Dear Community,
We are saddened to report the death of Dr. Harvey Peskin. He died on April 21, 2018.
Harvey Peskin was a clinical psychologist who practiced, taught, wrote and supervised in Berkeley, CA for nearly 60 years. Harvey died as he lived, with a clear mind, a desire to understand lived experience, an attention to detail and a wish to have a meaningful farewell to those he loved.
Harvey was Professor Emeritus at San Francisco State University. Early in his teaching career there he co-developed a Masters program devoted to clinical teaching where students and their supervisor would together practice and learn at a clinical site so as to bring together the clinical experience with deep and detailed learning. Harvey was a founding member and the second president of the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC).
Harvey was a scholar and a gentleman. His writing ranged from studies of genocide to adult development to the relational quality of grief. He taught the class “Dehumanization and Re-humanization” at the Wright Institute for many years as part of the Clinicians to Society program.
Over his years he worked and taught with several Wright Institute professors on projects related to genocide and forgiveness. He was on many students’ dissertation committees and continued long standing supervisory relationships with former students.
Harvey was always willing to take on accepted wisdom whether it was criticizing Freud’s distancing from pre-WWII aggression or his correcting a critics’ misreading of John Bowlby’s attachment theory. His desire to put things right and challenge beliefs never interfered with the joie de vivre that shone through in so much of his professional and personal life. Harvey gave a commencement address to the Wright Graduating class of 1999 titled “Civilization and its Discotheques.” He had the canny ability to balance working with and writing about the terrors of dehumanization while maintaining a deep sense of humanity often sprinkled with his puns and witticisms.
His interest in genocide and the effects on survivors was a key focus of much of his later writing. He was the recipient of the International Psychoanalytic Association’s 2013 Hayman Prize for Published Work Pertaining to Traumatized Children and Adults which was published in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis. He was awarded his second Elise M. Hayman award in 2015 for” Uses of Guilt in the Treatment of Dehumanization.” His interest in giving voice to the voiceless and helping bring people back from the brink of dehumanization was vividly expressed in his writing and teaching.
His work spanned many important facets of the field of psychology. His roles as teacher, writer, lecturer, consultant, critic and leader will be sorely missed as his spirit of scholarly rigor, deep relational understanding and clinical sensitivity permeated all he did.
Harvey Peskin is survived by his wife Tsipora Peskin, DSW as well as his two sons Aaron and Victor, two daughters-in-law; and two grandsons.