{{Short description|Professor of psychiatry}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Stephen M. Sonnenberg | image = Stephen Sonnenberg Headshot.jpg | caption = Sonnenberg in 2023 | birth_date = {{birth date|1940|3|22}} | birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, U.S. | fields = Psychiatry; psychoanalysis; medical humanities | workplaces = University of Texas at Austin; Baylor College of Medicine; George Washington University; Uniformed Services University | education = Princeton University (AB); Albert Einstein College of Medicine (MD) | known_for = Medical humanities education; war trauma and PTSD research }} '''Stephen Sonnenberg''' (born March 22, 1940, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and educator at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is a professor at the Dell Medical School and holds the Paul B. Woodruff Professorship for Excellence in Undergraduate Studies.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Stephen Sonnenberg, M.D. |url=https://dellmed.utexas.edu/directory/stephen-m-sonnenberg |access-date=2026-04-07 |website=Dell Medical School |language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Stephen Sonnenberg, MD |url=https://socialwork.utexas.edu/directory/stephen-sonnenberg/ |access-date=2026-04-05 |website=UT Social Work |language=en-US}}</ref> His work focuses on medical education and the psychological effects of war and violence, including post-traumatic stress disorder, and has included clinical research, teaching in the medical humanities, and testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. He is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.<ref name=":0" />
== Early life and education == Educated at Princeton University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Sonnenberg trained in internal medicine and psychiatry, worked as a researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health, and later completed psychoanalytic training at the Baltimore–Washington Institute for Psychoanalysis.
== Career ==
He has practiced medicine since 1965 and has taught medical humanities and ethics at the University of Texas at Austin since 2012. His work centers on medical education and the psychological effects of war and violence, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sonnenberg |first=Stephen M. |year=1988 |title=Victims of Violence and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder |journal=Psychiatric Clinics of North America |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=581–590 |doi=10.1016/S0193-953X(18)30471-4 |pmid=3062592 }}</ref> which he examined in both clinical and theoretical terms, with attention to its impact on behavior, identity, and ethical experience. He testified on these issues before the United States Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs in 1981<ref name="Sonnenberg1981">{{Cite report |title=Veterans' Programs Extension and Improvement Act of 1981: Hearing before the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, United States Senate |date=1981 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office}}</ref> and 1988,<ref name="Sonnenberg1988">{{Cite report |title=Oversight on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Hearing before the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, United States Senate |date=1988 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office}}</ref> and co-edited ''The Trauma of War: Stress and Recovery in Viet Nam Veterans'' (1985).<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Trauma of war: stress and recovery in Viet Nam veterans |date=1985 |publisher=American Psychiatric Press |isbn=978-0-88048-048-2 |editor-last=Sonnenberg |editor-first=Stephen M. |location=Washington, D.C |editor-last2=Blank |editor-first2=Arthur S.}}</ref> His work on war and trauma developed during a period of expanding academic interest in the Vietnam War.
He later served as director of research for the Project on the Vietnam Generation, where he helped shape its research agenda and academic programs. The project, founded by Vietnam veteran John Wheeler and based at the National Museum of American History, examined the psychological and social impact of the Vietnam era on those who came of age during the period, which Sonnenberg described as a generation shaped by both conflict and its aftermath.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Salmon-Heyneman |first=Jana |date=August 27, 1986 |title=POWs of an Era: Understanding the Vietnam Generation |url=https://www.cappscenter.ucsb.edu/sites/default/files/sitefiles/WaPo%201986-%20POWs%20of%20an%20Era-%20Understanding%20the%20Vietnam%20Generation.pdf |work=The Washington Post}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Franklin |first=Ben A. |date=1986-06-08 |title=On the phenomenon that was the Vietnam era |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/08/us/on-the-phenomenon-that-was-the-vietnam-era.html |work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref name="VietnamGenReport">{{Cite web |date=March 1986 |title=Project on the Vietnam Generation Report, Vol. 1, No. 3 |url=https://www.cappscenter.ucsb.edu/sites/default/files/sitefiles/Project%20on%20the%20Vietnam%20Generation%201985-%20Report%20vol%201%20no%203%20March.pdf |website=Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life |page=7}}</ref>
In the 1980s, his work focused on psychiatry’s public role and on the psychological aspects of war, politics, and conflict. He was quoted in ''The New York Times'' in 1982 as the director of the Washington School of Psychiatry, noting a decline in psychiatric training.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Nelson |first=Bryce |date=1982-11-02 |title=PSYCHIATRY'S ANXIOUS YEARS: DECLINE IN ALLURE; AS A CAREER LEADS TO SELF-EXAMINATION |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/02/science/psychiatry-s-anxious-years-decline-allure-career-leads-self-examination.html |access-date=2026-04-09 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> He was later quoted in ''Newsweek'' in 1988 as the head of the American Psychoanalytic Association’s public affairs committee and a practicing analyst in Washington, D.C., in connection with professional outreach efforts in psychoanalysis.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gelman |first=David |date=June 27, 1988 |title=Where are the patients? |url=https://archive.org/details/newsweek111maynewy/page/61/mode/1up |work=Newsweek |pages=62–69}}</ref> In 1985, he chaired a session on "The psychology of nuclear deterrence and national behavior" at a meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, alongside colleagues from the Carnegie Endowment’s Psychology of Deterrence Project, reflecting his work at the Washington School of Psychiatry.<ref>{{Cite conference |date=June 18–21, 1985 |title=Official program/directory |url=https://ispp.org/docs/pastconferences/Program1985.pdf |conference=International Society of Political Psychology Annual Meeting 1985 |pages=14 |quote=Session: The Psychology of Nuclear Deterrence and National Behavior}}</ref>
In 2017, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded Sonnenberg a grant to develop the undergraduate medical humanities program ''Patients, Practitioners, and Cultures of Care'' (PPCC) at the University of Texas at Austin.<ref>{{Cite web |title=UTSOA Receives NEH Grant to Fund New Bridging Disciplines Program |url=https://soa.utexas.edu/NEH-grant-awarded |website=UT School of Architecture|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171026123929/https://soa.utexas.edu/NEH-grant-awarded|archive-date=2017-10-26|url-status=dead}}</ref> He has served as chair of the program’s faculty panel. In 2024, a $2 million endowment from the Bratcher family expanded and renamed the program in honor of Joe W. Bratcher III.<ref>{{Cite web |title=New Endowment Supports Patients, Practitioners & Cultures of Care (PPCC) Certificate {{!}} Academic Programs for Undergraduates |url=https://undergraduates.utexas.edu/news/new-endowment-supports-patients-practitioners-cultures-care-ppcc-certificate |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260407192109/https://undergraduates.utexas.edu/news/new-endowment-supports-patients-practitioners-cultures-care-ppcc-certificate |archive-date=2026-04-07 |access-date=2026-04-07 |website=undergraduates.utexas.edu |language=en}}</ref> This endowment supported growth in undergraduate medical humanities education.
He has appeared on the University of Texas podcast ''This Is Democracy'', hosted by Jeremi Suri, discussing topics including mental health, public policy, and the COVID-19 pandemic.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stephen Sonnenberg – This Is Democracy |url=https://podcasts.la.utexas.edu/this-is-democracy/speaker/stephen-sonnenberg/ |website=University of Texas at Austin}}</ref>
== Books ==
* Sonnenberg, Stephen M., Blank, Arthur S, and Talbott, John A. ''The Trauma of War: Stress and Recovery in Viet Nam Veterans''. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press, 1985. {{ISBN|9780880480482}} * Ursano, Robert J., Sonnenberg, Stephen M., and Lazar, Susan G. ''Concise Guide to Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Principles and Techniques of Brief, Intermittent, and Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy''. American Psychiatric Publishing Inc, 2004 {{ISBN|9781281396082}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonnenberg, Stephen}} Category:Living people Category:Writers from Brooklyn Category:1940 births Category:University of Texas at Austin faculty Category:Princeton University alumni Category:Albert Einstein College of Medicine alumni Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Category:American psychoanalysts