Bernie Zilbergeld, 63; Psychologist Wrote About Male Sexuality

Bernie Zilbergeld, 63, a psychologist and author who wrote widely on the subject of male sexuality, died June 12 at his home in Oakland of complications from diabetes.

Born in Freehold, N.J., Zilbergeld graduated from Ohio State University and earned his PhD from UC Berkeley.

He became one of the original directors of training in UC San Francisco’s Human Sexuality Program, which taught staff how to treat male sexual problems in a clinical setting.

In the late 1970s, Zilbergeld gained prominence by challenging the work of the noted sex therapists William Masters and Virginia Johnson.

Writing in Psychology Today, Zilbergeld and associate Michael Evans called the Masters and Johnson research “flawed by methodological errors and slipshod reporting.”

His book “Male Sexuality,” published in 1978, challenged the notion that male sexual function was simple and without problems.

According to Zilbergeld, male sexuality was as “complex, mysterious and full of problems as female sexuality.”

He later wrote “The Shrinking of America,” which offered the proposition that all forms of sex therapy are oversold.