Joanne Intrator

Joanne Intrator's life has been shaped by being the daughter of German Jewish refugees. From childhood, she pondered why people perpetrate atrocities on their fellow human beings. After studying German history at Connecticut College, she received an MD from Columbia University and became a psychiatrist with an expertise in abnormal behavior. She spearheaded the first brain imaging research on well-characterized psychopaths, which was published in the Journal of Biological Psychiatry. Following her father's death in 1993, she took it upon herself to fight for restitution of a building in Berlin; her professional insights into the behavior of bureaucrats were critical to her understanding of how to negotiate with obstructionists. Her journey has been the subject of news articles, television interviews, and museum exhibits. Joanne practices psychiatry in New York City and writes a blog on psychopathy for Psychology Today.