Polly Young-Eisendrath, PhD

Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Clinical Associate Professor
of Psychology at the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont,
and Clinical Supervisor and Consultant on Leadership Development
at Norwich University, in Northfield, Vermont.

The Trouble With Being Special: Starting a New Conversation About Today’s Children

An over-focus on individual praise and pressures to be or have the best have shaped a generation of teens and young adults who assume they are special, feel unready to take on the normal adversities of life, are restless and unsure of themselves, and have a hair-trigger for humiliation, as well as unrealistic fantasies of achievement, wealth, power, and celebrity.  The attempt to inject self-esteem into our children has sadly back-fired, unfortunately resulting in their negative self-absorption when they attempt to step out into adulthood. 

How can parents, educators and young people themselves respond to this problem without blame or shame?  How can we find a new foundation for confidence that is rooted in the wisdom of ordinariness, sharing, and interdependence?  In this moment of global concern about living an ecological life, we must shift our focus away from the individual and towards relationship as the key to success at all levels.  This presentation will examine the “self-esteem trap” – its roots and its character – and suggest some solutions for young people and the therapists who help them and their families. 

This presentation will draw on a new model for human development that is derived from a dialogue between Western Buddhism and contemporary psychoanalysis.

Learning Objectives

• Describe Buddhist and psychoanalytic views of self, selves and no-self.
• Describe and analyze the “self-esteem trap,” culturally and clinically.
• Identify ways to treat the self-esteem trap in psychotherapy with teens and young adults.
• Show how a contemporary understanding of the relational context of childrearing furthers a relational view of psychoanalysis.

Lecture: Friday 17th April, 7:30pm
Roubakine Recital Hall
University of Calgary, Craigie Hall, C Block, Main Floor 

Workshop: Saturday 18th April, 10:00am to 4:00pm
Evans Room, Rosza Theatre
University of Calgary

Ticket Prices

Purchasing details will be available mid-March 

Biography

Polly Young-Eisendrath, PhD is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont, and Clinical Supervisor and Consultant on Leadership Development at Norwich University, in Northfield, Vermont.  A psychologist and Jungian psychoanalyst, she practices full-time in central Vermont.  She is the author of many articles and chapters, and has published thirteen books that have been translated into twenty languages.  A recent book of her essays is “Subject to Change” (Brunner-Routledge, 2004).  Her newest book, “The Self-Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Kids in An Age of Self-Importance” was published by Little, Brown in 2008.  Also in 2008, a new and revised edition of “The Cambridge Companion to Jung” was published by Cambridge University Press, edited by her and Terence Dawson.

www.young-eisendrath.com