Erik Blumenthal

Erik Blumenthal at the age of 74.

Erik Blumenthal (Albert Helmut Erik-Artur Blumenthal; born September 9, 1914 in Stuttgart ; † June 27, 2004 in Immenstaad on Lake Constance ) was a freelance psychologist , graphologist and psychotherapist at the individual psychology school. Erik Blumenthal was assistant and co-author of Rudolf Dreikurs , president of the Swiss Society for Individual Psychology, training analyst of the German Society for Individual Psychology (DGIP), first chairman of DGIP, vice president of the International Society for Individual Psychology, lecturer at the University of Würzburg. In 2001 he was awarded the Medal of Honor of the BiB (Professional Association of Individual Psychological Consultants). He was the author of numerous popular science advisory books in his field.

Short résumé

• 1933–1950 worked as a technical businessman, manager in industry
• 1952–1956 studied psychology at the universities of Tübingen and Zurich
• from 1952 Baha'i
• 1955 Opening of the psychological practice in Immenstaad on Lake Constance
• 1963–1964 assistant to Prof. Rudolf Dreikurs at the University of Oregon in Eugene / USA
• 1964–1981 President of the Swiss Society for Individual Psychology
• Since 1968 training analyst of the German Society for Individual Psychology (DGIP)
• 1970–1974 first chairman of the DGIP
• 1973 Vice President of the International Society for Individual Psychology
• 1971–1976 lecturer at the University of Würzburg
• 1986–1991 President of the Swiss Society for Individual Psychology
• 2001 Awarded the BiB Medal of Honor.

biography

Erik Blumenthal was one of the most important representatives of individual psychology . As a therapist, through numerous mostly popular science books and scientific articles, he familiarized many people with the ideas and, above all, the practical applicability of individual psychology, and made important contributions to its implementation. He and his twin sister Erika were born right at the beginning of the First World War. His father, Dr. Arthur Blumenthal , was the chief physician of the gynecological department in the Marienhospital in Stuttgart. His mother, Johanna Hirth, was the daughter of the inventor and industrialist Albert Hirth . The parents separated during Blumenthal's school days. Since his father was of Jewish descent, Erik was still allowed to take his Abitur in 1933, but was no longer able to study. He would have liked to become a doctor, but now decided on a commercial career. For some time he was sent to England by his family, so that on his return, as a German abroad, he would be temporarily withdrawn from reprisals against “non-racially pure” people. When that was no longer of any use, he volunteered for the military shortly before the end of the war, where at that time people were no longer asked about his parentage. After only a few days at the front, he was taken prisoner.

Before taking over the commercial management of his uncle Wolf Hirth's aircraft factory in Nabern / Teck, he had acquired a glider and motorized license. In the middle of the war, Blumenthal married his wife Dolores Klose. After the war, at the age of 38, he was finally able to realize his dream and, already a father of four children, studied psychology in Tübingen. First he turned to the analytical psychology of CG Jung , but after getting to know the Bahaitum , his future religious home, which teaches the principle of harmony between religion and science, he switched "with flying colors from Jung to Adler ", and thus to Individual psychology.

After recovering from the far too early death of his wife Dolores, Erik Blumenthal moved his practice to his house on Lake Constance in Immenstaad. Since the people in the country did not yet know what a psychologist was, his first client was a farmer, to whom he was supposed to interpret the future. In 1958 he hired Marianne Hilger to work as a kindergarten teacher for his four minor children and married her in 1959. This marriage resulted in two more children. Encouraged by her husband, Marianne Blumenthal trained in 1970 to become a qualified individual psychological advisor and later a painting therapist, in which she worked for many years. Erik Blumenthal's son also followed in his father's footsteps as a doctor of psychotherapist. Erik Blumenthal's youngest daughter continued his practice in Immenstaad as an individual psychological consultant.

Erik Blumenthal has been invited to lectures and seminars around the world as an individual psychologist who always went hand in hand with practice and theory. His books have been translated into many languages, including Chinese and Japanese. As a contemporary witness, he still experienced Rudolf Dreikurs, worked with him and was close friends with him.

Works (selection)

• School publications from the various countries (Huber, 1957)
• Parents and children friends or enemies (Klett, 1973)
• Parents and children friends or enemies (German, 1986)
• Paths to Inner Freedom (Rex, 1972)
• True Freedom (Bahá'í Publishing, 1975)
• New ways to inner freedom (Horizonte 1995)
• Understand and be understood (Rex, 1977)
• The goal and purpose of the high years (Rex, 1984)
• Sinnergie: The soul lives from meaning (Horizonte 1990)
• Believe in yourself (Herder, 1991)
• To love and be loved (Horizonte, 1995)

literature

• Speech by Dr. Stefan Blumenthal on the occasion of the funeral of his father Erik Blumenthal on July 2nd, 2004 in Immenstaad

Web links

• Literature by and about Erik Blumenthal in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heinz Göltenboth: sgipaaktuell-0612. Swiss Society for Individual Psychology according to Alfred Adler, June 2012, accessed on October 10, 2019 .