Maggie Scarf

Maggie Scarf (born Margaret Klein; May 13, 1932) is an American writer, journalist, and lecturer. Her award-winning books and articles specialize in women, family relationships, and marriage in particular, including the best-selling books Unfinished Business: Pressure Points in the Lives of Women (Doubleday, 1980) and Intimate Partners: Patterns in Love and Marriage (Random House, 1987). She is a former Visiting Fellow at the Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University, and at Jonathan Edwards College, Yale University, as well as a Senior Fellow at the Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy at Yale. She was for many years a Contributing Editor to The New Republic, and a member of the advisory board of the American Psychiatric Press. Maggie Scarf lives in Sag Harbor, NY with her husband Herbert Scarf, the Sterling Professor (Emeritus as of 2010) of Economics at Yale University. She is the mother of three adult daughters, Susan Scarf Merrell, Martha Samuelson, and Betsy S. Stone. She has eight grandchildren.

Public & media appearances

Maggie Scarf has lectured widely, and made a great number of television appearances (Oprah Winfrey, 5 times; Phil Donohue; The David Letterman Show; CBS News; Good Morning America; The Today Show; and many radio shows including Larry King.) She has been interviewed extensively on radio and for magazines and newspapers across the nation.

She currently blogs for Psychology Today.

Representative Articles

• Brain researcher Jose Delgado asks: What Kind of Humans Would We Like to Construct? New York Times, Nov 15, 1970
• The Man Who Gave Us 'Inferiority Complex,' 'Compensation,' `Overcompensation.' New York Times, Feb 28, 1971.
• Oh, For a Decent Night's Sleep! New York Times, Oct 21, 1973.
• From Joy to Depression. New York Times, Apr 24, 1977.
• The More Sorrowful Sex. Psychology Today, April 1979.
• The Mind of the Unabomber. The New Republic, Jun 10, 1996.

Honors, Fellowships, and Prizes

• Ford Foundation Fellow, 1973–74
• Nieman Fellow in Journalism (Harvard) 1975-76
• Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, 1977–78
• Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellow, 1978–79
• Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, 1985–86
• Grantee, The Smith Richardson Foundation, Inc., 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
• National Media Award, American Psychological Foundation, 1971
• First Prize, National Media Award, American Psychological Foundation, 1974
• National Media Award, American Psychological Foundation, 1977
• Connecticut United Nations Award: Outstanding Connecticut Women, 1987
• Connecticut Psychological Association: Certificate of Appreciation, "in recognition of her contribution to the public understanding of psychological knowledge," 1988
• Certificate of Commendation, Robert T. Morse Writer's Competition, American Psychiatric Association, 1997
• Honoree of the New York State Society for Clinical Social Work, 1998

• http://nieman.harvard.edu/alumni/class-of-1976/
• http://aliciapatterson.org/users/maggie-scarf

Professional Memberships

• PEN Writer's Association
• Connecticut Society of Psychoanalytic Psychologists
• The Elizabethan Club of Yale University