logo
livingroom

decorative bar

biographies


corner Last update of this page: June 8th 2008 corner
Betty Berzon
((January 18, 1928 - January 24, 2006) U.S.A.

Betty Berzon

Psychologist and author

separator

Born in St. Louis in 1928, Betty Berzon came of age in a world where she had no idea what to make of her feelings. She dated boys, but, oddly, had no fantasies about them. Instead, in her daydreams, she imagined herself as "Clark Gable or Errol Flynn sweeping some beauty off her feet... I'd heard of homosexuality... heard that it was a sickness, and I wondered if I had caught it."

A bright, outgoing girl with no trouble attracting boys, she was frightened by her overpoweringly sexual feelings for women. Berzon alternated between two approaches. She went ahead with a "normal" life of dating - and later, having affairs with - men. And she began to investigate the lesbian scene.

Too often, Berzon believes, gays and lesbians have "internalized" society's dismissive attitudes toward their partnerships: "can't work, won't last, don't count." "Our relationships," she insists, "can work and last, and they absolutely do count just as much as we want them to."

separator

Dr. Berzon was for nine years a Research Associate at the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute, in La Jolla, California where she conducted research on group therapy and developed personal growth audio-tape packages later published by Bell & Howell as the Encountertape Series. She has published extensively in professional journals on group therapy and group process, and she edited the book, New Perspectives on Encounter Groups, published in 1972.

Betty Berzon's autobiography is soon to be published. She is currently working on a novel about gay and lesbian life in the mid-21st century.

"Love Letters" is Dr. Berzon's relationship advice column that appears regularly on PlanetOut.

She edited the book, Positively Gay: New Approaches in Gay and Lesbian Life, first published in 1979, continually in print since then, re-issued in 1992 in a greatly expanded edition. Her book, Permanent Partners: Building Gay and Lesbian Relationships That Last was published in 1988 and has sold over 60,000 copies. In 1996 her two newest books were published: Setting Them Straight: You can do something about bigotry and homophobia in your life, and The Intimacy Dance: A guide to long-term success in Gay and Lesbian Relationship.

Dr. Berzon has been a long-time member of the American Psychological Association.

She has been listed in "Who's Who of American Women" and "Who's Who in America". She lives in Los Angeles with her partner of twenty-seven years.

separator

Her gay and lesbian community activity includes:

  • National President, Gay Academic Union, 1977-79
  • Board of Directors, Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, 1972-75
  • Board of Directors, Whitman-Radclyffe Foundation, 1976-77
  • Board of Directors, National Gay Rights Advocates, 1979-84
  • Board of Directors, Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services 1984-1994
Click on the letter B to go back to the list of names

corner © Matt & Andrej Koymasky, 1997 - 2008 corner