An Intellectual Partnership: Jay Gonen and Mary Coleman

Jay Y. Gonen was born on July 3, 1934, in the city of Haifa in the British Mandate of Palestine. He has a BA from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem as well as an MA and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati in psychology. He is the author of two psychohistorical books, A Psychohistory of Zionism (1975) and The Roots of Nazi Psychology: Hitler’s Utopian Barbarism (2000). Dr. Gonen is currently working on two new books, The Psychological Origins of Law and The Duality of Jewish Psychohistory. Mary Coleman was born on September 12, 1928, in Washington, DC. She took her BA in political science from the University of Chicago, MA in economics from Johns Hopkins, and MD from George Washington University. She did graduate training in neurology and has published extensively in that field. Her social activism has included union organizing as well as work with C.O.R.E. (Congress of Rational Equality, 1950-1960), Physicians for Social Responsibility (1978-1982), and Physicians for a National Health Program (1993-1998). She is currently working on the engagé, anti-war novel, Prisms of Identity. The interview was conducted at Ramapo College on July 23, 2000. Our thanks to Marnet Mersky Kelly for doing the draft transcription.