Shirley Zussman

Zussman was born Shirley Edit Dlugasch on July 23, 1914, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Zussman's father, Louis Dlugasch, was a doctor, and her mother, Sara, was a surgical nurse. She was raised in Brooklyn, and attended Girls High School.[4]

Zussman received a bachelor's degree in psychology at Smith College in 1934, and a masters in social work in 1937 from the New York School of Social Work at Columbia University. She received her doctorate in education in 1969 from Teachers College, Columbia University.[4] Zussman was supervised through her graduate dissertation by Margaret Mead.[5]

Zussman and her husband, Dr. Leon Zussman, a gynecologist, trained at the Masters and Johnson Institute in the 1960s. The two became directors of the Human Sexuality Center of the Jewish-Hillside Medical Center on Long Island in New York. Their practice centered on communication and developed physical and psychological exercises for their patients. In 1979, they wrote Getting Together: A Guide to Sexual Enrichment for Couples which was wide-ranging and compassionate.[4] She later had a practice on East 79th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.[6]

She was a two-term President of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists,[7] and co-director of the Human Sexuality Center of Zucker Hillside Hospital. Zussman was also past Director of the Association for Male Sexual Dysfunction.[8]

Ruth Westheimer, the German-American sex therapist and talk show host known popularly as Dr. Ruth, studied under Zussman when she taught at Columbia University.[9]

In her later years, in her practice Zussman often saw people much younger than herself; at age 99 she had patients in their twenties.[10] She continued to practice as a sex therapist at 100 years old as of August 2014.[5]

Shirley was married to Leon Zussman (1909–1980).[11] They had two children, a son, Marc Zussman, and a daughter, Carol Sun.[4]

Zussman died on December 4, 2021, at the age of 107.[4]

• Zussman, Leon, Shirley Zussman, and Jeremy Brecher. Getting Together: A Guide to Sexual Enrichment for Couples. New York: Morrow, 1979. ISBN 9780688033835
• Zussman, Leon, and Shirley Zussman. "The treatment of sexual dysfunction: Some theoretical considerations." Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy: On the Cutting Edge of Modern Developments in Psychotherapy (1976).
• Whitehead, E. D., Klyde, B. J., Zussman, S., & Salkin, P. (1990). Diagnostic evaluation of impotence. Postgraduate medicine, 88(2), 123–136.
• Zussman, L., Zussman, S., Sunley, R., & Bjornson, E. (1981). Sexual response after hysterectomy-oophorectomy: recent studies and reconsideration of psychogenesis. American journal of obstetrics and gynecology, 140(7), 725–729.