Leonard Shengold

Leonard Shengold (December 5, 1925 – February 4, 2020) was an American psychiatrist known for his studies on child abuse.

Biography Shengold was born on December 5, 1925, in Syracuse, New York. Both his parents were Jewish, and his father was a watchmaker originating from Minsk and his mother a homemaker from Vilnius. In addition to treating adult victims of childhood, he also treated writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks for nearly a half-century.

Michiko Kakutani credited Shengold for having formulated "a modern psychiatric definition of soul murder" in reviewing his 1989 book Soul Murder: The Effects of Childhood Abuse and Deprivation (1989). Harold F. Blum said that Shengold's work had been valuable in fathoming the psychological depth of childhood abuse and identifying the key role of unconscious fantasies in understanding traumatic experiences.