September 2024
Q & A with Evangeline J. Spindler, M.D.
Evangeline J. Spindler, M.D., is a past president of the Michigan Psychoanalytic Society and faculty at two psychoanalytic institutes as well as the University of Michigan, where she taught half-time for five years and then as an adjunct faculty for over 40 years.
Dr. Spindler has had the joy, the honor, and the privilege of teaching, supervising and mentoring numerous trainees and various health professionals. She learned so much from them as well as from her patients.
In addition, Dr. Spindler has co-presented with her late spouse and collaborator Alvin Curtis Spindler, M.D., locally, nationally, and internationally programs dealing with the enduring impact of significant childhood trauma and losses on one's development, through the in-depth exploration of the life and work of well known creative individuals. Examples of lectures given include Beethoven, J. S. Bach, Tchaikovsky, Confucius, Che Guevara, Franz Kafka, Eugene O'Neill, and Heinrich Schliemann.
Where are you from?
I am from Hong Kong. I immigrated to San Francisco during my mid teens.
What training did you do at U-M?
I studied pre-medicine and the history of classical music at the University of California (UC) Berkeley before entering medical school at UC San Francisco (UCSF). After completing a residency and then a fellowship in child, adolescent & adult psychiatry at U-M, I continued further training at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute. Thereafter, I thoroughly enjoyed my 45 years of private practice of psychoanalysis in Ann Arbor.
Why did you choose the University of Michigan and Michigan Medicine for your training?
It was serendipity. I already had a residency position at UCSF waiting for me while I was doing my internship at Maimonides Medical Center of Brooklyn, NY. There, I met and got married to Alvin C. Spindler, M.D., my late husband of 51 years. He had at that time committed to taking a staff position at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. So I switched my residency from UCSF to U-M, which had a nationally acclaimed psychodynamic orientation.
Tell us about an experience during your training here that stands out to you.
I was the only woman resident in my class of 12. My friendly and fun loving male co-residents liked to tease me, in a good nature way.
What mentors did you have during your training that you looked up to?
There were many mentors that I looked up to. Among them were Drs. Ronald Benson, Jack Billi, Morton Chethik, Henry Coppolillo*, Selma Fraiberg*, Ira Miller*, Philip Margolis*, Humberto Nagera*, Andrew Watson*. (* means 'deceased')
Did you end up faculty at U-M or elsewhere?
I was half-time faculty for 5 years at U-M, as Director of Outpatient Education and Team Leader at the Children's Psychiatric Hospital. Afterwards, I was a non-salaried adjunct faculty supervisor at U-M for over 40 years.
What was most memorable about your time at the University of Michigan?
The fatal shooting of the acting chief psychiatry administrator by his colleague at the U-M Neuropsychiatric Institute on July 30, 1978.
What has surprised you the most about your career path?
How inspiring my trainees, colleagues and my patients were! How much I learned from them! How much I grew and developed professionally and personally from working with them!
What have you found most rewarding about your work?
Teaching and facilitating my young colleagues' and supervisees' professional growth and development. Helping my patients dealing with their pain and suffering, gaining insight, and finding more adaptive ways of coping that led to a more satisfying and productive life for them.
What are you up to now?
I continue doing research together with my spouse Harold I. Juran, M.D., (Hal) on the impact of adverse childhood experiences (e.g. trauma, losses, ill health, abuse, dislocation, etc.) on adult development in selected well known creative individuals, as described in my brief bio above. I gave a well-attended and well-received presentation on February 14, 2024 on the mind and music of Tchaikovsky, focusing on the torment and bliss of his homosexual love.
Hal and I attend concerts, art exhibits, humanities lectures, psychoanalytic conferences & symposia, psychiatry & internal medicine grand rounds, etc. And I am an Executive Councillor and Program Chairman of the Washtenaw County Medical Society, and Specialty Society Delegate to the MI State Medical Society.
