MARMOR, Judd 1910-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born May 1, 1910, in London, England; died December 16, 2003, in Los Angeles, CA. Psychiatrist, educator, and author. Marmor is most often remembered for his stance against classifying homosexuality as a mental illness, which resulted in the 1973 declassification of homosexuality as a disease by the American Psychiatric Association. Earning his medical degree from Columbia University in 1933, he trained as a psychoanalyst at the New York Psychoanalyst Institute in the late 1930s. Marmor served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and after the war settled in Los Angeles, where he set up a private practice. From 1965 until 1972, he was also director of psychiatry at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He next turned to teaching as a professor at the University of Southern California's School of Medicine until 1980; this was followed by five years as an adjunct professor of psychiatry at the University of California at Los Angeles. It was during his teaching days that Marmor entered the spotlight for his assertion that homosexuals were not mentally ill. He based this conclusion on his personal work with homosexuals in his private practice and on research published by UCLA psychologist Evelyn Hooker. Marmor's convincing arguments before the members of the American Psychiatric Association are credited with that organization's pivotal 1973 vote to remove homosexuality from its diagnostic manual; the American Psychological Association followed suit soon after this decision. Since then, this development has been viewed by many homosexual rights advocates as a major stepping stone toward the passage of pro-rights legislation. In addition to his work as a psychiatrist and professor, Marmor was the author of Psychiatrists and Their Patients: A National Study of Private Office Practice (1975), and was an editor or coeditor of several important texts, many of which deal with homosexuality, including Sexual Inversion: The Multiple Roots of Homosexuality (1965), Homosexual Behavior: A Modern Reappraisal (1980), and Growing Up before Stonewall: Life Stories of Some Gay Men (1994).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, December 20, 2003, p. B20.

New York Times, December 19, 2003, p. C15.

Washington Post, December 22, 2003, p. B4.