Dr. Ruth Westheimer

“Have good sex!” - Dr. Ruth 

In celebration of National Women’s Month, we are profiling inspiring women in psychology and psychiatry. Our first profile is of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a 4”7” giant in the field of human sexuality. She has been an educator, therapist, scholar, author, paramilitary sniper, and beloved star of radio, television, and cinema. With a voice described as "a cross between Henry Kissinger and Minnie Mouse," she is able to speak in a cheerful, endearing manner about the most serious and explicit topics. She has been called Grandma Freud, Sister Wendy of Sexuality, and the Pixie of Passion, but to most she is known simply as Dr. Ruth.

Dr. Ruth was born Karola Ruth Siegel on June 4, 1928 in Wiesenfeld, Germany. At age 10, as the Nazis gained power, her parents sent her to school in Switzerland to keep her safe. Her parents and all of her relatives who remained in Germany were murdered in the concentration camps, and she was sent to an orphanage where she lived for 6 years. Girls at the orphanage were not allowed to attend school, but one of the boys secretly shared his textbooks with her so she could continue her education. After leaving her parents, she was never hugged again as a child. Despite the difficulty she went through, she respected and admired her parents’ decision, stating "I would not have the courage to send my own children away."

After the end of WWII, she emigrated to Mandatory Palestine, a Jewish settlement managed by the British. When she was 17, she joined the Haganah, a Zionist paramilitary group defending Jewish settlements, and trained as a sniper. She was seriously wounded during a mortar attack on Jerusalem during the Palestine War, becoming temporarily paralyzed and almost losing both feet. Even at age 90, she could assemble a rifle with her eyes closed.

At age 22 she moved to Paris. Although she never graduated from high school, she was admitted to the Sorbonne, where she studied psychology under Jean Piaget. At 28, she moved to the US, where she worked as a maid to pay her way through graduate school. She obtained a Masters in Sociology at The New School, and at 42, earned a PhD at Columbia University. She then worked as an educator at Planned Parenthood in Harlem, teaching women to provide sex education. This spurred an interest in studying human sexuality, after which she trained as a sex therapist at Cornell Medical School. For the next 10 years, she worked as a professor and in private practice as a sex therapist.

In the 1980 she started a radio show, “Sexually Speaking,” which became the highest rated show in the largest market in the US. She recounted losing her virginity “on a starry night, in a haystack, without contraception” and later told The New York Times that "I am not happy about that, but I know much better now and so does everyone who listens to my radio program." She also had her own TV show, “The Dr. Ruth Show”, which by 1985 drew two million viewers per week, and appeared on countless other television programs, cable series, and movies. In addition, she has written 45 books on human sexuality. Her ability to address complex and sensitive topics with a combination of warmth, openness, kindness, and humor made her a superstar and household name. At 95, she is still encouraging us all to “Get Some!”

Dr. Ruth is a member of the Radio Hall of Fame, and has been awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal, the Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger Award, the Leo Baeck Medal, and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Sources:

Current Biography Yearbook. H. W. Wilson Company. 1987. p. 594.

Barron, James (June 3, 2018). "Speaking, Not Sexually, With Dr. Ruth at 90". The New York Times.

Christiane Amanpour (August 21, 2019). "Transcripts". CNN.

"Preserving Family Stories: Ruth: A Little Girl's Big Journey", USC Shoah Foundation, I Witness, 2021.

Michael Fox (April 3, 2015). "Ruth Westheimer". Jewish Independent.

Gates, Anita (June 15, 2013). "Getting to the Frank Talk About Sex". The New York Times.

Foreman, Tom (June 11, 2003). "Dr. Ruth: Sex Sage and Ex-Sniper on Global Sexuality". National Geographic. Archived from the original on January 8, 2006.

Corry, John (August 4, 1985). "TV Views – Lots of Talk, But Who's Listening?". The New York Times.

Dullea, Georgia (December 4, 1981). "A Voice of 'Sexual Literacy'". The New York Times

"Dr. Ruth, TV's Pixie of Passion," The Washington Post

TV Views – Lots of Talk, But Who's Listening?". The New York Times.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Westheimer

https://www.thethreetomatoes.com/dr-ruths-secrets-to-vitality