New York Institute for Psychotherapy Training in Infancy, Childhood and Adolescense

Kudos to Jeanette Levitt

upon the publication of her new book:

How To Look At Old Age

(Xilbris Publishers, 2004)

At the age of 95 Jeanette Geismar Levitt has once again shared her insights with us in her newly published book How To Look At Old Age.

The book has been reviewed by NYIPT faculty and supervisor, Dr. Simone Sternberg and was published by N.P.A.P. in the Journal, Psychoanalytic Review, Vol. 93 (5), October, 2006, pages 845-849. Dr. Sternberg writes: “In this informative, inspiring, and heartwarming book, Levitt explores the dilemmas, dark sides and joys of old age, from the privileged perspective of her 95 years.” The review in its entirety can be found on our web site at www.nyipt.org.

Jeanette Levitt trained as a psychologist in mid-life and began working for the New Hope Guild Center in 1958. In 1970 she founded and directed the New Hope Guild Child and Adolescent Training Program, where she was Simone Sternberg’s first supervisor. Editor-in-chief of the Psychoanalytic Review, Dr. Michael Eigen, wrote in his preface to the review:

“Jeanette Levitt was one of my first supervisors forty years ago. On the surface, we were an unlikely couple, she firmly rooted in classical psychoanalysis while I found nurturance in Ferenczi and Winnicott. Yet a substantial core connection developed. Ms. Levitt’s unwavering sense of the integrity of the psychoanalytic process, her sense of unconscious work, her analysis of transference-countertransference dynamics coupled with resistance – all cohered, amplified, and invigorated my love of this work.

One thing I could not have known then: She would never stop growing in radical ways... When she returns to Freud near the book’s end, it is a Freud informed, enriched by a whole life’s journey, a journey in process. A journey in which I have the good luck to be included. “ p. 845.

Congratulations to Jeanette Levitt for helping to shape the careers of so many of us and for ultimately enabling us to help countless numbers of children. Her web has been far-reaching and with this new book, many more will benefit from her wonderful insights.

In writing about the end of life, when the curtain must fall, Dr. Sternberg quoted Levitt: “Old age has fulfilled its part and it is left to us still here to applaud its performance.”