WEBVTT - Bloomberg and Wondery Present: The Shrink Next Door 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.320 In a brand new podcast from Wondering in Bloomberg, The 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:07.080 Shrink next Door, host Jonah Sarah takes you deep into 0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:11.040 what it looks like when a psychiatrist becomes something much more. 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:14.960 You'll hear of extravagant parties attended by movie stars, a 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:17.640 lavish home in the Hampton's, and the man at the 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:20.400 center of it all. You're about to hear a preview 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:23.000 of The Shrink next Door in which you'll meet host 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:26.040 Jonah Sarah and hear about a relationship that would go 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:29.720 on to affect two people's lives for twenty nine years. 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:33.360 While you're listening, subscribe to The Shrink next Door on 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:37.000 Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening now. There's also a 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:39.880 link in the episode notes that will take you there. 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:49.400 Won by any measure, Marty Markowitz was a success. He 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:53.800 had an IVY lead diploma, a law degree, his own business, 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:57.560 and plenty of money. But when he hit thirty eight, 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:03.200 he found himself feeling seriously overwhelmed. His Rabbi recommended a 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:07.640 therapist he knew who had an office on Manhattan's Side. Well, 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:10.240 I go into his office, which was, you know, a 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:14.440 modestly furnished office with a desk and a chair and 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:19.000 a couch. The therapist name was Dr Isaac Hirshkoff, but 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:22.199 he told Marty to call him Ike. He was a young, 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:26.000 handsome man with a round face, a close crop beard, 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:30.080 and curly black hair. He was dressed casually in an 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:34.280 open collar shirt and shorts. I sat down right across 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:37.840 from him, and we looked at each other, and he said, okay, 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:40.559 why are you here. Marty had seen a therapist before, 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:42.880 the kind you would listen while you lay down on 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:47.440 the couch and talk about your dreams. This therapist was different. 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:52.640 His modus operandi was basically, I'm your pal, tell me 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.600 what's following it, and let's take it from there. Marty 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.280 spent the whole session laying out his problems. He told Ike, 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.480 how is father there and mother had recently died, how 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.400 he had inherited the family business, how he was having 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:10.280 a hard time dealing with his new responsibilities. When he finished, 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:14.720 Marty says, Ike looked at him and said, I'm going 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:18.919 to take him on as a patient, And I said, okay. Nice. 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:22.040 Not only was I taking him on as a patient, 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:25.560 but he made Marty a promise. He said, don't worry 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:29.680 I'll take care of everything. I was overwhelmed and to 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:34.359 have someone say to me, don't worry, calm down, this 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.160 is nothing to get upset about. We're gonna straighten everything out, 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:41.320 and we're gonna do it fast. Very comforting to me. 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:43.480 Marty wrote him a check. I think it was for 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:46.320 a hundred and sixty dollars something like that. Back back 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:50.600 in the day. It was June. Marty had come to 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:54.600 Ike because he needed help. But if he had known 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:57.880 what his new therapist had in store for him, he 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:01.720 probably would have walked out the door and never come back. 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:18.280 From Wonderree and Bloomberg, I'm Joe No Sarah, a columnist 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:22.280 with Bloomberg Opinion, And this is the shrink next door. 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:39.240 This is episode one. Welcome to the neighborhood. Every neighborhood 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:42.520 has its share of mysteries. We can live our entire 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.520 lives and barely know the people just one door down. 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:49.720 I have a summer house in Southampton, a couple of 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:53.440 hours outside of New York. This part of the Hamptons 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:58.480 is called the Bay Side. It's quiet, peaceful, a place 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:03.040 to escape from the city and hot summer months. Sampson 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:05.640 and Jackie Gillatt have a house on the same street 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:10.120 as me. My name is Jacqueline Guillott and we're married 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:16.200 thirty five years. We're married fifty two years. They've been 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:19.599 coming here since the eighties. Most of the houses on 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:24.000 our street are single story with wooden clappered fronts. Sampson 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:27.520 and Jackie's house is no different. So lovely home really, 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:30.599 But there's one house on the street that stands out 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:34.040 for starters. It's just bigger than most of the other houses. 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:37.480 It's two stories instead of one, and it's the only 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.119 one on the street with a separate guesthouse out back. 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:44.400 And then there's the way it looks. The house is 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:49.640 spectacular with windows and windows and windows. Everything about it 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:53.479 is over the top. There's a pond with goldfish, lots 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:58.359 of fish, and a waterfall to the pond too. It's bigger, 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:03.880 boulder rasher than anything else on the street. In two 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.359 thousand and ten, my wife Dawn and I bought the 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:10.920 house next door. It wasn't long before a man popped 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.040 over to our house to introduce himself. He was dressed 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:17.719 like a maintenance man, green khaki pants, a long sleep 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:21.719 workshire and a faded baseball cap. He welcomed us to 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:24.240 the neighborhood, and then he handed us a folder of 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:27.920 press clippings. I literally just took them and said thank you. 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:30.560 And but he wanted us to have them, you know, 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.360 he really wanted Joe to have him. There were articles 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:37.839 that a psychiatrist, Dr Isaac Hirshkoff, had written and articles 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:41.440 that had been written about him. In mid August, an 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:45.480 invitation arrived to a summer barbecue next door, hosted by 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:49.040 Dr Hirshkoff Ike. This would be the last of three 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:52.520 big summer parties he threw every year. I went alone. 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:55.599 To reach the front door, I had to cross a 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:59.200 bridge over a fish pond. There were maybe forty or 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:02.839 so guests hanging out in the backyard. I roamed about, 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:06.520 stopping here and there to chat. I spotted the actor 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:09.200 Richard Kind, just in time to see him do a 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:13.159 belly flop into the pool. There were a handful of 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:17.040 other people too, people I recognized as prominent New Yorkers, 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.880 like Dr Ruth, the TV personality and sex expert. It 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:24.200 was a warm afternoon. I chatted with a few people, 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:27.880 sipped on my glass of wine, and began to wander around. 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:32.600 At some point I found myself in the living room. 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:37.280 There was a fake draft bust, Phoenician masks, plastic parrots 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:41.560 hanging from the ceiling, even a giant gong. But what 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:46.080 struck me most with the photographs, lots and lots of photographs, 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:49.159 and in nearly every one of them there was Ike 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:53.480 Hirshkoff with a different celebrity, Ike with Henry Kissinger, Ike 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:57.640 with Ellie Wizzell, Ike with Brooke Shields, Ike with Gwyneth Paltrow, 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:01.120 even ike with O. J. Simpson. It was like one 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:04.120 of those diners where the walls are covered with pictures 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:09.040 of celebrity patrons. At that moment, the man himself appeared. 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:12.559 He greeted me like a long lost friend and said 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:14.680 that my wife and I should come over soon for 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:20.160 a drink, and then he was gone. Sure enough, a 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.040 few days after the summer party, the same maintenance man 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:26.440 we've met before showed up at our door again. This 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:31.280 time he brought an invitation for drinks. It was very formal, 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.000 as if he was reading from a script. I mean, 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:37.280 like Dr Hirshkoff would wants you to come over at 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:39.280 such a such a time, on such and such a day, 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:42.280 and the formality of it blew me away, and he 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:46.680 was very, very exacting about how it had to go. 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:50.440 So we went one of the strangest evenings I've ever 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:53.480 had in the Hampton's, or anywhere else for that matter, 0:07:53.800 --> 0:08:00.800 but definitely the Hamptons. It was pouring rain. We headed over, 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:03.880 umbrellas in hand to get to the front door. We 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.120 crossed a bridge. We could see COI circling in the 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:10.880 water below. Ike and his wife, Becky welcomed us in 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:14.240 and ushered us to a round kitchen table. There were 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:19.000 snacks laid out, carrots and salary. I served white wine. 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:24.240 So what I remember is him talking incessantly about being 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.880 a sex therapist and a celebrity therapist. And I can't 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:30.440 remember the details, but that that it just really sticks 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:32.360 in my mind that he kept going on and on 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:36.200 about that. It was more like a monologue than a dialogue. 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:39.120 That's what I remember. What do you remember? I just 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:46.760 remember thinking, these people are I felt suffocated. I talked 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:48.960 about his work. I've never say thing like it, but 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:53.240 I remember thinking it was very brazen about the details 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.160 of his life, considering we were strangers and also considering 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.720 what he does. He did talk about an NBA sports 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:04.840 god Eyes and somebody a Yankees player. I just thought 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:08.280 he lacked a lot of discretion given his field. We 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.600 listened politely as he went on and on. I just 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:15.839 remember looking towards the door. Finally, after about an hour, 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:19.319 I said we needed to get home, and we got 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:24.120 up to leave, and it was very clear that I 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:29.800 wanted a photograph, a photograph of me. I think he 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:32.240 came out and said, well, we'd like to get a 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.560 picture of you, and it was just Joe. It wasn't 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:39.080 Joe and I. So I let I take my picture, 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:43.160 hint it to his wall, and then we left as 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:47.240 fast as we could. I remember getting to her home, 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:51.520 collapsing on a couch or something. Dawn told me she 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:54.840 never wanted to go back. There was no sign of 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:57.160 the maintenance man the night Dawn and I went over, 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:01.280 but I knew he was still around. Sometimes we'd be 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:03.840 on our deck and we'd see him outside working in 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:07.360 the yard. When I returned to the Hamptons the following summer, 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:11.320 I noticed something strange at the house next door. I 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:14.000 would see the maintenance man out on the property doing 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:18.840 his usual work in the backyard, but Ike Hurshkoff was gone. 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:22.320 I would never see him or his wife, Becky, and 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:26.760 the Hamptons again. There were no more summer parties. It 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:31.679 was as if they had simply disappeared. And that's when 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.439 I learned that everything I had thought i'd known about 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:39.360 my neighbor was wrong. It's it's a wild story. That's 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:42.840 the maintenance man, the guy who came to our door 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:45.839 with the press clippings, the guy we saw working around 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:51.439 the yard. That was Marty Marcuitz, the same guy who 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:54.640 had first gone to see Dr Isaac Hurstkoff as a 0:10:54.720 --> 0:11:05.040 patient nearly thirty years earlier. That was just a preview 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:07.720 of The Shrink next Door. To listen to the rest, 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:11.600 subscribe to The Shrink next Door on Apple Podcasts or 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:13.200 wherever you're listening right now.