Arbeiter, Jean S(onkin) 1937-

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ARBEITER, Jean S(onkin) 1937-

PERSONAL: Born January 13, 1937, in New York, NY; daughter of Daniel (a writer) and Clara (a teacher; maiden name, Paley) Sonkin; married Solomon Arbeiter, December 26, 1964; children: Daniel, Peter, Claire. Education: Vassar College, A.B., 1958; New York University, A.M., 1964. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES: Home—329 Park Ave., Leonia, NJ 07605. Agent—Carole Abel, 160 W. 87th St., New York, NY 10024.

CAREER: Funk & Wagnalls, New York, NY, promotion director, 1959-61; World Publishing Co., New York, NY, promotion director, 1961-63; Family Service Association of America, New York, NY, 1963-65; National Association of Social Workers, Washington, DC, promotion director, 1974-78.

MEMBER: Leonia Democratic Club (president).

WRITINGS:

(With Marjorie P. Katz) Pegs to Hang Ideas On, M. Evans (New York, NY), 1972.

(With Marjorie P. K. Weiser) Womanlist, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1981.

(With Linda D. Cirino) Permanent Addresses: A Guide to the Resting Places of Famous Americans, M. Evans (New York, NY), 1983.

(Editor) No Matter How Thin You Slice It, It's Still Baloney: A Collection of Outrageous Quotes, Quill (New York, NY), 1984.

(Editor) The Electronic Confessional: A Sex Book of the 80's, M. Evans (New York, NY), 1986.

(With Norman J. Marcus) Freedom from Chronic Pain: The Breakthrough Method of Pain Relief, Based on the New York Pain Treatment Program at Lenox Hill Hospital, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1994.

(With John W. Schott) Mind Over Money: Match Your Personality to a Winning Financial Strategy, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1998.

Contributor to magazines and newspapers.

SIDELIGHTS: Jean S. Arbeiter has written and cowritten nonfiction books on a variety of subjects, from burial places of famous people to techniques for effective management of personal finances and chronic pain. In Mind Over Money: Match Your Personality to a Winning Financial Strategy, she teamed with John W. Schott, a psychiatrist from Harvard Medical School who has also worked as a financial manager. Those two areas of expertise lend "a novel and significant dimension to personal investment counseling," remarked a reviewer for Publishers Weekly. Advice is given about diversifying finances and using strategies suitable to various personality types, including the timid investor, the impulsive investor, and the guilt-ridden investor. Readers are offered a chance for emotional self-discovery, and theories are illustrated with numerous case histories. The Publishers Weekly reviewer called it "particularly accessible and penetrating" in terms of its analysis of investment possibilities.

In Freedom from Chronic Pain: The Breakthrough Method of Pain Relief, Based on the New York Pain Treatment Program at Lenox Hill Hospital, Arbeiter and coauthor Norman J. Marcus, a physician specializing in pain management, present a program designed to help sufferers of chronic pain. Written for lay readers, it contains little medical jargon and can be read in a matter of hours. Stories of chronic pain sufferers provide the book's opening, which goes on to provide guidelines for identifying chronic pain and suggestions for coping with it. The connection between healthy muscle tissue and pain (or lack of it) is probed. According to J. Richard Thompson in Journal of Family Practice, "Some of the most useful portions of the book are the illustrated exercises and self-assessment quizzes provided to help patients assess pain." Thompson concluded that "For the family physician who may be unfamiliar with nondrug or nonsurgical interventions in chronic pain management, this book provides inexpensive, enlightening, and interesting reading."