, Leland Peterson ATR, and Sarah Brodie ATR.

Real Dialogue “Practice Real Dialogue. Avoid Polarization and End War.”

Real Dialogue Training Registration

Jean Pieniadz, Ph.D. Clinical psychologist and co-author of Dialogue Therapy for Couples & Real Dialogue for Opposing Sides

All of Polly’s books are linked below.