They Left It All Behind
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“In this uncommonly vivid study of the experiences of Jews who fled Europe and came to America before 1930, Hahn, a psychoanalyst, weaves together historical events, incidents from the lives of her interviewees (who are the adult children of the immigrants) and moving accounts of the experiences of her own grandparents. Hahn takes us on a personal and theoretical journey, and challenges us to think about what it means to "leave behind" a homeland, family, language, culture, and all that is familiar. What is the inevitable legacy, in the lives of subsequent generations, that can't simply be "left behind?" This timely account will be invaluable to clinicians and others tasked with helping today's uprooted immigrants.”
- Sandra Buechler, Ph.D.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hannah Hahn maintains a full-time private practice as a psychologist and psychoanalyst in New York City. After graduate-level work in English literature, she obtained a master’s degree in psychology from Harvard University, a PhD in clinical psychology from Columbia University, and psychoanalytic certification from the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy, where she currently supervises candidates. She taught attachment at the New York Institute for Psychoanalytic Training in Infancy, Childhood, and Adolescence. Her publications and presentations include "They Left it All Behind," in M. O’Loughlin’s The Ethics of Remembering and the Consequences of Forgetting (2015), and "A Safe Place to Stand: The Holding Environment with Child Patients and Their Parents" (2005).
Pictured on the book's cover is a photograph of the author's great grandparents.
IN THE PRESS
“Not only does this book break the silence and inform us about the psychological lives of pre-1924 Eastern European Jewish immigrants, but it also provides a window into thinking about other pogroms: Armenians, Greeks, Turks, and Palestinian Arabs, for example, and about the intergenerational transmission of trauma and loss. They Left it All Behind is a compelling and timely book. In fact, this psychoanalytically-informed book is a must read.”
Judith L. Alpert, Ph.D.
Professor, New York University
