Leonard Shengold (December 5, 1925 – February 4, 2020) was an American psychiatrist known for his studies on

child abuse Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical abuse, physical, child sexual abuse, sexual, emotional and/or psychological abuse, psychological maltreatment or Child neglect, neglect of a child, especially by a p ...

Biography

Shengold was born on December 5, 1925, in

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a Syracuse metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13 ...

. Both his parents were Jewish, and his father was a watchmaker originating from

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

and his mother a homemaker from

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

. During his youth, he noted that his father was prone to having severe angina attacks and died when he was 12 years old. He attended

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

for one semester before transferring to Columbia College, where he studied under

Lionel Trilling Lionel Mordecai Trilling (July 4, 1905 – November 5, 1975) was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. He was one of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century who analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, ...

, who sparked his interest in Freud and psychoanalysis. He joined the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and served in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

as a radio operator and then as a clerk in

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and

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. He then returned to Columbia after the war, graduating in 1947, and received his medical degree from Long Island College of Medicine, now known as

SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University The SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University (formerly The State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn) is a public university, public medical school in Brooklyn, New York City. The university includes the College of Medici ...

. He was also trained at what is now known as the Psychoanalytic Association of New York, affiliated with the

New York University School of Medicine The New York University Grossman School of Medicine is a medical school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1841 and is one of two medical schools of the university, the other being the NYU G ...

. He started career as a training analyst at the institute, as well as its director from 1975 to 1978, and taught psychiatry at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. He received a Sigourney Award for advancing work in psychoanalysis in 1997. Shengold was known for his studies of child abuse, observing the damage of childhood on numerous adult patients and equated the long-term physical, psychological, and sexual abuse and neglect of children by their adult parents as "soul murder". Drawing from clinical cases and literary works of

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

and

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

, he argued that helpless children easily fall prey to their tormentors because of their physical and emotional dependence on them, and grew up identifying with the abuser and repeating the experiences of abuse. In addition to treating adult victims of childhood, he also treated writer and neurologist

Oliver Sacks Oliver Wolf Sacks (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurology, neurologist, Natural history, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. Born in London, Sacks received his medical degree in 1958 from The Queen's College, Oxford ...

for nearly a half-century.

Michiko Kakutani is an American writer and retired literary critic, best known for reviewing books for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 to 2017. In that role, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1998. Early life and family Kakutani, a Japanese Americ ...

credited Shengold for having formulated "a modern psychiatric definition of soul murder" in reviewing his 1989 book ''Soul Murder: The Effects of Childhood Abuse and Deprivation'' (1989). Harold F. Blum said that Shengold's work had been valuable in fathoming the psychological depth of childhood abuse and identifying the key role of unconscious fantasies in understanding traumatic experiences. Shengold died of leukemia on February 4, 2020, at the age of 94.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shengold, Leopard 1925 births 2020 deaths Columbia College (New York) alumni Syracuse University alumni American psychiatrists 20th-century American psychologists New York University faculty SUNY Downstate Medical Center alumni People from Syracuse, New York 21st-century American psychologists American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent