Kiki’s Tawk Show Host: David Letterman

In the last post I talked about David Letterman and I presupposed that he was a university professor and a psychologist. My inner voices told me I was close and I went to psychiatrist…Yahtzee! Mildly annoyed that I minimally entertained the possibility I’ve decided to see if I can’t figure out who he is.

Let’s look at what we know. Dave is very smart, he’s a little older than me 71, I’m 60. He would have come through into the field of psychiatry when psychoanalysis was waning but still in vogue for a lot of shrinks so my assessment of him doing psychotherapy is probably on target but pretty much all psychiatrists do psychopharmacology and Dave is really smart so he’s probably a university professor or was. According to the other Ed, Ben Stein’s father, Herbert Stein was Henry Kissinger which I’m in agreement with having seen Herbert Stein at a psychiatric meeting in Brooklyn NY over 20 years ago. Nixon once while talking about Kissinger to someone and his being Jewish commented that Jews make great psychiatrists which is pretty funny if you consider that Herbert Stein, a psychiatrist, was Kissinger and Jewish.

Back to Letterman; without reviewing I know that Letterman’s show was in NYC. NYC has several prestigious psychoanalytic institutes associated with departments of psychiatry. Off the top of my head: Colombia, NYU, Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn associated with SUNY Downstate. Maybe others. I think Letterman was in LA for a while but moved back to NYC and I believe he lived in Connecticut.

Okay we have enough to go on, without doing any research yet. I’ll start by looking at photos of Dave, then move on to some medical schools and maybe review Herbert Stein aka Kissinger.

Into the rabbit hole we go!!

It appears that Letterman won a Mark Twain award and his shrink showed up: David Letterman’s friends — and shrink — make his Twain ceremony as funny as his late-night legacy

And in an unbilled appearance, Letterman’s psychiatrist, Clarice Kestenbaum, delivered one of the night’s punchiest paragraphs.

“If you ever need a solid 45-minute nap, drop in,” Kestenbaum said. “ ’I’m dumb. People hate me. I have E.D.’ Oh, Jesus, what a f—ing pity party. Don’t get me wrong: He’s crazy. Not Trump crazy. But who knows?”

Worth looking up Clarice Kestenbaum and see where she’s working.

Clarice Kestenbaum: David Letterman’s psychiatrist

OK here’s Clarice, let’s dig a little deeper.

Wow look at this! Clarice apparently wrote a book or several books, “Handbook of Clinical Assessment of Children and Adolescents.” What can we learn from this?

Clarice may not be David Letterman’s psychiatrist. It would be extremely rare for a psychiatrist to appear in public as the personal psychiatrist for one of their patients. It might be considered unprofessional. Patients are entitled to confidentiality. More than likely she’s a confidant, colleague, supervisor or supervisee of Daves.
She wrote a book on Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. It would be rare but not impossible for a child and adolescent psychiatrist to see an adult patient and Clarice looks like the real deal having written a handbook of Clinical Assessment of Children and Adolescents. She would be less likely to spend time working with adults like Dave, but still possible.

This photo is also of Clarice Kestenbaum

Now I may hit a dead end, or not but let’s keep on this path, so this book, Ending Therapy, shows up with Clarice Kestenbaum’s name. There are two other men’s names on this “find” , Terry Allen Kupers, M.D. and Daniel T. Williams. Let’s see if either of them are Letterman. If either of the men look like David then it’s him because I’ve followed the trail of bread crumbs.

That’s a no on Terry Kupers, let’s try the other.

Daniel T. Williams, MD

Dr. Williams has been on the faculty of Columbia University Medical Center for more than 40 years. He has served as a clinician, researcher, and teacher

Not finding a great picture yet but were honing in right now on Colombia University which has a great psychoanalytic program.

Nope not him. Let’s move on. Here’s a picture of David Letterman…

On Terry Kupers google page I found this crazy looking old man photo…have a look…

Hmmm…needs careful review, this is the crazyoldmannetwork.

There is a possibility that the “Crazy Old Man” above is David Letterman. When I went to the website I found it was about old time actors and radio which would have been right up Letterman’s alley. Lot’s of similarities in the photos. Will double check on Daniel Williams.

Now the crazy old man and Letterman may both have forehead injuries with skin scarring.

David Letterman (left) and Congressman John Lewis walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama during the premiere episode of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman.

Letterman may be going out of his way to cover up some forehead scarring.

LOS ANGELES – FEBRUARY 8: MORK AND MINDY. David Letterman as Ellsworth in ” Mork goes Erk”. Original airdate February 8, 1979. Image is a screen grab. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)

The above is a pretty good clue. I don’t believe you get on as big a show as Mork and Mindy unless you’re a first grade relative.

Interestingly or not, Jimmy Carter has some facial similarities i.e. “Genetic Markers” to Letterman including a flattening of the top of the left ear. Pay attention to this as Jimmy Carter is also JFK and Andy Warhol. Andy Warhol loved NYC as does Letterman. I noticed this as Carter showed up on Letterman’s show and could not hide a broad smile and affection for the man. Kind of like Walt Disney with Shirley Temple, his brother’s daughter.