Dr. Eist was born in Alberta, Canada. He received an A.B. and M.D. from the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine (1961).He was selected to be a World University Scholar during medical school. He interned at the University of Alberta Hospital (1961–62), had a year of pediatric residency there, and then took his psychiatric residency at the University of Minnesota (1963–65), followed by child psychiatry training at the University of Minnesota and Wilder Child Guidance Clinic (1965–67). He later completed psychoanalytic training at the Baltimore-Washington (D.C.) Institute of Psychoanalysis (1967–73).
Dr. Eist came to Washington, D.C., to take a position at Chestnut Lodge, a private psychiatric hospital in Rockville, Maryland (1967–72). He also served as Medical Director for the District of Columbia Institute of Mental Hygiene, a community mental health clinic (1972–94), and as a consultant to Junior Village, an adolescent facility in Washington, D.C. (1968–71). During the 1970’s and 1980’s, Dr. Eist maintained a private practice and taught psychiatry at Howard University Medical School. He continues in private practice.
Dr. Eist received the Frieda Fromm-Reichmann Award from the Washington School of Psychiatry and the Jack Greenspan M.D. Award from the Philadelphia Psychiatric Society for his efforts to bring psychotherapy and psychoanalytic treatment to poor and uneducated people.
Dr. Eist has been a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Canadian Psychiatric Association, and the American Psychoanalytic Society. He was president of the Washington Psychiatric Society.
Dr. Eist served as President of the American Psychiatric Association (1996–97).