Writer, speaker, editor.
Author of The Passion of Ayn Rand, the landmark biography of Ayn Rand, and creator of the course Principles of Efficient Thinking.
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Barbara Branden knew Ayn Rand for nearly two decades and conducted more than two hundred interviews for this life of a woman who was neither goddess nor sinner, but a human being. Adapted as a Showtime film and, for the stage, a play by Julian Barry.
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Thinking is an acquired skill, and like every human skill it involves principles that have to be identified and learned. This course covers the theory of efficient thinking (focusing, the subconscious, the conceptual level, integration) and the practical techniques that avoid thinking errors and maximize the productiveness of mental effort.
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The first volume to engage Ayn Rand's thought from feminist perspectives, edited by Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra. Barbara's lead essay, “Ayn Rand: The Reluctant Feminist,” views Rand's life as a feminist manifesto while focusing on the aspects of her life and thought that contradicted feminism.
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Starring Helen Mirren as Ayn Rand and Peter Fonda as Frank O’Connor, with Eric Stoltz and Julie Delpy as Nathaniel and Barbara Branden. Mirren won an Emmy and Fonda a Golden Globe for their performances.
Get the DVD on AmazonBarbara is a writer and lecturer. She earned her M.A. in philosophy at New York University, with a thesis on free will written under Sidney Hook. She was Ayn Rand's intimate friend and colleague for eighteen years, Managing Editor of The Objectivist, and Executive Vice-President of the Nathaniel Branden Institute, where she created the course on efficient thinking.