With profound sorrow, we announce the death of Dr. Jonathan H. Slavin, Ph.D, ABPP, distinguished psychologist and psychoanalyst, on August 6, 2025, at the age of 82.
Dr. Slavin, or Jonathan, as he preferred to be called in later years, had a career that spanned decades of transformative clinical, scholarly, and teaching contributions. The eldest of three, Jonathan was born in Brooklyn, New York, on September 18, 1942, to Gertrude, an English and reading teacher, painter, and sculptor, and Alvin Slavin, a Navy veteran and owner of an employment agency. He was a proud graduate of the Yeshiva of Flatbush. In his youth, he was a lifeguard and swim director and achieved the level of Life Scout in Boy Scouts of America / Scouts BSA. He led his siblings and younger cousins in mischief, stoopball, and shenanigans. Originally a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, his family befriended Jackie Robinson and the Robinson family, who moved down the block. However, out of frustration with repeated losses by the Dodgers, he became a lifelong Yankees fan, and also occasionally skipped school to see Mickey Mantle and other greats on the field. In his youth he identified with the Beatnik and Folk Movement, sneaking off to see poets and musicians, including an undiscovered Bob Dylan in the underground folk clubs of Greenwich Village.
Jonathan’s interest in government and foreign diplomacy—and his independent streak—led him to break tradition by leaving New York to study at The George Washington University. There, he worked at the legendary Trieste Restaurant and at the National Historical Wax Museum. As a student, he witnessed President John F. Kennedy’s funeral procession in 1963. Jonathan credited a quirky psychology professor who exposed him to Confucius’ thought around self-examination to his shift to the field of psychology. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa, “with Distinction” and Special Honors, with an A.B. in Psychology in 1964, and was inducted to Psi Chi, the International Honors Society in the field of Psychology. He continued his graduate studies in Clinical Psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, earning his M.A. in 1965 and his Ph.D in 1970, under the mentorship of the groundbreaking event theory and gender studies child psychologist, Dr. Irene Fast. At Michigan, he bore witness to the famous anti-war protests and could be found hanging around the folk clubs of Ann Arbor where he saw Joan Baez play live.
In 1969, Jonathan moved with his then-spouse to the Boston area for a teaching position at University of Massachusetts-Boston. He was soon hired as a lecturer at Tufts University, and his class on Psychoanalysis, which he taught for 20 years, was among the most popular courses with undergraduates, especially his legendary unit on hypnosis. Within a few months after arriving at Tufts, Jonathan became the Founding Director of the Tufts University Counseling Center, a role he held from 1970 to 2006. Jonathan, with dear and brilliant colleague Dr. Malcolm Slavin (no relation), developed a world-renowned clinical training program for graduate students in psychology and social work. Over the course of his 36-year career at Tufts, Jonathan oversaw psychotherapy services for more than 25,000 clients and trained hundreds of mental health professionals. The Tufts University Counseling Center was unusual in a number of ways. It provided psychoanalytic therapy to students and staff, rather than imposing the more commonly used ten-session limit, which gave graduate student interns the opportunity to study long-term psychoanalytic technique. It also offered graduate student interns the opportunity to present cases to—and to discuss emerging psychoanalytic theory with—many of the leading figures in American psychoanalysis. With the kind of professional generosity that was characteristic of him, Jonathan made use of his extensive network to benefit his students and interns.
Jonathan was among a group of pioneer psychologists across the country who established psychoanalytic training programs for psychologists at a time when psychoanalytic training was restricted primarily to MDs, and the legitimacy of psychologists to practice psychotherapy, let alone psychoanalysis, was heretical. Among his many accomplishments, Jonathan was the Founding President of the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis (MIP), which he helped establish in 1987 to provide high quality training through a comparative approach to psychoanalysis, and for which he served as President until 1992. He was the only twice-elected President of Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of the American Psychological Association, in 1990-91 and 2001-02, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, now William James College, in 2006. He also served as President of the Massachusetts Association for Psychoanalytic Psychology from 1986-88, and Vice-President of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy in 2005-06.
Jonathan maintained a decades-long private practice and developed a body of scholarship, with over 35 published articles, book chapters, case conferences, and many presentations. He was instrumental in supporting the development of psychoanalytic training programs across the United States, and supervised clinicians around the world. He served on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis, as Clinical Instructor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry, and as Adjunct Clinical Professor at NYU’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. Jonathan’s scholarship and consultation extended to psychoanalytic programs throughout the U.S. and across the globe, where he taught seminars and workshops, many with his partner, psychologist Miki Rahmani, on relational perspectives in psychotherapy, sexuality in development and treatment, child sexual abuse and trauma, and clinical supervision, in Armenia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, China, Italy, Israel, Mexico, Romania, Russia, Spain, Turkey, and at Oxford and the UK. He was a Consulting Psychologist to the Ministry of Health in Israel, to the Israel Defense Force, and to the Palestinian Counseling Service, as well as to clinicians working with trauma survivors in the wake of the October 7th massacres.
Jonathan was one of the early champions of the development of what we now know as modern psychology, dedicated to making psychoanalysis and psychotherapy more accessible, adaptable, relational, and relatable. He was known not only for his intellectual rigor and clinical brilliance, but also for his immense compassion and commitment to real relationships. He viewed therapy not as a neutral technique, or as one that should be limited by dogma or methodology, but as a profoundly relational endeavor—one in which the therapist’s humanity and integrity are vital to a meaningful therapeutic process and outcome for patients. Jonathan’s scholarship on identity, love, sexuality, desire, trauma, agency, truthfulness, and the therapeutic relationship continue to shape and reshape the field. A gifted and beloved clinician, author, and mentor, Jonathan traveled the world to teach, consult, and supervise fellow psychologists, as well as devote his time to his clinical practice, through September 2024, when he suffered a catastrophic fall and subsequent cancer diagnosis. His legacy will live on in his writings, his students, his relationships, and the thousands of lives transformed through his care and vision.
The grandson of ‘Freethinker’ turned Lubuvitch Rabbi Moshe Slavkin, Jonathan’s life was deeply rooted in Jewish values, thought, tradition, and observance. Jonathan and his family moved from Medford, MA, where they were members of Temple Shalom, to Newton, MA, to give his children a Jewish Day School education at the Solomon Schechter Day School. Jonathan joined the independent Newton Centre Minyan in the second year of its fully formed mission and identity. The Minyan was a completely lay-led independent community, which started as a small group of Jewish families dedicated to providing space for traditional, egalitarian prayer and learning. The community first gathered in members’ homes and transitioned to bigger spaces in the Newton community over the years. Jonathan remained an active member and fixture in the Minyan, in his front row seat on the right of the bima, giving out honors for close to 40 years. He was deeply devoted to the Jewish community in Boston and beyond and supported many causes in the truest forms of tzedakah.
Jonathan will especially be remembered for his ability to make everyone he came in contact with feel seen and valued with true sincerity. He will be remembered for his gift of profound insight, his generosity of time and attention, particularly with the many students and supervisees he mentored, as well as his love for New England seafood, baseball, the Yankees (along with his grandsons’ teams), the New England Patriots, his wit and silliness, his absolute prowess since the late 1980s at fixing mac computers, his encyclopedic knowledge of U.S., world, and ancient middle east and Roman history, and his interest in philosophy, religion, archeology, the art of indigenous peoples of the Southwest, Italy, and the twentieth century folk movement including Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, The Weavers, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan. Most of all, he will be remembered for the absolute joy he took in his unique, individual relationships with each of his three beloved grandsons, and with his adored nieces, nephews, and grand nieces and nephews; his deep devotion to his partner Miki Rahmani; and his unconditional love and support for his two daughters, Jessica and Claudia.
Jonathan is survived by his life and professional partner of more than 25 years, Miki Rahmani of Jerusalem, Israel, M.A., former Chief Psychologist, South Jerusalem Mental Health Center, and Faculty Emerita, School of Education, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. Jonathan will live on in the hearts of his devoted daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren: Jessica Slavin Connelly, LICSW, her husband Sean Connelly, and their son Owen (age 12) of Malden, MA; and Claudia Schwartz, her husband Rob Schwartz, and their children Theodore “Teddy” (15) and Evan (12) of Bethesda, MD. He was predeceased by his beloved brother, Dr. Stuart Slavin of Harrisburg, PA. He is also survived by his beloved sister and brother-in-law, Vicki and David Itzkowitz, his niece, Miriam Itzkowitz and her daughter Lili, his nephew Dan Itzkowitz, his wife Alex Lapides, and their children Sam and Penelope, all of St. Paul, MN; his sister-in-law Robin Slavin of Lake Worth, FL; his niece Beth Manicone, her husband George Manicone, and their son Axel, of Millburn, NJ; and his nephew Glenn Slavin, his wife Allison Kessler Slavin, and their children Zoe, Zach, and Casey, of Maplewood, NJ; as well as countless extended family, including but not limited to the Kreitzman, Steiglitz, Smith, Krantz, Arwas, Breidbart, Zabarnick, Nation, Bernard, Stern, Molcho, Grant, Granowitter, and Nimerofsky families.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Yad Chessed: https://www.yadchessed.org, and the Severe Immunotherapy Complications (SIC) Service at Massachusetts General Hospital. This fund will help train the next generation of clinicians and researchers at Mass General Cancer Center, advance critical understanding of immune-related side effects, and fuel the discovery of safer treatments that preserve the life-saving power of immunotherapy for cancer patients. https://www.massgeneral.org/cancer-center/treatments-and-services/severe-immunotherapy-complications [Checks can be mailed to Massachusetts General Hospital c/o Development Office, Attn: Kasey Ahern, 125 Nashua Street, Suite 540, Boston, MA 02114. Please write “Dr. Kerry Reynolds – Fund: GR0232760” in memory of Dr. Jonathan H. Slavin, in the memo line.]
A private funeral will be held. A public celebration of Jonathan’s life and career will be held at a later date.
