Mardy S. Ireland is an author and psychoanalyst, who practices in Raleigh, North Carolina. Previously she practiced and taught in Berkeley, California.

Biography

Ireland is a founding member of the Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis, and was a member of the faculty at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California.

In 1993, Ireland wrote "Reconceiving Women: Separating Motherhood From Female Identity", which focuses on three types of women: mothers, child-less, and child-free.^[1] Acknowledging the distinction child-free became critical as a legitimate choice for women. The work was the subsequent subject of a doctoral thesis.^[2] The New York Times reviewed this book. The "academic book" had struck a chord and found broad appeal.

In North Carolina, she became involved with and was interviewed about the Peaceful Schools Project regarding school bullying.

Publications

• Ireland, Merle S. (1976). A training paradigm for imagery awareness and the investigation of concomitant personality integration (Ph.D. thesis). University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. OCLC 313434249.
• Ireland, Mardy S. (1993). Reconceiving women: separating motherhood from female identity. New York: Guilford Press. ISBN 9780898620160. OCLC 27225262.^[3]
• Ireland, Mardy S. (2003). The art of the subject: between necessary illusion and speakable desire in the analytic encounter. New York: Other Press. ISBN 9781590510339. OCLC 51810491.^[4]
• Ireland, Mardy S. (October 2004). "Phallus or penis: commentary on Cornelia St. John's paper". Studies in Gender and Sexuality. 5 (4): 459–472. doi:10.1080/15240650509349259. S2CID 143897213.

References