Ira Israel is a Psychotherapist & Author currently based in Santa Monica.

Interview with Ira Israel

IraIsrael.com

Q. Who is your favorite celebrity in recovery?

A. It’s a program based on anonymity 🙂

Q. If you ever retire, would you prefer to live by the ocean, lake, river, mountaintop, desert, or penthouse?

A. Paris, where I lived 1991-1994.

Q. How do you measure success?

A. When I am embarrassed by someone’s generosity towards me, I believe that I must have had a successful interaction with that person.

Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?

A. Texting. It’s the equivalent of smoke signals or Morse Code. 83% of all communications are non-verbal according to a UCLA study. The majority of text messages are misread. Also, there is sub- texting, which is the amount of time the person takes to respond – however, that person could be occupied and their silence might be misinterpreted. Texting is a horrible medium for conveying any information aside from 1. emergencies such as “I’m going to be late” and 2. egregious flirting such as “I can’t wait to see you again.” In all other cases I’ll ask to switch to the telephone app, which the vast majority of people still have on their mobile telephones.

Q. If you had an extra million dollars, which charity would you donate it to?

A. I’m a large proponent of equality of opportunity, which usually correlates with education. I would find or found a charity that helped young people have better cultural opportunities that level the playing field when they are applying to universities. For example, to the best of my recollection, the SAT exams were deemed racist because much of the English vocabulary tested on the exams originated (was created) with Shakespeare, whose plays were not studied in lower income high schools. I’m not saying that Shakespeare should be inflicted on all young people, but I would be interested in finding or founding a charity that helped make literature and philosophy and art (all of the things that I hated in high school) EXCITING for high school students so that they could communicate more clearly with more precise diction as well as having common ground with other students when they entered university (something that I did not have) because I was previously occupied with anesthetizing myself.

Q. Who has been the biggest influence throughout your life?

A. Nietzsche. After I graduated college and realized how little I had learned because I was too busy drinking and drugging, I locked myself in a room for a year and read Nietzsche. There are so many incredible life-affirming nuggets in his writings that I repeat to myself whenever I need to find my North Star. Here’s one: “It is terrible to die of thirst in the ocean. Must you salt your truth so heavily that it does not eve quench thirst anymore?”

Q. From what school of thought or teacher did you learn the most from?

A. I studied with Philip Rieff at the University of Pennsylvania and he fucking hated me. And when I say hate, I mean despised. Once he said, “Mr. Israel, in the country where your name comes from only the women wear earrings.” And once he said to my roommate, “Mr. Israel should pursue a career in the entertainment industry because I’m sure he leads a fantastic imaginary life.” Professor Rieff was supposedly a die-hard conservative whose views have been lauded by the right; however, I think that he’s mostly misread and that much of the controversy can be adduced by section 76 of “The Gay Science” by Nietzsche: which is a greater danger? Anarchy or a society that agrees on an absurd fiction (namely religion?) Well, in 2025 it seems like our society no longer agrees on much of anything and we’re rapidly approaching I daresay a civil war. Many argue that we’re already amidst World War III. Personally I consider myself mostly progressive, like Ezra Klein or Bill Maher, so I’m fascinated by the recent interest in Reiff’s work, mostly by conservatives. Again, although he disliked me, he inspired me to spend the next 40 years of my life studying film, art, literature, and music, so I will always be grateful to to him.

Q. Where are you from and where do you reside now?

A.  I was born in NYC and I reside now in Santa Monica.

Q. What is your Astrological sign?

A. Leo, obviously.

Q. What’s your concept of a Higher Power?

A. In graduate school Barbara Holdrege told me that her translation of the Sanskrit word “Brahman” was “That without attributes.” That resonated with me. G-d – g dash d – would be our equivalent because any higher power would be ineffable, beyond words. I love Rothko paintings because he was trying to “indicate” the divine. If you can say it, it’s not it. If you can think it, it’s not it. It’s a feeling a sensation. Everythingness. So far beyond our conception that we can only hope to taste the nectar of it in minute doses, as we do through that one second of peace that we recognize retrospectively when we’re meditating. Tat tvam asi.

Q. What book(s) have you read more than once?

A. ”Just Kids,” by Patti Smith, “White Teeth” by Zadie Smith, “We: the Psychology of Romantic Love” by Robert Johnson, “The Singularity of Being,” by Mari Ruti, and The Upanishads

Q. Which film have you watched the most?

A. ”Withnail and I,” also “Three Days of the Condor,” “Carnal Knowledge,” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”

Q. Who is your favorite film director?

A. Atom Egoyan’s “Exotica” is the only film that I watched twice in one day. I was at the Cannes Film Festival, I watched the film, went back to my hotel and put on my tuxedo, and went back and watched it again. The way the narrative unfolded changed my life – I’ll never forget Sarah Polley’s dialogue in the car…

Q. If you could give advice to your younger self what would it be?

A. Being an asshole is a choice, Ira. Choose wisely.

Q. What books are you reading now?

A. I start a class on the Philosophy of Psychology at UCLA tomorrow morning so I’ve cleared the decks save a few art books on Cezanne, Titian, Duchamp and Rothko that are on my coffee table.

Q. What is your favorite App?

A. Audible.fr! I love listening to lectures and books on philosophy and psychology in French.

Q. Are you binge watching any TV series?

A. I’m much crazier than any binge watcher. I either clear my schedule to watch a series such as “Westworld,” “Succession,” “Hacks,” or “Slow Horses” on the day each show is released or I don’t watch them at all. I guess this is some form of OCD that will be listed in the next DSM.

Q. What is your favorite play or musical?

A. ”Art” by Yasmina Reza.

Q. Who is your favorite performer, living or dead?

A. Dave Chappelle.

Q. What is your favorite musician and or band?

A. There’s an incredibly dreary part of the world and I love all of the music that comes from bad weather – Van Morrison, Thin Lizzy, Simple Minds…

Q. What is your favorite city?

A. Paris.

Q. What is your favorite restaurant?

A. Milo & Olive for the mushroom pizza and arugula salad.

Q. What is the best piece of advice someone has given you?

A. ”Less is more.”

Q. What is the best piece of advice you’ve given someone else?

A. ”Less is more.”

Q. Have you ever been arrested and, if so, what for?

A. If I leave it blank does that mean I’ve been arrested??? Can I still be person of the week if I haven’t been arrested (recently)?

Q. What is one thing that always makes you smile?

A. When a snippet of a song that I heard on WLIR in 1982-1988 comes into my head and then I shuffle around trying to hum the melody and then little by little it coalesces into a song that I can find on Apple Music. The last one was “When I feel this way” by APB – it’s such a great song.

Q. What is your biggest fear?

A. Not exiting the planet with all of my limbs.

Q. Where do you go when you want to be alone?

A. Any cafe in Santa Monica, ground zero for narcissism.

Q. What is the greatest risk you’ve ever taken?

A. Becoming a psychotherapist.

Q. What is something you are currently curious about?

A. Any psychological interventions that help people reframe how they’re approaching relationships and the language they choose.

Q. What book would you most like to see turned into a movie or TV show that hasn’t already been adapted?

A. ”How to survive your childhood now that you’re an adult” (such an easy question!)

Q. What is the hardest amends you’ve ever had to make?

A. There were a few minutes in my life a long time ago when I resorted to physical violence, which is unforgivable. And by the grace of God, I was forgiven.

Q. How important is human connection?

A. It’s everything.