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All in a Lifetime: An Autobiography
Dr. Ruth Westheimer is everyone's favourite sex therapist. All in a Lifetime is the memoir of her journey from the horrors of war to the fulfillment of the American dream. The book is as warm, humorous, and candid as Dr Ruth herself.
352 pages, Paperback
First published November 10, 1987
About the author
Ruth Westheimer
69 books142 followersKarola Ruth Westheimer, better known as Dr. Ruth, was a German-American sex therapist, talk show host, author, professor, and Holocaust survivor.
Westheimer was born in Germany to a Jewish family. As the Nazis came to power, her parents sent the ten-year-old girl to a school in Switzerland for safety, remaining behind themselves because of her elderly grandmother. They were both subsequently sent to concentration camps by the Gestapo, where they were killed. After World War II ended, she immigrated to British-controlled Mandatory Palestine. Despite being only 4 feet 7 inches (1.39 m) tall and 17 years of age, she joined the Haganah, and was trained as a sniper, but never saw combat. On her 20th birthday, Westheimer was seriously wounded in action by an exploding shell during a mortar fire attack on Jerusalem during the 1947–1949 Palestine war, and almost lost both of her feet. Moving to Paris, France two years later, she studied psychology at the Sorbonne. Immigrating to the United States in 1956, she worked as a maid to put herself through graduate school, earned an M.A. degree in sociology from The New School in 1959, and earned a doctorate at 42 years of age from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1970. Over the next decade, she taught at a number of universities, and had a private sex therapy practice.
Westheimer's media career began in 1980 with the radio call-in show Sexually Speaking, which continued until 1990. In 1983 it was the top-rated radio show in the area, in the country's largest radio market. She then launched a television show, The Dr. Ruth Show, which by 1985 attracted 2 million viewers a week. She became known for giving serious advice while being candid, but also warm, cheerful, funny, and respectful, and for her tag phrase: "Get some". In 1984 The New York Times noted that she had risen "from obscurity to almost instant stardom." She hosted several series on the Lifetime Channel and other cable television networks from 1984 to 1993. She became a household name and major cultural figure, appeared on several network TV shows, co-starred in a movie with Gérard Depardieu, appeared on the cover of People, sang on a Tom Chapin album, appeared in several commercials, and hosted Playboy videos. She is the author of 45 books on sex and sexuality.
The one-woman 2013 play Becoming Dr. Ruth, written by Mark St. Germain, is about her life, as is the 2019 documentary, Ask Dr. Ruth, directed by Ryan White. Westheimer had been inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame, and awarded the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Leo Baeck Medal, the Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger Award, and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Westheimer was born in Germany to a Jewish family. As the Nazis came to power, her parents sent the ten-year-old girl to a school in Switzerland for safety, remaining behind themselves because of her elderly grandmother. They were both subsequently sent to concentration camps by the Gestapo, where they were killed. After World War II ended, she immigrated to British-controlled Mandatory Palestine. Despite being only 4 feet 7 inches (1.39 m) tall and 17 years of age, she joined the Haganah, and was trained as a sniper, but never saw combat. On her 20th birthday, Westheimer was seriously wounded in action by an exploding shell during a mortar fire attack on Jerusalem during the 1947–1949 Palestine war, and almost lost both of her feet. Moving to Paris, France two years later, she studied psychology at the Sorbonne. Immigrating to the United States in 1956, she worked as a maid to put herself through graduate school, earned an M.A. degree in sociology from The New School in 1959, and earned a doctorate at 42 years of age from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1970. Over the next decade, she taught at a number of universities, and had a private sex therapy practice.
Westheimer's media career began in 1980 with the radio call-in show Sexually Speaking, which continued until 1990. In 1983 it was the top-rated radio show in the area, in the country's largest radio market. She then launched a television show, The Dr. Ruth Show, which by 1985 attracted 2 million viewers a week. She became known for giving serious advice while being candid, but also warm, cheerful, funny, and respectful, and for her tag phrase: "Get some". In 1984 The New York Times noted that she had risen "from obscurity to almost instant stardom." She hosted several series on the Lifetime Channel and other cable television networks from 1984 to 1993. She became a household name and major cultural figure, appeared on several network TV shows, co-starred in a movie with Gérard Depardieu, appeared on the cover of People, sang on a Tom Chapin album, appeared in several commercials, and hosted Playboy videos. She is the author of 45 books on sex and sexuality.
The one-woman 2013 play Becoming Dr. Ruth, written by Mark St. Germain, is about her life, as is the 2019 documentary, Ask Dr. Ruth, directed by Ryan White. Westheimer had been inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame, and awarded the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Leo Baeck Medal, the Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger Award, and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 22, 2011
“Clearly one of the benefits of becoming Dr Ruth is a significant increase in my Chutzpah.” Written at the height of her radio and cable shows, we read Ruth at her busiest. Her first fifty years are extraordinary: saved by the Kindertransport she spends the war with other orphans in Switzerland, makes her way to an austere kibbutz in Palestine, learns to work a machine gun in the Zionist army, is injured in the 1948 War, then through luck and spunk studies psychology and sociology at the Sorbonne and the New School. After a promising but truncated teaching career at CUNY (budget cuts force her out) she happens into a late night radio sex advice segment, which, as captive audiences listens to on car radios returning from the Hamptons, catapults her—in the early 80s—to fame and fortune. The memoir, uneven and polite, is meant for a popular audience and is weighed down by her banal, youthful diary. Still her charm, humor and wise counsel contrast with today’s bullying advice celebrities.
April 8, 2011
A heroic and fascinating story, simply told.
October 10, 2017
It's a good story of her life.
April 25, 2026
“I disarmed potential critics, even more by explaining my philosophy of sex: that it can’t be taken in isolation, that it has to be taken in the context of love, caring, companionship, and family. All of a sudden, I am no longer the wild radical preaching, free love; I am saying something close to what they themselves believe.”
Title: All In A Lifetime
Author: Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer
Genre: Biography
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is Dr. Ruth’s memoir/biography. While, I never grew up listening or hearing her radio show or TV show. I heard that her biography was a good one. Now I’m interested in a deeper dive on some of the shows and articles she wrote as well as maybe some of the other books that she has written.
She had a super interesting life, as a child who was separated from her parents at the age of 11 due to the holocaust, it is amazing what she accomplished. After being sent to Switzerland, she never saw her parents again. This book shares her personal history from growing up all the way to the success of her television show and her career it was an interesting journey how she got from Switzerland to the US. It was definitely a hard life but overall her attitude and desire for education shines through. If you like biographical writing, this was super interesting, it read quickly and made me more curious.
Title: All In A Lifetime
Author: Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer
Genre: Biography
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is Dr. Ruth’s memoir/biography. While, I never grew up listening or hearing her radio show or TV show. I heard that her biography was a good one. Now I’m interested in a deeper dive on some of the shows and articles she wrote as well as maybe some of the other books that she has written.
She had a super interesting life, as a child who was separated from her parents at the age of 11 due to the holocaust, it is amazing what she accomplished. After being sent to Switzerland, she never saw her parents again. This book shares her personal history from growing up all the way to the success of her television show and her career it was an interesting journey how she got from Switzerland to the US. It was definitely a hard life but overall her attitude and desire for education shines through. If you like biographical writing, this was super interesting, it read quickly and made me more curious.
January 1, 2022
Decent autobiography. Would have liked to hear more about her work as the book focused mostly on her youth and hound adulthood
December 28, 2023
I've read this a few times and enjoy every time. It is an easy read and shares interesting stories of her younger years.
November 4, 2025
She really had an interesting life. So sad what happened to her family in Germany.
December 16, 2025
A very interesting read. You do have to keep in mind the time period and the era Dr. Ruth grew up in.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews