Judith Kestenberg

Judith Ida Kestenberg (née Silberpfennig; 17 March 1910 – 16 January 1999) was a Polish-American psychoanalyst.

She grew up in a wealthy Jewish industrialist family in Krakow, who moved in 1924 from Poland to Vienna. She studied medicine at the University of Vienna and specialized in neurology and psychiatry. After receiving her doctorate in 1934 she began training at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, and undertook in 1937 a training analysis with Eduard Hitschmann [3]. Concerned with persecution as a supporter of the Socialist Party in Austria, and interest in continuing her studies, she emigrated in 1937 to New York City, where she worked with Paul Schilder at Bellevue Hospital in child psychiatry. For her psychoanalytic training she studied at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute and continued with Hermann Nunberg, who had also emigrated to escape the Anschluss. In 1943 she became a member and training analyst at the New York Psychoanalytic Society. She married in 1942 the lawyer Milton Kestenberg (1913-1991), who left Poland in 1939. They had two children. She was Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at New York University Medical School and also worked at the Long Island Jewish Hospital. She has published seven books and over 150 journal articles.

Kestenberg began research in the early 1950s with the systematic observation of infants and their movement patterns. Through contact with Maria Ley-Piscator she learned the technique of Laban movement studies as it applied to questions in developmental psychology. She invited psychiatrists and movement specialists to join with her in forming the Sands Point Movement Study group in 19. Together they "Kestenberg Movement Profile". Based on movement understandings, they developed a method of movement retraining in order to influence the interactions between parent and child from infancy. [2] Her husband Milton Kestenberg worked after the war as a lawyer for the United Restitution Organization, which helped Nazi persecution in their redress procedures. Judith herself was treating several patients in her psychoanalytic practice who were child survivoors of the Holocaust. She began to recognize that many of these individuals were too young to fully remember their experiences, yet were traumatized by them. Many analysts encouraged them to forget, but they were unable to. So Kestenberg undertook a long study of conditions of Jewish children during the Holocaust to help individuals recover their memories and combat their traumas. She also developed a system using reimagining kinesthetic sensations, such as of being held, to help adult survivors remember their parents who died during the Holocaust. After meeting with child survivors of the Holocaust, in the 1970’s she recognized their pleas to be recognized as having very different experiences than did adult survivors. Furthermore, as children they would process their experiences very differently than would adults. She formed survivors support groups, which she and other colleagues led and encouraged others to form their own groups. She was co-founder of the Hidden Child Foundation as well. Her work led to greater recognition of child survivor syndromes and posttraumatic stress disorder. . Kestenberg also became involved in working with the children of survivors, investigating the after effects of violent experiences on following generations. She pointed out that this phenomena also occurs in the situation of children of the perpetrators. In 1982 (?) Kestenberg opened a center for parents and children in Rosyln New York. Here parents brought their children from birth to four years of age for twice weekly gatherings. During their sessions parents were able to meet and bond with other parents and children, creating long lasting communities and friendships. But the principle purpose of the center was primary prevention. Psychiatrists, dance movement therapists and other professionals led the parents and children in play and worked with parents to help prevent development disorders and resolve every day issues. The Center was also a place where the Kestenberg Movement Profile was used to help with assessment. In 1981, [4] With her husband, Milton, she founded the project "International Study of Organized Persecution of Children", in which 1,500 interviews with children survivors were carried out. Among the key collaborators with Kestenberg, was Eva Fogelman, the project team leader and Helene Bass Wichelhaus. [2] Kestenberg also wrote several books for children, one of which was expressly for children of perpetrators. It was entitled, "When your grandparents were young" She came to Germany in order to teach German children whose grandparents belonged to the generation of perpetrators of the Holocaust. In her view, the youngest children, had the most urgent need because they were just at the stage of developing a conscience. In the book exclusion and destruction are discussed, the grief of the survivors and the shame of the idler. In the book, the current situation in Germany and the slogan "Foreigners out!" is also addressed. In the epilogue to her book, she faces the question of whether young children can be told about the Nazi era, and how it can be done. She argues: If we really want to prevent war, if we want to avoid the despising of strangers, then we must tell the children the truth - as early as possible [ 4 ] .