In this volume, Janka Kormos offers a comprehensive historical and theoretical analysis of the life and work of Judith S. Kestenberg, exploring her pioneering contributions to the somatic foundations of psychic development.

The volume traces Kestenberg’s journey as a Polish-Jewish émigré in New York’s psychoanalytic circles, illuminating her psychodynamic theory of movement and method of movement analysis within postwar American mental health sciences. Kormos presents Kestenberg as a nonconformist, an innovative and eclectic thinker who gravitated towards the unknown and unspoken, highlighting the somatic precursors of psychic development and the kinaesthetic imprints of transgenerational trauma. Through Kestenberg’s work, the book explores questions of disciplinary positioning, transdisciplinarity and the evolving relationship between the arts and psychological practice throughout the 20th century. It also contributes to our understanding of postwar American psychological sciences, within which the study of bodily movement became increasingly central.

QR codes throughout the volume offer readers exclusive access to archival material compiled by Kormos. Previously unavailable to the public, these documents reveal intimate details of Kestenberg’s life and work and will be invaluable to graduate students and researchers in psychoanalytic studies, body-oriented psychotherapy, dance/movement therapy and the history of psychology. The Life and Work of Judith S. Kestenberg is a vital resource for scholars in the history of psychological sciences, psychoanalysts, arts and dance therapy practitioners, and trainees seeking insight into somatic approaches to trauma and the integration of embodied practices within therapeutic frameworks.

Janka Kormos is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Cyprus, and a scholar of movement studies and embodied practices in the history of the psychological and medical sciences. Kormos led the creation of the Kestenberg Papers, a stand-alone archival collection housed in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.