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MARTHA L. DEED
IN BRIEF:Martha's property on the Erie Canal sounded intriguing. (I lived in the area oneAttended Carleton College, Northfield, MN and graduated from the New School for Social Research in NYC, where I developed a strong taste for psychology.
Ph.D. from Boston University in 1969. Began publishing articles, poetry, stories, newspaper features in 1964 whenever I could find time to write. Lots of conference presentations, workshops, etc. Lived in Paris, France and wrote full-time in the mid-70s.
Married in 1970, divorced 1977 — a daughter, Millie, 27, also writes and is halfway through Emerson College's MFA in Creative Writing.
Millie and I moved to western NY in 1981. I never expected to stay here in my dotage, but the advent of extensive research capacity on the internet, coupled with affordable housing — convinced me to stay here.
Married David Suckow (in 1990) — David has five children and five grandchildren.
My parents still live in Nyack. (Many of us received our diplomas from my dad when he served on the Nyack School Board.) I look forward to hearing from others — Is anyone else a psychologist?
CURRENT AND PERSONAL:
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Husband David, who works in a healthy profession (computers), agreed the time had come for me to retire as a therapist — which I am doing as of December 20, 2000.To prepare, we sold the house I had built (and partly designed) as a single mother in the late 1980s, and we have purchased a less expensive, but enchanting, house with an acre and a half of gardens and woods (see photo) right on the Erie Canal (see photo). It's not the Hudson, but at least it's a waterway that leads to the ocean.
I have a writing studio with its own bath and entrance, a lovely Italian tile floor, large south-facing window, and freshly-painted walls lined with bookcases that I have finished myself. In fact, I painted most of the interior of this house myself -- and restored the wood. We moved gradually, beginning in March 2000 as I finished rooms.
[Classmates quiz] :
Best adventure—encountering an ancient body on a high shelf of a kitchen cabinet while I teetered high up a ladder. Always the psychologist, I thought, 'If I scream, no one will hear me, so I won't.' So I didn't.
[No, the ancient body was not human, but it doesn't have to be for the story to work—D.P.]So, I feel quite privileged to be able to do exactly what I want to do. While waiting for the first book to emerge, I am well-launched on research for the second — this one focuses on a killing for hire — in which the "hire" part was simply a proffer of friendship. The alleged killer murdered a woman's husband as a favor to her. I intend to move beyond the crime to the family and cultural backgrounds that made it possible.
CAREER NOTES:
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After participating in a successful, early lawsuit against a managed care company in western NY in the late 1980s, I saw I would not survive as a private practitioner of psychotherapy without making what (to me) were unacceptable compromises, so I looked elsewhere for work.Since I always had competing interests—as psychotherapist, writer, academic researcher—I picked up another thread and was invited to join the faculty at the SUNY Law School in an untenured position. I had a privileged situation working with law students interning at a batterers counseling program, writing grant proposals, and giving guest lectures on such topics as "What a lawyer should expect of a mental health expert in a family law case." I was also lent to help write the protocols and assist in establishing the Niagara County Domestic Violence Intervention Program (DVIP).
In 1997, I received a piece of a Violence Against Women Act grant to design several studies of the DVIP. Favorite grant was from the NYS Bar Association to do a study on the impact of law school on students' attitudes toward women and domestic violence. My time at the Law School ended after four years (probably not cause and effect).
Next I wrote a book on battered women's difficulties in maintaining custody of their children— it's really about the continuation of domestic violence (using children as the weapon) following separation of the parents. I expect the book to come out next year.
The book took too long, since I was still riding two horses (private practice and writing/research). All of the managed care horrors I had predicted had come to pass,* and my writing mentors encouraged me to write full-time while I still could.
* Predictions based on early experience with the 1980s lawsuit against the industry, mentioned above. But as told here, Martha explains: "The HMO story is [necessarily] brief, because we were gagged. [During that lawsuit] I 'rode shotgun' with our attorney and read all of the discovery materials. Those documents contained plans I would not have imagined at my most paranoid. Before we were gagged, we warned other professions who did not yet know they were in the line of fire."Note:
Fortunately for us, Martha was also President of the New York State Psychological Association's Clinical Division in 1994. That was the lead that ultimately made it possible to locate her, a lead that came by way of Bob Zehner in Sydney! A world-wide web indeed. —DP
year while attending SUNY Buffalo). Asked if she had pictures, she sent these. —DP
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| Martha on
skis in the woods (back yard).
Blackberry bushes on left provided fruit for many pies last summer. (Dec '00) |
A friendly visitor at
the window.
(Top of my computer at bottom of photo.) Dec. '00 |
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| Erie Canal at foot of
our property, 800 feet
from the rear of the house. Fall 1999 |
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Page last updated January 12, 2001