Eugene Gendlin

Eugene T. Gendlin ( born December 25, 1926 in Vienna; native Eugene Gendelin ) is a psychologist and a trained philosopher. He founded the Focusing method.

Life

In September 1938, the Jewish family fled Gendelin - Eugene was an only child - shortly after the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich in the United States. The father had been able to save the family time with this flight. He followed a "feel" what Gendlin later made into a central theme of his scientific work.

After successful graduation Gendlin began in 1948 with the study of philosophy. In 1958 he did his PhD on the topic The function of experiencing in symbolization. Its philosophical roots are Wilhelm Dilthey and the American pragmatism ( William James ). Ultimately, he came across Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger to a new phenomenology. " The steps in saying and thinking are not only logically, but come out and prove their worth to the experience, as the felt sense is always more than has already been said and Thought ". The Gendlin's philosophical method is also effective in his psychotherapeutic work, as an interaction between experience and concepts. This situation presented him experiential, theoretical and methodological concepts.

During his studies he met Carl Rogers know who entrusted him with research. 1957 to 1963 he was Director of Research in a research project with schizophrenic patients at the University of Wisconsin, what Carl Rogers already initiated before him. He was then a professor in the departments of philosophy and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Chicago. In the same year he founded the journal Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice. It is the official organ of the Department of Psychotherapy of the American Psychological Association (APA). Until 1976 he was the editor of the magazine.

In 1978 he published the book on the basis Focusing. 1981 was published in ten languages ​​and also found in non-specialist circles very popular.

Services

In his early research in the field of psychology, Gendlin went to the question of what determines the success of psychotherapy. His research showed that people who can successfully deal with crises and problems, a different kind of self-awareness have. They always get their bodily sensations with in the development of a solution. Gendlin therefore came to the conclusion that the success of psychotherapy is independent methodology used by the or the topics addressed by a client. Success depends primarily on how a client is talking about himself. Crucial to the how the personal attention ( focus) is to the immediate physical experience, if the problem or crisis is processed. Gendlin found for this process, a description, from which he developed the method of Focusing. His goal was to teach the people who did not have these skills, a way to this success factor. By Focusing, he expanded the client-centered to experiential psychotherapy. By including the so-called felt sense he saw a benefit to other forms of therapy.

True to its motto of giving psychology away disseminated Gendlin his psychological and philosophical results in a form that they can be applied by non - professionals. So he sees the primary textbook for Focusing not as pure textbook, but as a means to make this method applicable for everyone. To further spread he founded in the eighties in Chicago, the International Focusing Institute ( IFI). The central task of the IFI is the development of didactic and methodological concepts that facilitate access to the felt sense in the context of group exercise or individual accompaniments and help teach the Focusing method.

Ceremony: 2007 Grand Prix of Viktor Frankl Foundation of the City of Vienna for a complete work in connection with a meaning-oriented humanistic psychotherapy.

Works

  • Eugene T. Gendlin: Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning. A Philosophical and Psychological Approach to the Subjective. Northwestern University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8101-1427-5 (English).
  • Eugene T. Gendlin: Thinking beyond patterns. Body, Language and Situations. In: Bernard den Ouden, Marcia Moen (Ed.): The Presence of Feeling in Thought, Peter Lang, New York, NY, 1992, ISBN 0-8204-1503-0 (English).
  • David Michael Levin (ed.): Language Beyond Postmodernism. Saying and Thinking in Gendlin 's Philosophy. Northwestern University Press 1997, ISBN 0-8101-1359-7 (English).
  • Eugene T. Gendlin: Focusing. Technique of self- help in solving personal problems (Original Title: Focusing translated by Catherine Schoch ), 4th edition, Rowohlt TB 60521, Reinbek 2004 ( German edition 1998), ISBN 978-3-499-60521-5.
  • Eugene T. Gendlin: Your body, your interpreters of dreams (Original Title: Let Your Body Artist Your Dreams translated by Catherine Schoch ), Müller, Salzburg 1998, ISBN 3-7013-0725-3, NA: Klett- Cotta, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978 -3-608-89083-9.
  • Eugene T. Gendlin: Focusing - oriented psychotherapy. A handbook of experience related method. Pfeiffer, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-7904-0660-0
  • Eugene T. Gendlin, Johannes Wiltschko: Focusing in practice. A school -wide method for psychotherapy and everyday life, Pfeiffer, Klett - Cotta, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-608-89679-1
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