Growing Up Gay 

- the adult maturing process for gay/bi men

Tim Foskett in conversation with Walt Odets

Sunday 8th November 1800 - 2030 on Zoom

In this online workshop Tim will be talking with author and psychotherapist Walt Odets about his groundbreaking book Out of the Shadows.

Drawing on a lifetime's work as a clinical psychologist in California, Walt uses Erik Erikson’s 8 stages of life and the stories of his patients as well as those of his own deep relationships with other gay/bi men to illuminate the choices we make at different stages of life.  

We’ll focus on the adult stages of development proposed by Erikson, which address themes of Intimacy vs Isolation, Productivity vs Stagnation and Integrity vs Despair. 

Join us for a deep dive into a humane conversation about human development through a gay/bi lens.  There’ll be many opportunities for self-reflection and a wider group discussion.  

'Odets's warm and lyrical voice, his inspiring picture of how imaginative gay life can be, has sent me queuing for the couch.' Evening Standard

'A gay man could read this book as if his life depended on it - and perhaps it does' Andrew Holleran, author of Dancer from the Dance
 

About Walt Odets

 

Walt Odets is a clinical psychologist in private practice who has worked with and written about the psychological, developmental and social lives of gay men for more than three decades.

His seminal book, In the Shadow of the Epidemic: Being HIV-Negative in the Age of AIDS, which Duke University Press published in 1995, was selected by The New York Times as one of the “Notable Books of the Year.” The Advocate magazine reported that In the Shadow of the Epidemic was also the No. 1 bestselling book among gay men that fall. The following year, OUT magazine named Odets "one of The 100 most impressive, influential and controversial gay men and lesbians of 1996.”

Odets’s recent work has focused on the psychological aftermath of the HIV epidemic, the long-standing childhood and adolescent stigmatization and trauma experienced by young gay men, and the conventional idea of “the homosexual” and its negative influences on gay identities, self-realization and relationships between men.  This work has culminated in a new book, OUT OF THE SHADOWS: Reimaging Gay Men’s Lives, which examines the hopes and new possibilities for gay men today. The book will be released by both Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Penguin Random House (U.K.), in June 2019.

Walt Odets earned his B.A. in Philosophy from Wesleyan University in 1969, and after two decades working as a photojournalist and pilot, a Ph.D. from San Francisco's Professional School of Psychology, in 1989. A public advocate, he has consulted for the Shanti Project of San Francisco and the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) in New York City, and been a member of the AIDS Task Force of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA). He has also served as a clinical supervisor for the psychology intern program at Berkeley's Pacific Center, and as a member of the United States Congress, Office of Technology Assessment evaluation workshop on AIDS prevention. 

A seasoned and engaging public speaker, Odets has presented to a broad range of groups, including The Gay Men's Health Summit, the California Department of Health Services, the American Psychological Association, the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA), the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), the National Gay and Lesbian Health Conference, the American Psychiatric Association, the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the State of New York Department of Health, the Yale University Institution for Social and Policy Studies, the Stanford Medical School and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Walt Odets is the son of playwright Clifford Odets and stage actress Bette Grayson.  He was born and raised in Los Angeles and New York, and presently lives in Berkeley, California, where he writes and maintains a private practice in psychotherapy.

Website: www.waltodets.com

Facebook: @waltodetsauthor