From left, Swedish actress Anita Ekberg known for her role in “La Dolce Vita,” Star Trek icon Leonard Nimoy, Bobbi Kristina Brown, the only child of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, legendary blues guitarist B.B. King, Football player and “Monday Night Football” sportscaster Frank Gifford. From left, Mario Torrisi/AP, CBS via Getty Images, Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images, Kathy Willens/AP Buy Photo
“Suicidal people are made, not born,” he said. “We can therefore unmake them as we learn more about the roots of self-destructive behavior.”
With Shneidman and Litman, Dr. Farberow developed the “psychological autopsy,” a series of interviews with family and close friends that could unravel the hidden threads of distress.
In 1962, Dr. Farberow was asked by the Los Angeles city coroner to help determine whether the death of actress Marilyn Monroe from acute barbiturate poisoning was an accident. At first, he agreed. Weeks later, after completing a psychological autopsy, Dr. Farberow announced that Monroe’s death was “a probable suicide.”
Norman Louis Farberow was born in Pittsburgh on Feb. 12, 1918. He arrived in Los Angeles after serving in the Army Air Forces during World War II.
While earning his doctorate from UCLA, he spent time in a ward at a Veterans Administration hospital reserved for suicidal patients. In their stories, he found his life’s work.
Dr. Farberow co-wrote with Shneidman seminal books on suicide and suicide prevention, “Clues to Suicide” (1957) and “A Cry for Help” (1961). After Shneidman left the center in 1966, Dr. Farberow remained committed to it.
He helped start the International Association of Suicide Prevention. In 1965, he instituted training for law enforcement officers, who were in the best position to intervene in a crisis, and in 1981 he founded the Survivors After Suicide bereavement support group.
His wife of 61 years, Pearl Farberow, died in 2008. Survivors include two children; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
— Los Angeles Times