Mildred Harris
(1903-1989)

Mildred E. Harris was born in 1903, in San Rafael, CA, but spent much of her life in New York City. Her interest in Analytical Psychology grew through her analysis with Helen Henley, which began in 1935. Mildred was a charter member of the Analytical Psychology Club of the C. G. Jung Foundation of New York. In 1936, she attended Jung’s lectures at Bailey Island in Maine. Although Mildred told the story that Jung briefly diagnosed her (“Stick out your tongue”) and predicted an unfavorable prognosis for a Jungian cure for her epilepsy, she attributed her eventual recovery to the years of analysis she undertook in New York.

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Mildred practiced physical therapy in New York, utilizing techniques in yoga, breathing and imagery. She taught training courses on relaxation and natural childbirth at Columbia University. In 1978, she retired and moved to Brooklin, Maine, where her family had summered for years. Mildred became a vibrant member of the Jungian community in Maine, attending the Jung Seminars at Bowdoin College. These weekly seminars on a wide range of topics ran from 1980 through 2005, under the direction of Professor Bill Geoghegan of the Department of Religion.

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Mildred’s regard for Jungian psychology and her love of Maine came together in the 1988 founding of the C. G. Jung Center for Studies in Analytical Psychology. She served as a consultant to the newly-formed Center and in 1989 taught a course entitled, “Psyche and Soma: Developing Innate Integrative Capabilities”.

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Mildred Harris died in 1989. Her legacy lives on through the Maine Jung Center. The Mildred Harris Lecture is held each fall in her honor. At her request, the lecture remains free for all to attend, a gift from Mildred and from the Center to the community.