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Psychology and Psychiatry

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Marilyn Safir

Marilyn Safir

Marilyn Safir is an American psychologist who played a critical role as a feminist activist in sparking the Israeli women’s movement and in establishing the academic field of women’s studies in Israel. Her academic career has focused on sex, sexuality, and gender. 

Dr. Ruth Westheimer

Episode 115: Dr. Ruth's Radical Legacy

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The iconic Dr. Ruth Westheimer died earlier this year at the age of 96. Dr. Ruth was a trailblazer for her candid and joyful talk about sex, regularly using words like "masturbate" and "vibrator" on the air, and talking about sexual pleasure— including women's sexual pleasure—at a time when few others did. In this episode of Can We Talk?, we remember and celebrate Dr. Ruth. Historian and author Rebecca Davis explores Dr. Ruth's radical legacy and actress Tovah Feldshuh reflects on their friendship. Plus, archival tape of Dr. Ruth herself dishing out sex advice to her devoted listeners.

Zoe Benjamin

Zoe Benjamin

Zoe Benjamin was a twentieth-century Australian teacher who pioneered liberal ideas in early child education, child rearing, and child psychology. She wrote and lectured, both in person and over the radio, in depth on these topics. Her work gained such distinction that she was known overseas in England as well as Australia.

Outline of a woman sitting on the ground on pale yellow background
July 3, 2023

The Warning Light

Olivia Gnad

The problem with Jews distancing ourselves from anxiety is that it doesn’t go away when we do.

Topics: Antisemitism, Psychology and Psychiatry
Renee Brant

Renee Brant

Project
Women Who Dared

Judith Rosenbaum interviewed Renee Brant on July 18, 2001, in Newtown Highlands, Massachusetts, as part of the Women Who Dared Oral History Project. Brant discusses her upbringing, activism, and career in addressing sexual abuse, emphasizing personal growth, and promoting mental health services in medicine.

Freyda Sanders

Freyda Sanders

Project
Women Who Dared

Judith Rosenbaum interviewed Freyda Sanders on July 12, 2000, in Brookline, MA, for the Women Who Dared Oral History Project. Sanders shares her upbringing in a politically active household, her diverse career path, her involvement with Hadassah and its impact on her Jewish identity, her trip to Russia, and the influence of her mother's socialist beliefs on her life.

Naomi Harris Rosenblatt, 2010

Naomi Rosenblatt

Project
Washington D.C. Stories

Deborah Ross interviewed Naomi Harris Rosenblatt on December 31, 2010, in Washington, D.C. as part of the Weaving Women's Words Oral History Project. Rosenblatt details her personal journey from witnessing the birth of Israel to her career in Washington, D.C., discussing her deep connection to Jewish identity, the intertwining of the Bible and psychotherapy, and her concern for the future of the Jewish people.

Episode 85: Teens and Mental Health in the (Post)Pandemic

Silhouette of Girl Eating from a Spoon
January 3, 2023

If You Have an Eating Disorder, You're Not Alone

Emma Barthold

The new year, with its onslaught of messages about “improving” our bodies, can be especially hard for people with eating disorders.

Topics: Psychology and Psychiatry, Yom Kippur, Tisha B'Av
Vanessa Kroll Bennett Headshot 2022

Episode 85: Teens and Mental Health in the (Post)Pandemic

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Teens were already struggling before COVID. When the pandemic hit, things just got worse. In this episode of Can We Talk?, we speak with Vanessa Kroll Bennett, co-host of The Puberty Podcast, parenting writer, and mother of four, about teens and mental health—before, during, and after the pandemic—gender differences, and what caregivers and Jewish communities can do to help. We also hear directly from teens about how the pandemic affected them and how they're doing now. 

Ruth Cowin

Project
Women Whose Lives Span the Century

Joan Kachlia interviewed Ruth Sheinwald Cowin on February 13th and 25th, 1997 in Nonquit, Massachusetts, as part of the Women Whose Lives Spanned The Century Oral History Project. Cowin discusses her family history, childhood experiences with antisemitism, marriages, raising her son, career in medical social work, teaching experience, involvement in the Rosenfeld Foundation, the impact of social and cultural movements, and her dedication to social justice.

Rebecca Soffer and the Cover of her Book, the Modern Loss Handbook

Episode 84: Modern Loss with Rebecca Soffer

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For a long time, Rebecca Soffer, co-founder of the website Modern Loss, had been planning to write a guide to coping with grief. Then the pandemic hit, and the need felt especially urgent. So she wrote The Modern Loss Handbook: An Interactive Guide to Moving Through Grief and Building Resilience. The book came out earlier this year. In this episode of Can We Talk?, we speak with Rebecca about all things grief-related: trigger days, bespoke holidays, Jewish grief rituals, and what to say—and not to say—to someone in mourning. 

Lainie Breaux

Helen "Lainie" Breaux

Project
Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Lainie Breaux on September 17, 2006, in New Orleans, Louisiana, as part of the Katrina's Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Breaux reflects on her upbringing, activist family background, evacuation during the storm with her newborn son, and her ongoing work as a therapist in New Orleans.

Lois Blum Feinblatt

Lois Blum Feinblatt

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Jean Freedman interviewed Lois B. Feinblatt on March 21, 2001, in Baltimore, Maryland, as part of the Weaving Women's Words Oral History Project. Feinblatt talks about her background, including experiences of growing up in a segregated Baltimore, her college years, marriage and motherhood during World War II, her career in welfare and later as a psychotherapist, and reflects on her Jewish practice and the Jewish community in Baltimore.

Mollie Wallick

Mollie Wallick

Project
Women Who Dared

Abe Louise Young interviewed Mollie Wallick on January 11, 2005, in New Orleans, Louisiana, as part of the Women Who Dared Oral History Project. Wallick reflects on her Orthodox upbringing, her family relationships, her evolving Jewish identity influenced by her gay rights activism, and her support for LGBTQ+ students as a University counselor.

Studio portrait of Judith Herman

Judith Herman

Dr. Judith Herman was a pioneer in identifying the frequency with which sexual abuse of female children occurs within the family, in the treatment of victims of abuse, and in psychotherapeutic confrontations of abusers.

Studio portrait of actress Mirra Eitingon standing in a black dress

Mirra Burovsky-Eitingon

Mirra Burovsky was the first Jewish actress to star in the mainstream Russian theater. Her stormy life and career brought her to center stage of Jewish cultural, intellectual, and social ferment in Tsarist and revolutionary Russia, Weimar Germany, and mandatory Palestine. Her third marriage, to psychoanalytist Max Eitingon, and the career of her son Yuli Khariton, “the father of the Soviet atomic bomb,” created the background for a continuing espionage controversy.

Portrait of Carol Nadelson speaking while wearing white lab coat and name tag

Carol Nadelson

Carol C. Nadelson is a ground-breaking female psychiatrist whose work has changed how medical practice addresses women’s medical care and encouraged women to break the glass-ceiling. She as the first woman president of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society and the American Psychiatric Association. Under Nadelson’s editorial leadership, the American Psychiatric Press became a leader in the field of psychiatry.

Blurred Portrait
May 21, 2020

Mental Health Awareness Month

Sheri Panovka

Sheri Panovka,Director of Communications at the Blue Dove Foundation, discusses Mental Health Awareness Month.

Topics: Psychology and Psychiatry
Red Rope Stock Image
April 5, 2018

Ritual and Obsessions

Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler

“This is the part of your brain that holds your obsessive-compulsive disorder,” she said, her tone firm. “We can fray this cord, but we can’t just break it.” ... I imagined a dark red cable, floating somewhere in the space between my ears, demanding my attention every waking moment of the day. In light of Passover approaching, it seemed particularly cruel that I found myself struggling with the concept of freedom.

Topics: Passover, Medicine, Psychology and Psychiatry
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 3 Promo
November 21, 2017

Thankful for Crazy

Bella Book and
Emily Cataneo

This isn't some prestige drama about anti-heroes doing “Bad Man Things;” it's a rom-com send-up about a "quirky" woman. The fact that Bloom and Mckenna are willing to go there and delve into that "quirky" woman's very real mental health problems makes an important statement about how pervasive mental health problems are for so many people.

Topics: Television, Psychology and Psychiatry
Karen Fox

Karen Fox

As a rabbi and a psychotherapist, Karen Fox guides and supports clients, congregants, and students on their different journeys.

Karen Fox

Karen Fox

As a rabbi and a psychotherapist, Karen Fox guides and supports clients, congregants, and students on their different journeys.
"I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" Book Cover, Joanne Greenberg

Joanne Greenberg

Under the pen name Hannah Green, Joanna Greenberg turned her struggle with mental illness into the bestselling novel I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.

Mary Gendler

Mary Loeb Gendler has helped shape social justice movements in indirect but effective ways, from crafting new rituals for Jewish feminists to helping Tibetan exiles leverage the tools of nonviolent protest.

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