Mildred Newman ( née Rubenstein), was an American psychologist and author known for her self-help books.

Early life

Newman's mother was from Russia, ^[2] and Newman grew up in Manhattan. ^[3] Newman gained an undergraduate degree (1940) and a master's degree (1943) from Hunter College. ^[4] Prior to working as a psychologist, Newman spent time studying modern dance and was an artists' model. ^[1]: 279 She trained as a psychoanalyst at the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis, which was founded by Theodor Reik. ^{[1]: 280  [4]}

Career

Newman started her psychoanalyst practice in New York City in the middle of the 1950s. ^[5] She realized that her patients needed a place to have positive feedback, and in 1971 she and her husband Bernard Berkowitz started a book that became How to Be Your Own Best Friend. ^[5] In 2018, an article in the New York Post attributed the self-help industry that followed back to this 1971 book. ^[5]

Newman worked with many clients, starting with Paula Prentiss, ^{[1]: 280–281} Anthony Perkins, ^{[1]: 283–284} George Segal, Neil Simon, Nora Ephron, and others. ^[6] She and her husband treated so many celebrities that they were known as "therapists of the stars". ^[2] She and her husband also participated in social events with her clients. ^{[1]: 287–288}

Newman was a proponent of conversion therapy, famously treating Perkins with electroshock to supposedly "cure" his homosexuality; for this, Perkins' friend and collaborator Stephen Sondheim described her to author Mark Harris as "completely unethical and a danger to humanity." ^{[7] [8]}

Personal life

Her first husband was Philip Newman, though they later divorced.^{[ when?] [1]: 280} She met her second husband, Bernard Berkowitz as a teenager ^[2] waiting in line for a concert, and they married in 1962. ^[1]: 280 By 1978 they were sharing recipes in a newspaper article that was one of a series on celebrity recipes. ^[9] Newman died of a pulmonary embolism on November 6, 2001, aged 81. ^{[3] [4]}

Selected publications

• Newman, Mildred; Stern, E. Mark (1964). "The Age Game". Psychoanalytic Review. 51B (2): 63–74. Retrieved 2022-09-05. ^[10]
• Newman, Mildred; Berkowitz, Bernard (1974). How to be your own best friend; a conversation with two psychoanalysts. Jean Owen ([1st U.S. ed.] ed.). New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN  0-345-24333-1. OCLC  1338573. ^[11]
• Newman, Mildred (2016). How to be awake and alive. Bernard Berkowitz. New York, NY: Random House Publishing Group. ISBN  978-0-399-59037-5. OCLC  953848210. ^[12]
• Newman, Mildred (1977). How to take charge of your life. Bernard Berkowitz (1st ed.). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN  0-15-142192-7. OCLC  2907334. ^[13]

References