Eugene T. Gendlin

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Memorial plaque for Eugene T. Gendlin
At the unveiling of the plaque

Eugene T. Gendlin , born Eugen Gendelin , often also Gene Gendlin , (born December 25, 1926 in Vienna , † May 1, 2017 in Spring Valley , Rockland County , New York ) was an Austro-American philosopher , psychologist and psychotherapist . He founded the focusing method.

Life

In September 1938 the Jewish Gendelin family - Eugene was an only child - fled to the United States shortly after Austria was annexed to the German Empire. The father was able to save the family in time with this escape. In doing so, he followed a “feeling”, which Gendlin later made a central theme of his scientific work.

After successfully completing school, Gendlin began studying philosophy in 1948. In 1958 he received his doctorate on The function of experiencing in symbolization . His philosophical roots can be found in Wilhelm Dilthey and in American pragmatism ( William James ). Ultimately, he came to a new phenomenology through Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger . "The steps in saying and thinking are not only logically linked, but come along and prove themselves in the experience that, as felt sense, is always more than what has already been said and thought". Gendlin's philosophical method also works in his psychotherapeutic work, as an interaction between experience and understanding. This resulted in experience-related, theoretical and methodical concepts for him.

During his studies he met Carl Rogers , who entrusted him with research. From 1957 to 1963 Gendlin was the successor to Rogers head of a project at the University of Wisconsin that dealt with schizophrenic patients. Gendlin then became a professor of philosophy and behavioral science at the University of Chicago . He was the founder of the journal Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice , which is the official organ of the Psychotherapy Division of the American Psychological Association (APA). Until 1976 he was editor of the magazine.

In 1978 he published the basic book on focusing, a self-help method for solving personal problems. Focusing was adopted by the professional world and adapted to psychotherapeutic practice. For use outside of psychotherapy, Gendlin developed the general creativity technique “ Thinking at the Edge ” (TAE).

Services

In his first research in the field of psychology, Gendlin explored the question of what makes psychotherapy successful. His research showed that people who can successfully deal with crises and problems have a different type of self-perception. They always include their physical sensations in working out a solution. Gendlin therefore came to the conclusion that the success of psychotherapy is independent of the methodology used or the topics that a client is working on. Success depends primarily on how a client speaks about themselves. The decisive factor for the how is the personal attention (focus) on the immediate physical experience when the problem or crisis is dealt with. Gendlin found a description for this process from which he developed the method of focusing. His aim was to give people who did not have these skills a suitable tool. Through focusing he expanded client-centered to experience-oriented psychotherapy. By including the so-called felt sense , he also saw a benefit for other forms of therapy.

True to his motto giving psychology away , Gendlin disseminated his psychological and philosophical results in a form that they can also be used by non-specialists. So he saw the basic book on focusing not as a pure textbook, but as a means of making this method applicable to everyone. In the 1980s, he founded the International Focusing Institute (IFI) in Chicago for further dissemination . The central task of the IFI is the development of didactic and methodical concepts that facilitate access to the felt sense in the context of group exercises or individual accompaniment and help to teach the focusing method.

Honor: 2007 Grand Prize of the Viktor Frankl Fund of the City of Vienna for a complete work in connection with a meaningful humanistic psychotherapy.

Fonts (selection)

  • Wilhelm Dilthey and the Problem of Comprehending Human Significance in the Science of Man . 1950, OCLC 27207330 (Master's thesis (AM) University of Chicago [1950], 67 pages).
  • The Function of Experiencing in Symbolization. 1958, OCLC 49474660 (Philosophical Dissertation University of Chicago , Department of Philosophy, 1958, 284 leaves).
  • 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 (eds.): 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 Katherina Schoch), 4th edition, Rowohlt TB 60521, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2004 (German first edition 1998), ISBN 978-3-499-60521-5 .
  • Eugene T. Gendlin: Your body, your dream interpreter (original title: Let Your Body Interpret Your Dreams translated by Katharina 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 the experiential method. Pfeiffer, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-7904-0660-0
  • Eugene T. Gendlin, Johannes Wiltschko: Focusing in practice. A cross-school method for psychotherapy and everyday life , Pfeiffer bei Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-608-89679-1 .
  • A process model: Body · Language · Experience , edited and translated by Donata Schoeller and Christiane Geiser. Alber, Freiburg im Breisgau / Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-495-48704-4 ; Online publication : ISBN 978-3-495-81704-9 ( e-book , chargeable).

literature

  • Gerhard Stumm, Johannes Wiltschko, Wolfgang W. Keil: Basic concepts of person-centered and focusing-oriented psychotherapy and counseling. Pfeiffer, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-608-89697-X .
  • Lore Korbei: Eugen (e) Gend (e) lin , in: Oskar Frischenschlager (Ed.): Vienna, where else! The emergence of psychoanalysis and its schools . Böhlau, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-205-98135-9 , pp. 174-181.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gendlin, Eugene T.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gendelin, Eugen (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-American philosopher, psychologist and psychotherapist
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austria
DATE OF DEATH 1st May 2017
Place of death Spring Valley , Rockland County , New York , United States