Theodore Isaac Rubin (April 11, 1923 – February 16, 2019) was an American psychiatrist and author. Rubin is a past president of the American Institute for Psychoanalysis and the Karen Horney Institute for Psychoanalysis. He lived in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and was married to Eleanor Katz.

Life and career

Rubin served in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

.Theodore Isaac Rubin Is Dead at 95; Popularized Psychotherapy
''

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'' via

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. Retrieved September 10, 2022. He was a long-time contributing columnist to the ''

Ladies' Home Journal ''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States. In 18 ...

'' (1972-?), and the author of more than 25 works of fiction and nonfiction. In 1962, director

Frank Perry Frank Joseph Perry Jr. (August 21, 1930 – August 29, 1995) was an American stage director and filmmaker. His 1962 independent film '' David and Lisa'' earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (writte ...

made the acclaimed film ''

David and Lisa ''David and Lisa'' is a 1962 American drama film directed by Frank Perry. It is based on the second story in the two-in-one novellas ''Jordi/Lisa and David'' by Theodore Isaac Rubin; the screenplay, written by Frank Perry's wife Eleanor Perry ( ...

'' from Rubin's novella '' Lisa and David''. The film was remade by entertainer

Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...

in 1998. His book ''Shrink: The Diary of a Psychiatrist'', was written in the times of his residences in different psychiatric hospitals in the West Coast of the United States until his decision to move to New York. For a clinician who rose to prominence within psychoanalysis during the heyday of what is known as "ego psychology" (a movement often criticized for its equation of mental health and conformity to normative American cultural values, exemplified by the pathologizing of homosexuality), Rubin was iconoclastic with regard to psychoanalytic and cultural orthodoxy. ''Compassion and Self-Hate: An Alternative to Despair'' (1975), while espousing traditional psychoanalytic notions of repression and defense, emphasizes the centrality of covert self-hate in the phenomenology of neurotic suffering, recommending consciously invoked

compassion Compassion motivates people to go out of their way to relieve the physical, mental or emotional pains of others and themselves. Compassion is often regarded as being sensitive to the emotional aspects of the suffering of others. When based on n ...

, a

self-help Self-help or self-improvement is a self-guided improvement''APA Dictionary of Physicology'', 1st ed., Gary R. VandenBos, ed., Washington: American Psychological Association, 2007.—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a subst ...

approach which more closely resembles

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

than

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...

. This dichotomy can be seen in at least one of two ways: as an opening of the psychoanalytic model to existential and spiritual phenomenology (see Epstein's "Thoughts Without a Thinker" for a recent exposition of the idea that psychoanalysis and Buddhist thought can be productively synchronized), or as an unacknowledged radical interrogation of core psychoanalytic assumptions (see DuQuesne's "Killing Freud" for a thorough discussion of this trend in analytic writing). He died on February 16, 2019 at the age of 95. Rubin appeared as himself on the April 11, 1966 episode of the game show '' To Tell the Truth''. He was introduced to the audience as a psychologist who counseled people on how to diet and lose weight. Only after he revealed himself did the show's host,

Bud Collyer Bud Collyer (born Clayton Johnson Heermance Jr., June 18, 1908 – September 8, 1969) was an American radio actor and announcer and game show host who became one of the nation's first major television game show stars. He is best remembered for ...

, identify him as a novelist and the author of ''Lisa and David''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rubin, Theodore Isaac 1923 births 2019 deaths Writers from Brooklyn Physicians from New York City American psychiatrists 20th-century American novelists American male novelists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers