John Bradshaw (theologian)

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John Elliot Bradshaw (born June 29, 1933 in Houston , Texas ; † May 8, 2016 there ) was an American philosopher , Catholic theologian , psychologist and author . He devoted himself to the therapeutic and personality development work with the inner child and published numerous books and television programs.

Life

Bradshaw grew up in a Catholic family in Houston. He had a difficult childhood because his father was addicted to alcohol. He attended a Catholic school. Already in puberty he became addicted to alcohol himself.

At the University of Toronto , he studied from 1955 to 1958 Catholic theology and completed the BA magna cum laude from. The STB (Bachelor of Sacred Theology) and the MA in Philosophy followed from 1960 to 1963 . He became an ordained priest by the nickname Father John, but only practiced his priesthood for three years because he saw this career path as a failure. In his - also autobiographical - book The Child in Us he reports that he became a priest because he had not found his meaning in life and wanted to reverse the excessive living out of sexuality and alcohol consumption. He married Nancy Swanberg in 1969, had been married to her for twenty years and was the father of his son John Elliott Bradshaw Jr. In 2003 he married his second wife, Karen Ann Mabrey, with whom he had a daughter.

In 1997 he received his Masters in Spiritual Psychology from the University of California , Santa Monica .

job

From 1969 to 1972 he worked as a graduate in psychology and religion at the university. He was on the board of directors of the Palmer Drug Abuse Program from 1981 to 1988 and was its president in Los Angeles . He worked as a psychotherapist and management consultant (including for the Drug Abuse Program and for a time for the American oil industry). Today, John Bradshaw is one of the most famous figures in the field of family therapy .

Content-related statements

John Bradshaw developed significantly, the concept of the inner child (inner child) and coined the term dysfunctional family (dysfunctional family) in the public debate.

The Inner Child describes and symbolizes the feelings , memories and experiences from one's own childhood stored in the brain . This includes the whole spectrum of intense feelings, such as irrepressible joy , deep pain , happiness and sadness , intuition and curiosity , feelings of abandonment , fear or anger . The inner child encompasses everything within the realm of being, feeling and experiencing that can be assigned to specific brain areas. The concept of the "inner child" and the reconciliation and handling of this has become part of many common psychotherapeutic methods today.

An important prerequisite for being able to integrate feelings well into an adult and self-determined self is to be able to feel these feelings at all. John Bradshaw writes: "You can only heal what you feel." That is why he works a lot with meditations and other methods that can open access to the often closed world of emotions. In his books, Bradshaw unorthodoxly uses a number of exercises and methods, including a. from gestalt therapy and voice dialogue .

For Bradshaw, shame is a key concept associated with many dysfunctional feelings that, taken together , can lead to personality disorders. He uses the term for internalized feelings and assumptions that mostly come from the family history of the person concerned. In Healing the Shame That Binds You (German: When shame makes you sick) he distinguishes "healthy", that is, helpful, from the destructive "sick" shame. Experiences in the development period can trigger negative formative shame, which in the form of z. B. Substitute feelings (I am adjusted, although I actually feel anger) can hide our lives.

John Bradshaw assumes that many material and non-material addictions and dependencies result from emotional harm to the addict in childhood through to puberty. He promotes the principles of the twelve-step program in addiction diseases , as it u. a. Used by Alcoholics Anonymous .

Awards

  • John MacDonald Scholarship in Philosophy
  • Cardinal Mercier Gold Medal in Philosophy
  • Trustees' Gold Medal for Academic Excellence

Publications

Five of Bradshaw's books were on the New York Times bestseller list . Bradshaw wrote the script and produced five television shows entitled Bradshaw On: … Family ; … Inner Child etc. for the US public national television, PBS , based on his bestsellers.

  • Family secrets. Why is it worth tracking them down? Koesel, Munich 1997.
  • When shame makes you sick. Understanding and overcoming feelings of shame. Droemer Knaur MenSana, Munich 1993. (Techniques to free yourself from old feelings of shame through affirmations, visualizations, meditations etc.)
  • The child in us. How do I find myself. Droemer Knaur, Munich 1992. ISBN 3-426-87051-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Self-Help Icon John Bradshaw Dies At 82
  2. ↑ John Bradshaw: The Child Within Us. How do I find myself. 1994. Knaur MenSana. ISBN 3-426-87051-7
  3. ^ Obituary in the Houston Chronicle, May 10, 2016 , accessed December 21, 2018
  4. ↑ John Bradschaw: When shame makes you sick: Understanding and overcoming feelings of shame
personal data
SURNAME Bradshaw, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bradshaw, John Elliot (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American philosopher, theologian, psychologist, and author
DATE OF BIRTH June 29, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Houston , Texas , United States
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 2016
Place of death Houston , Texas , United States