Harriet Lerner

Harriet Lerner, Ph.D., (born November 30, 1944) is a clinical psychologist who is a major contributor to feminist theory and therapy. From 1972 to 2001 she was a staff psychologist at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas and a faculty member and supervisor in the Karl Menninger School of Psychiatry. During this time she published extensively on the psychology of women and family relationships, revising traditional psychoanalytic concepts to reflect feminist and family systems perspectives.

Education

Lerner did her undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where she received a government grant to study and pursue independent research in Delhi, India. She received her M.A. in Educational Psychology from Teacher’s College of Columbia University and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from The City University of New York. She did her predoctoral internship at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco and completed her postdoctoral training at the Menninger Clinic, where she subsequently joined the staff.

Works

Lerner is best known for her general-audience books which provide a framework for understanding and improving family and work relationships.

The Dance of Anger, a New York Times bestseller that has been translated into more than 35 foreign editions, was the first book published in the United States on the subject of female anger. Women in Therapy is a compilation of her professional publications related to female psychology. She is also an award-winning children’s book author with her sister, Susan Goldhor.