Last Witness: The Child Survivor of the Holocaust [Hardcover]

Judith Kestenberg (Author), Ira Brenner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1996

This work looks at the traumatic effects of genocidal persecution on the child's psychic structure and on development through the life cycle. It offers information to clinicians working with Holocaust survivors and their families and should serve as a guide for therapists and interested readers who want to learn more about the short- and long-term effects of genocidal persecution. The authors have combined their early findings, based on over 1500 interviews with Holocaust survivors from all over the world, to create this volume. Through case vignettes and life histories, this book offers historical information on the Holocaust itself, the overall plight of children, superego development, and the role often played by transitional phenomena in mastering the attendant trauma and object loss. Special attention is paid to the effects of the Holocaust on children who were in hiding and the experience of adolescent children, as described in the diary of an adolescent girl. The book is intended to provide a greater understanding of how the developing child can be affected by trauma associated with persecution. Even though it is essentially about the victims in one particular instance of genocide, some of the findings may be replicated in other situations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

" "The Last Witness" is accessible to a large audience, including lay people, researchers, and mental health professionals. The authors use psychoanalytic theory in a manner that illuminates survivor experience. The book will be particularly relevant to mental health professionals who work with survivors of trauma and deprivation, be they victims of political terror or familial abuse and neglect."& mdash; "Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic"

About the Author

Judith S. Kestenberg, M.D.,is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the Division of Psychoanalytic Education, New York University; founder of Child Development Research, Sands Point, New York; Codirector and Cofounder, International Study of Organized Persecution of Children, Sands Point, New York; Cofounder, Group for the Psychoanalytic Study of the Effect of the Holocaust on the Second Generation; and Training and Supervising Analyst in Adult and Child Analysis at the Psychoanalytic Institute, New York University Medical Center.

Ira Brenner, M.D.,is Training and Supervising Analyst, Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Institute; Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Jefferson Medical College; Attending Psychiatrist, Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital; and in private practice. He is a member of the Group for the Psychoanalytic Study of the Effect of the Holocaust on the Second Generation and cofounder of The Child Survivors organization, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 238 pages
• Publisher: American Psychiatric Publishing; 1st edition (January 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0880486627
• ISBN-13: 978-0880486620
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,450,617 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Last Witness, October 6, 2010

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This review is from: Last Witness: The Child Survivor of the Holocaust (Hardcover)

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