Sidney Marshall "Sid" Jourard was born in Mt. Dennis, Canada January 21, 1926, the son of Albert Louis Jourard and Anna Rubinoff Jourard. He received a B.A. degree in 1947 and a M.A. degree in 1948 from the University of Toronto. He received his PhD in psychology at the University of Buffalo in 1953, having begun his career in 1948 as an instructor in psychology at the University of Buffalo.

Jourard was an assistant professor of psychology at Emory University from 1951-1956 and at the University of Alabama Medical School 1956-1957, although he was in part-time practice as a psychologist after 1951 and continued a limited private practice throughout his professional career

In 1958 Jourard became an associate research professor at the College of Nursing of the University of Florida at Gainesville, at the same time holding an appointment in the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences. After 1962 he became a full time professor of psychology.

Along with teaching, research, and clinical activities, he conducted seminars and discussion groups for various churches, organizations, and community groups. He also served as a consultant to state and national government agencies. In 1964 Jourard founded the Center of Man at Gainesville, Florida. This was one of the early centers for personal growth.

An authority on the psychological aspects of personality development, he was interested in body cathexis and the ego, the development of attitudes toward the self in relation to parental and societal influences, the dynamics of self-disclosure and the role of disclosure in the practice of psychotherapy, the aspects of personality related to nursing care, and alcoholism.

Jourard authored many journal articles and book chapters. He also authored the following books: Personal Adjustment: An Approach through the Study of Healthy Personality (1958, 1963); The Transparent Self: Self-Disclosure and Well-Being (1964, 1971); Disclosing Man to Himself (1968); Self-Disclosure: An Experimental Analysis of the Transparent Self (1971); and, Healthy Personality: An Approach From the Viewpoint of Humanistic Psychology (1974)

Jourard was founding fellow and first elected president (1963-1964) of the American Association for Humanistic Psychology. He was a fellow of the American Psychological Association and served on the editorial boards of several periodicals, including the Journal of Humanistic Psychology and Psychotherapy.

He was married in Toronto, Canada on June 20, 1948 to Antoinette R. "Toni" Hertz, and they were the parents of three children: Jeffrey Alan, Martin Richard, and Leonard Morris Jourard. He died December 2, 1974 in an accident at Gainesville, Florida.