About
Joanne Intrator’s life has been shaped by being the daughter of German Jewish refugees. Since childhood, she pondered why people perpetrate atrocities on their fellow human beings. After studying European history at Connecticut College, she received an MD from Columbia University and became a psychiatrist. She did a fellowship in Psychiatry and Law at Albert Einstein. Mentored by Dr. Robert Hare, she spearheaded the first brain imaging research on well-defined psychopaths, published in The Journal of Biological Psychiatry. Following her father’s death in 1993, she took it upon herself to fight for the restitution of a building in Berlin. Her journey has been the subject of news articles, television interviews, and museum exhibits. Joanne practices psychiatry in New York City. She has written for The Journal for The Study of Antisemitism, Ästhetik & Kommunikation (Berlin), Women Writers. Women(‘s) Books, and she writes a blog on psychopathy for Psychology Today.
Featured Work
SUMMONS TO BERLIN
When Joanne Intrator accepts her father’s deathbed challenge and seeks restitution for property stolen from her German Jewish family by the Nazis, she has no idea what she’s in for. For nearly a decade she pursues justice, traveling between New York and Berlin, gradually realizing her German lawyers aren’t truly her advocates. Intrator draws on her training as a psychiatrist focused on abnormal behavior to consider Germany’s situation before and after World War II, and how it has shaped its citizens—including her lawyers. Through this lens she also considers her own damaged childhood, and that of her parents. It’s not until she hires a detective that Intrator gets some real answers. Summons to Berlin is both a mystery and a poignant personal journey, packed with twists and turns, yet always returning to its path toward resolution.
Other Works
Press and Media Mentions
- Recording of Author Talk at the Leo Baeck Institute
- Jewish Book Council Review
- Publishers Weekly Review
- Forward Review
- MEDIA The New Corporation Documentary to be filmed in 2018, feature documentary in which I will be using film to illustrate psychologic dimensions of psychopathic behavior based on my years of special expertise ZDF German Broadcasting to be aired in Germany November 2018 International Investigative Report Martina Morawietz who is reporting on my many years back and forth to Berlin regarding Restitution of Jewish property.
