Morton Schatzman, MD
Psychotherapist and author Dr Joseph Burke
- Credit: the family
Medical doctor, psychotherapist and author Dr Joseph Herman Berke has died aged 81 from congestive heart failure.
All the world’s a stage, and one man, Joe, in his time, played many parts. He was a hippie and beatnik, and later a Hasidic Jew. He came to love Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism. For years, once a month, a Kabbalah group met at his home.
In 1970 he co-founded with his wife Roberta Elzey, my wife Vivien, me and others, the Arbours Association. Arbours was set up as a charitable foundation where people, who might otherwise be in-patients in psychiatry wards, could live communally. Arbours also set up a training programme for psychotherapists, a low-cost psychotherapy clinic, and a crisis centre. Joe directed the crisis centre for many years, and this was among his great achievements. Many therapists who worked there treasure it as a crucial experience in their education and training. Joe was also an individual and family psychotherapist.