Betty Berzon, writer and therapist, dies

[swimmernsecretsea]

Jen Christensen, PlanetOut Network
SUMMARY: The pioneering Los Angeles therapist and author leaves a four-decade legacy of LGBT activism, compassion and support.

Pioneering psychotherapist and writer Betty Berzon died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 78 years old.

Berzon had been sick with cancer, but still continued to see patients and write while undergoing chemotherapy.

Her desire to continue work while sick seemed like classic Berzon persistence. She was known for turning one of the lowest points of her life into her life's direction. During her early adult years, she had been hospitalized after trying to kill herself, in part because she struggled with her sexual orientation. During her recovery, doctors encouraged her to become a psychotherapist. She went on to become one of our community's best-known, with a gift for helping gay people come to terms with their true selves and with each other.

In her autobiography, "Surviving Madness: a Therapist's Own Story," she wrote that at the time she tried to kill herself she felt like a true outsider in life. "I punished myself in the mirror of society's image of me," she wrote. "They were, in fact, right, I thought. I was all wrong for this world." Later in her book, she said she realized that being different actually gave her life potency and meaning.

Full story here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/po/20060125/co_po/bettyberzonwriterandtherapistdies

[xchrom]

1. farewell ms berzon.

there are simply never enough people like you in this world.

[Lisaben2619]

2. Rest in Peace

"Setting Them Straight" remains one of the best books for educating straight people.