(May 2019) One of my favorite descriptions of someone who is or has made a huge difference in others’ lives is that they are a “Breather”. Alice Ladas well deserves the honor. A practicing therapist, best-selling author, all-around incredible human being, and Champion Breather.
I went to help her with her breathing. She picked me up at the airport and at 4’10” could barely see over the steering wheel but is an excellent driver.
(May 2019) Alice Kahn Ladas, Ed.D. is exercising with our home Turbo Mega Flow Mask Oxygen System. Diagnosed with COPD because of a medical error that left a blood clot in her right lung, she is hoping to slow down the progress of that disease. She uses it for 10 minutes per day.
Still working part-time at 99 as a Somatic Psychologist, licensed in NM, she is studying TTouch, a new skill to include in her practice. From the time she graduated PhiBetaKappa, with Honors from Smith College, she has wanted women to be able to use their own bodies as they wish. She was the acquaintance of two famous women who felt similarly. One was Eleanor Roosevelt. Alice first met her at a seminar for student leaders held at the Roosevelt home in Campobello in 1941. The other was anthropologist Margaret Mead. who agreed to chair her doctoral committee on “Breastfeeding the Less Available Option” in 1970 when other professors said the topic was unimportant and refused to join her committee.. Summaries of Alice’s thesis, done with the help of 1100 members of the newly formed La Leche League, were published in 4 peer-reviewed medical and sociology journals and helped bring breastfeeding back to “civilized” culture. She is the first author of the NY Times bestseller, The G Spot and Other Discoveries About Human Sexuality” (1982), taught the first class in the Lamaze method of educated childbirth in the USA in 1959, and helped to found The Institute of Bioenergetic Analysis in 1956.
Alice wanted a family as well as a professional career. Now a widow, she keeps in close touch with her 2 daughters and 3 grandchildren. Until COVID closed it down, she participated in the Sr. Olympics in racewalking, tennis, and talent. In 1998, she won first place in NM as a solo instrumentalist over 70, playing the piano.
IN MEMORIUM JULY 28 2023
“Dear Mr . White, I learned a few days ago that Dr. Alice Kahn Ladas died recently, apparently succumbing to the COPD she had long battled. I regret never meeting Alice, although we did communicate indirectly on a subject of common interest. Our communication was facilitated by her daughter whom I met some years ago. Soon after its publication, I purchased her seminal book. “The G Spot.”. I read the book, my wife did not. After four decades, the original copy continues to reside on my night table. Published at the dawn of the computer age, in the wake of Apollo, with so many other extraordinary emergent human technological achievements, Dr. Kahn Ladas’ work suggested human understanding of our own bodies was, by comparison, barely beyond the neolithic. Beyond her academic achievements, her open mind and innate curiosity made her a consummate & pioneering research scientist examining so many facets of the human experience, especially those that the rest of society chose to ignore. Recognizing the insufficiency of current human understanding, she was bold & willing to incorporate as much as possible what she discovered and experienced into her mental and physical health practices.
Malcolm A. LeCompte, Ph.D.”
She loved to hear how you are inspired by her. Email me at mike@mikegwhite.com and I will add it to this page.