Research

For the first eighteen years of my professorship at NYU, I specialized in teaching and research on personality, with an emphasis on the empirical testing of psychoanalytic concepts. Affiliated primarily with the Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, I spent a brief period of time with the Social and Personality Program.

Beginning early in the 1970s, I switched the focus of my academic interests to the connection between love and sexuality. Sharing this interest with me, my wife, Suzanne, and I began collaborating in research on this subject. In 1980, I proposed a course on Human Sexual Love to be co-taught with my wife, permitting us to extend our collaboration; and she was appointed Lecturer on Psychology. Subsequently, we initiated and co-taught a second undergraduate course, The Psychology of Marriage, which is still offered by the department.

As a retiree, I have continued to collaborate with my wife in research and writing. Motivated by our own experiences, we did research on lovers who do creative work together. Coining the phrase intimate creativity to designate this process, we conducted the first psychological study of partners in love and visual art who identify themselves as a professional team. Our results clarify the specific ways in which a couple’s involvement as lovers affects their joint creativity, and, simultaneously, how their creative collaboration influences the quality of their relationship.

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Biography

Education

1951: Ph.D., University of Michigan
1949: M.A., University of Michigan
1946: B.A., Brooklyn College

Positions Prior to NYU

Honors

2001: Listing in Who's Who in America
1968 - 1988: Editorial Advisor, Encyclopaedia Britannica
1968-1969: Senior Stipend, National Institute of Mental Health
1954-1955: Fulbright Advanced Research Scholar, University College London

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Selected Publications

Sarnoff I. & Sarnoff, S. Intimate Creativity: Partners in Love and Art. The University of Wisconsin Press, in press, 2002.

Sarnoff, I. & Sarnoff, S. Love-Centered Marriage in a Self-Centered World. New York: Taylor and Francis, 1989.

Sarnoff, I. & Sarnoff, S. The Dialectics of Marriage, Psychology Today, Oct. 1979

Sarnoff, S. & Sarnoff, I. Sexual Excitement/ Sexual Peace. New York: M.Evans,1979.
- In 1980, a Spanish translation was published by Grijalbo of Barcelona with the title: Onanismo.
- In 1985, M. Evans issued a paperback edition of the original work under a new title: Masturbation and Adult Sexuality.
- This paperback was reissued with the same title by Replica Books in 2000.

Sarnoff, I. Testing Freudian Concepts: An Experimental Social Approach. New York: Springer, 1971.
- An Italian translation of this work was published in 1985 by Citta Nuova of Rome under the title: Verificare Freud: Un Approccio Sperimentale.

Sarnoff, I. Society With Tears. New York: Citadel, 1966.

Sarnoff, I. Personality Dynamics and Development. New York: Wiley, 1962.

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Address

Irving Sarnoff
Emeritus Professor of Psychology

Department of Psychology
New York University
6 Washington Place
New York, NY 10003
is3@nyu.edu

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Updated