In 1926, Milner began an introspective journey that later became one of her best-known books, A Life of One's Own (initially published under the name Joanna Field in 1934).
[2]: 108 A Life of One's Own was well-received, attracting favorable reviews from such literary notables as W. H. Auden and Stephen Spender,[2]: 219, 222 and soon afterwards, she published a work on similar lines (again as Joanna Field), An Experiment in Leisure.
[3] During this period, Milner became increasingly interested in Jean Piaget and the work of Jungian analytical psychologists.
Here she was particularly interested in what she originally termed "bisexuality", but would now perhaps be better called psychological androgyny, and also investigated Eastern philosophies such as Taoism.
Her best-known work on psychoanalysis, The Hands of the Living God,[5] relates her own lengthy treatment of a psychotic patient and the insights she gained into her own mind.