Inspirational Quotes by George Weinberg (American Psychologist)

George Henry Weinberg (1929–2017) was an American clinical psychologist. Best known for his work on behalf of gay men and women, he coined the term ‘homophobia’ to describe the extreme aversion to being in the presence of gay men or women that he observed among some of his colleagues.

Born to a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York City, Weinberg earned a master’s degree in English from New York University. He studied mathematics and statistics but earned his doctorate in clinical psychology from Columbia University.

After noting his colleagues’ discomfort toward his gay friend, Weinberg began using ‘homophobia’ in the mid-1960s. The term soon appeared in a 1969 Screw magazine article and to a broad audience by the 1969 Time cover story, “The Homosexual in America.”

Weinberg used the term in Society and the Healthy Homosexual (1972.) He posited that those who were prejudiced against gay people were irrational and that gay people themselves were not intrinsically disordered. Weinberg also led a campaign for homosexuality to be removed from the list of mental illnesses in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM.)

Weinberg’s seminal The Heart of Psychotherapy (1984) described innovative therapeutic methods that de-emphasize traditional therapy’s approach and encourage patients to use the suggested practices to help themselves.

Weinberg wrote several psychology books intended for the general reader, including The Action Approach: How Your Personality Developed and How You Can Change It (1969,) Invisible Masters: Compulsions and the Fear That Drives Them (1993,) and Why Men Won’t Commit: Getting What You Both Want Without Playing Games (2002.)

A passionate Shakespearean, Weinberg sourced psychological insights from the bard’s works, writing Shakespeare on Love (1991) and Will Power! Using Shakespeare’s Insights to Transform Your Life (1996.)

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