Lillian B. Rubin is an internationally recognized author, lecturer, and social scientist who was born in Philadelphia, grew up in New York City, and moved to California as a young adult. She lives in San Francisco, where she was, until recently, a practicing psychotherapist and a member of the faculty at the Institute for the Study of Social Change at the University of California, Berkeley.
She has published many articles and twelve books, including The Man with the Beautiful Voice, a book of personal essays on being a psychotherapist, from which this story was republished. Her most recent work, 60 ON UP: The Truth About Aging in America, is an unflinching look at the complex sociological, cultural, and psychological issues of aging in our time. Although she has retired from her psychotherapy practice, she continues her writing and has also taken up painting; her artwork and list of recent publications can be viewed at lillianrubin.com.