It is, however, the intimate story of Berzon's own private passage toward self-discovery-from mental breakdown and suicide attempts, through hospitalization, eventual triumphant recovery, and her own coming out as an open lesbian at the age of forty-that makes this memoir an urgent, insightful, and deeply emotional testament to human survival.īetty Berzon has been a psychotherapist for thirty years. Her recollections here provide a collective portrait of her fellow pioneers and a stirring lesson in twentieth-century history. Along the way she encounters such luminaries as Anaïs Nin, Eleanor Roosevelt, the Sitwells, Evelyn Hooker, and Paul Monette. Her sometimes bumpy road to success never fails to fascinate. Berzon's journey from psychiatric patient on suicide watch-her wrists tethered to the bed rails in a locked hospital ward-to her present role as a groundbreaking therapist and gay pioneer makes for purely compelling reading.īerzon is recognized today as a trailblazing co-founder of a number of important lesbian and gay organizations and one of the first therapists to focus on means of developing healthy gay relationships and overcoming homophobia.
I was genuinely moved." - Joan Larkin, Living Out series editor.īetty Berzon, renowned psychotherapist and author of the bestselling book Permanent Partners, tells her own incredible story here. Berzon does a terrific job of tellinga rich, conflicted, and ultimately triumphant life story and setting it in the context of milestones in the history of the gay rights movement, a history that parallels her own growth. Surviving Madness - A Therapist's Own Story - Betty Berzon
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