Ebrahim Amanat was a psychiatrist and educator in Iran, Missouri and California, as well as a nationally recognized author in child and adolescent psychiatry.
He passed away December 13, 2011, at age 76. He had lived in recent years in Manhattan Beach, California.
Born in 1935 in Kashan, Iran, and brought up in Tehran, Ebrahim had to grow up earlier than most as he was 14 when his father passed away. His family says this strengthened his resolve to be of service to his fellow man.
He attended Tehran University and graduated from medical school in 1960. He received further training and underwent a residency in adult, child and adolescent psychiatry in Pennsylvania, then returned to Iran in 1967, serving as director of the division of psychiatry at Tabriz University and superintendent at Shahpoor Hospital.
Returning to the United States in 1970 and settling in the St. Louis area, he taught on the psychiatry faculties at Washington and Saint Louis universities, training residents and doing research. His private practice focused on children and adolescents with serious psychiatric challenges, and he was active with the Greater St. Louis Council on Child Psychiatry.
Later Ebrahim was on the medical faculty at the University of Southern California, was a consultant on child and adolescent psychiatry with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, and worked with PTSD programs for Veterans Affairs.
His books over the years have included The Troubled Adolescent (1994), The Miracle of Love: A Spiritual Approach to PTSD (2003), Riddle of Dreams (2004), A Return to Respect (2005) and Suffering and Spiritual Growth (2010). He also published many papers and translated several works on psychiatry into Persian.
He received numerous awards over the years from the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, as well as the Hands on Heart Medal from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Ebrahim also represented the Baha’i community in interfaith endeavors, and was presented the Interfaith Unity Award by the South Coast Interfaith Council in the Los Angeles area, for which he served on the Board of Directors.
Within the Baha’i community, he served on Local Spiritual Assemblies and committees in many of the localities where he lived, starting from his teenage years in Tehran.
“He served as a counselor and comforter, in both his professional and personal life — lending his ear to anyone who expressed the need to be heard,” a tribute from his family reads. “Like so few in this world, his life’s work was to serve. He was attached only to the desire to heal and advance the inner lives of those who crossed his path.”
Ebrahim Amanat’s survivors include his wife, Mahin Mashhood Amanat; four sons, Jahanshah, Ramin, Frank and Shahin; a stepdaughter, Diana; and 12 grandchildren.