Harold Greenwald

Harold Greenwald (July 28, 1910 – March 26, 1999) was a noted psychotherapist who pioneered a variation on rational emotive behavior therapy, "direct decision therapy." He was an expert on the psychology of prostitution, and authored a dissertation on call girls that became a best-selling book and movie.

Early life and education Greenwald was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the son of Abraham Greenwald, a barber, and his wife, Lillian, who were Jewish refugees from Czarist Russia. His younger brother, Milton, later known by the stage name Michael Kidd, became an acclaimed choreographer and occasional actor on Broadway and in Hollywood movies.

Prostitution research In the 1950s, Greenwald carried out work for a doctoral dissertation on the psychology of prostitutes. He interviewed 16 prostitutes, of whom six were in analysis with him, with the other ten interviewed by three of the other prostitutes who were his patients. His dissertation, published in 1958 as The Call Girl: A Social and Analytic Study, humanized the women and explored the reasons for their career choice. He explained in the book that most came from unhappy childhoods and suffered from insufficient parental love.

Academic posts Greenwald taught at Hofstra University, and was a Visiting Fulbright Fellow at the University of Bergen in Norway. He became a distinguished professor at the United States International University, and served as president of the Academy of Psychologists in Marital and Family Therapy. He was president of the division of Humanistic Psychology of the American Psychological Association.