Dr. Isidore Ziferstein; Psychiatrist, Educator, Antiwar Activist

Dr. Isidore Ziferstein, 87, psychiatrist and educator who protested the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons. For many years, Ziferstein was clinical professor of psychiatry at USC. In addition to his private practice as a psychoanalyst, he was a staff psychiatrist for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Staunchly opposed to the Vietnam War, Ziferstein used his guest speaker’s podium at Southern California universities to argue that government efforts to “sell” the war to the public were undermining Americans’ mental health. In 1967, he said that induced psychological acceptance of the war was causing the public to “regress to a state of childhood . . . [to] seek comfort and security in the childhood state of letting their leaders make decisions for them.” The Russian-born Ziferstein also led demonstrations against the war, against nuclear weapons and against violence. On Friday in Los Angeles.