Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy

Iván Böszörményi -Nagy ( born May 19, 1920 in Budapest, † January 28, 2007 in Glenside, Pennsylvania) was a Hungarian physician, psychotherapist and university teacher who was forced as a resistance fighter under Hitler and Stalin in 1950 to emigrate to the United States. He is the founder of contextual therapy and has made significant contributions to the development of systemic family therapy.

Life

Böszörményi -Nagy received his doctorate in 1944 for Dr. med at the University of Budapest in 1948 and assistant professor in the psychiatry there. Via Salzburg, where he advised the International Refugee Organization, he came to Chicago and New York. In 1957 he founded - together with Geraldine Spark - one of the first research centers for family therapy - at the Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute ( EPPI ) in Philadelphia. This was mainly empirical data that said that the treatment of schizophrenic patients was successful when family members were involved. This foundation later evolved into the largest training center for family therapy in the United States. From 1976 to 1994 he was head of family therapy in the psychiatric department of Drexel University in Philadelphia.

The most important of his innovations will be remembered probably the multi-generational perspective. Based on Hegel, Buber and Fairbairn he combines four elements of the factual, the Individual Psychology, Transactionality and the relationship ethics, the balance of give and take, a form of therapy. Böszörményi -Nagy has also introduced new terms, such as loyalty, parentification and impartiality.

Justice balancing and multi-generational perspective are today essential basis of preparation work.

Writings

  • Family therapy: Theory and practice, Edited by Ivan Boszormenyi -Nagy and James L. Framo. Reinbek 1975 ( 2 volumes)
  • Dialectical considerations of intergenerational family therapy. Marriage 12: 117-131
  • Male and female: Merit accounts in gender roles. Family dynamics 2: 35-49
  • Group loyalty as a motive for political terrorism. ( Together with BR Krasner ). Family Dynamics 3: 199-208
  • Contextual Therapy: Therapeutic strategies for creating confidence. Family Dynamics 6: 176-195
  • Invisible bonds, the dynamics of family systems, Stuttgart, 1981 ( original edition and German edition 1973)
Glenside (Pennsylvania) Martin Buber Integrated Authority File
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