Talk:Alexander Lowen

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Alexander Lowen is quite so essential than Freud . Littlejazzman from France Hello folks ! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Littlejazzman (talk • contribs) 03:34, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

I have just come across important and comprehensive article in The USA Body Psychoterhapy Journal (vol 1 no 1 2002). The article is the final one, by Barbara Goodrich-Dunn and Elliot Greene entitled “Voices: A History of Body Psychotherapy”. Perhaps a knowledgeable editor may wish to mention it here or elsewhere. It is a short but helpful resumé:

https://ibpj.org/issues/archive/Vol1No1%20USABP%20Journal%202002.pdf#page=21 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.189.253.176 (talk) 05:39, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

Notability - yes, unfortunately they are notable

My personal view, for the record, is that bioenergetic analysis is utter bunkum. However, bioenergetic analysis is a significant branch of body psychotherapy and was developed by Alexander Lowen and John Pierrakos. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the work itself it's unlikely you will find much solid scientific literature around the matter. In fact, grounding is one of the more ridiculous theories that in almost 40 years has never been given much serious research by the medical establishment, mainly I would posit because it is indeed so ridiculous.

My contempt for their work, however, doesn't mean that the work itself is not notable or that the founders of this work aren't notable in their sphere. They are indeed quite notable for those who believe in the bioenergetic analysis and core energetics, which in my view sadly is followed and practiced by quite a lot of rather over-credulous people.

I believe that we should probably have articles on these people so that at the very least when someone goes to search for information on this topic they have a neutral and factual basis for evaluating the body of work produced by these two. - Letsbefiends (talk) 06:51, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

I have no personal opinion on the subject matter at the moment. My only concern is the quality of the article and it's lack of representative sources. If sufficient sources of reasonable quality cannot be found to establish notability, then the article should probably be nominated for deletion. You believe they are notable, could you provide sources that would help the article meet WP:GNG? Chrisw80 (talk) 06:57, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

Totally fair. I think the first source is to look at the following from Google Books on The Body in Psychotherapy which is published by the niche academic publisher McFarland & Company and which is authored by Edward W. L. Smith (LinkedIn profile) who has a Ph.D in Experimental and Clinical Psychology from the University of Kentucky, is an Elected Fellow of the American Psychological Association and was previously the founding Director of Clinical Training for the Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) program at Georgia Southern University. Sorry for the credentialism, but I thought it might be important to note that he's not a lightweight (no matter what my attitude is towards pyschotherapy in general, I still acknowledge he is an expert in his field) and to show that he's a fairly reliable source.

The other source that I believe shows the notability of both Pierrakos and Lowen is Theories of psychotherapy and counseling: concepts and cases which is authored by Richard S. Sharf and published by Brooks/Cole who are also academic publishers who I believe were acquired by Cengage Learning. Page 594 of the 5th edition has a whole section where the concept of bioenergetic analysis is specifically covered and the fact that both these men were the founding practitioners who developed the theory. Sharf holds a Ph.D. from the University of Delaware, was previously an Associate Professor in the university's Departments of Individual and Family Studies, as well as a practicing Psychology and Senior Psychologist in their Center for Counseling and Student Development (see article where the University dedicated a library to him and Jack Townsend and also this 2005 article where it states that "According to John Bishop, associate vice president for counseling and student development, Sharf has had an impact on hundreds of UD students and trainees, and his textbooks, Theories of Psychotherapy and Counseling: Concepts and Cases and Applying Career Development Theory to Counseling, are bestsellers in the area of college student career development.").

There are a lot of articles that reference both of them in published works, some more reliable than others... these were compiled on Draft talk:John Pierrakos by Harvest316:

• Andrew Neher (1980), Paranormal and Transcendental Experience: A Psychological Examination, Courier Corporation, ISBN 978-0-486-26167-6
• Robert Marrone (9 August 1990), Body of Knowledge: An Introduction to Body/Mind Psychology, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-0388-4
• Stephen M. Johnson (30 May 1991), The Symbiotic Character, W W NORTON & Company, ISBN 978-0-393-70584-3
• John Ruskan (1993), Emotional Clearing: The Handbook of Integrative Processing, R. Wyler, ISBN 978-0-9629295-0-2
• David Jones (January 1994), Innovative therapy: a handbook, Open University Press, ISBN 978-0-335-19140-6
• Filling Your Cup: The Wellspring of Love, Australian Institute of Core Energetics, 1997, ISBN 978-0-947266-24-0
• Morton Herskowitz (1997), Emotional Armoring: An Introduction to Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, LIT Verlag Münster, ISBN 978-3-8258-3555-2
• Nancy Allison (1999), The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Body-mind Disciplines, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-0-8239-2546-9
• Michael H. Cohen (2000), Beyond Complementary Medicine: Legal and Ethical Perspectives on Health Care and Human Evolution, University of Michigan Press, p. 185, ISBN 0-472-11135-3
• Robert Kirby; Tanya Kirby (2003), Love & Sensuality in Relationship, Watson Bay: Books & Writers Network, ISBN 1-74018-286-3
• Daria Halprin (2003), The Expressive Body in Life, Art, and Therapy: Working with Movement, Metaphor, and Meaning, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, ISBN 978-1-84310-737-8
• Alan Steinfeld (1 January 2003), Careers in Alternative Medicine, The Rosen Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-8239-3754-7
• Totton, Nick (1 March 2003), Body Psychotherapy, McGraw-Hill Education (UK), ISBN 978-0-335-22811-9
• Elliot Greene; Barbara Goodrich-Dunn (2004), The Psychology of the Body, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, ISBN 978-0-7817-3782-1
• Stuart Black (7 October 2004), A Way of Life: Core Energetics, iUniverse, ISBN 978-0-595-77685-6
• Ramiel Nagel (November 2008), Healing Our Children: Because Your New Baby Matters! Sacred Wisdom for Preconception, Pregnancy, Birth and Parenting (0-6), Rami Nagel, ISBN 978-0-9820213-1-6
• Jeff Brown (15 June 2010), Soulshaping: A Journey of Self-Creation, North Atlantic Books, ISBN 978-1-55643-950-6
• Barnaby Barratt (15 June 2010), The Emergence of Somatic Psychology and Bodymind Therapy, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-230-22216-8
• Be Your Own Shaman, Hay House, Inc, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4019-3080-6
• Barbara Brennan (23 March 2011), Hands of Light: A Guide to Healing Through the Human Energy Field, Random House Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-307-78941-9
• Noah Karrasch; C. Norman Shealy (15 January 2012), Freeing Emotions and Energy Through Myofascial Release, Singing Dragon, ISBN 978-0-85701-065-0
• Von Braschler (22 February 2012), Seven Secrets of Time Travel: Mystic Voyages of the Energy Body, Inner Traditions / Bear & Co, ISBN 978-1-59477-695-3
• Jasenn Zaejian (10 July 2012), Healing Personal Psychology, eBookIt.com, ISBN 978-0-9830660-1-9
• Ilia Shinko Perez; Gerry Shishin Wick (8 February 2013), The Great Heart Way: How To Heal Your Life and Find Self-Fulfillment, Wisdom Publications, ISBN 978-0-86171-865-8
• Martin Duberman (7 May 2013), The Martin Duberman Reader: The Essential Historical, Biographical, and Autobiographical Writings, New Press, ISBN 978-1-59558-890-6
• Eva Pierrakos (19 June 2013), The Pathwork of Self-Transformation, Random House Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-307-83047-0
• Harris L. Friedman; Glenn Hartelius (7 August 2013), The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-1-118-59131-4
• Barbara Jo Brothers (16 December 2013), Couples and Body Therapy, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-317-78821-8
• Asaf Rolef Ben-Shahar (7 March 2014), Touching the Relational Edge: Body Psychotherapy, Karnac Books, ISBN 978-1-78181-344-7
• Marc S. Micozzi (20 November 2014), Fundamentals of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Elsevier Health Sciences, ISBN 978-0-323-29894-0
• Sharon G. Mijares (11 May 2015), Revelation of the Breath, The: A Tribute to Its Wisdom, Power, and Beauty, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-1-4384-2878-9
• Halko Weiss; Greg Johanson; Lorena Monda (25 May 2015), Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Guide to Theory and Practice, W. W. Norton, ISBN 978-0-393-71073-1

Whilst this probably won't sway anyone, I do note that there is an article about John Pierrakos and Alexander Lowen on the German Wikipedia. - Letsbefiends (talk) 07:56, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

@LetsBeFriends

I'd like to think that your opinion of Bioenergetics and Grounding in particular is based on personal direct experience, however your kind of knee-jerk opinion in Talk is too prevalent on this fine site, and should be rebutted at every opportunity.

I took part in Bioenergetic workshops extensively back in the 1980s and can report that it single-handledly turned my life around.

Grounding works at a deep psychological level and did more than anything else to make me feel more connected with the earth, it works at a subconscious level and kick-started a journey of self-discovery that continues to this day.

Speak not of which you do not know.

Feel free to come back at me with your 'Original research not allowed' bullshit, I really do not care.

Recidivist23 (talk)recidivist23 —Preceding undated comment added 15:57, 27 June 2016 (UTC)