Susan C. Vaughan

Susan C. Vaughan is an American author, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. She serves as the director of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (2017-), Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University.

Vaughan has written widely on gender, sexuality and the neuroscience behind psychotherapy. She is the author of three books: The Talking Cure: The Science Behind Psychotherapy, Half Empty, Half Full: Understanding the Psychological Roots of Optimism, and Viagra: A Guide to the Phenomenal Potency Promoting Drug.

Education Vaughan graduated from Harvard College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Selected publications Half Empty, Half Full Understanding the Psychological Roots of Optimism, Harcourt, New York, NY, 2000 The Talking Cure The Science Behind Psychotherapy, Grosset/Putnam, 1998 Psychoanalysis and Homosexuality: Do we need a new theory. J of Am Psychoanal. 2001;49: 1157–1186 Scrambled Eggs. Psychological meanings of new reproductive choices for lesbians. J Infant Child Adolescent Psychotherapy 2007;6: 141-155 The Dignity of One's Experience: Finding dignity in the lives of LGBTQ people. Chapter in Dignity, S. Akhtar, ed., Routledge, 2015