Preeti, Calista, Chris and all -
Thanks for all the interest in my paper. It has been completed and
accepted by my Committee and the Saybrook faculty. My next step was to
send copies to Bert Hellinger, Hunter Beaumont, Gunthard Weber and
Albrecht Mahr seeking their input. Bert wrote back immediately with a
couple of important corrections and some new information.
I will be collecting comments from the others and making the necessary
changes. I am eager to share my work and somewhat cautious about how I
go about distribution. My biggest concern is that my work does not
contain inaccuracies or errors that risk turning into urban legends
about Bert. A secondary concern is that I would like to publish the
paper. In the short-term I do not want to compromise my chances by
making my paper a public document prematurely.
If anyone here knows of editors that might be receptive to publishing a
version of the paper please let me know.
In the meanwhile, here is the Abstract.
Dan
Abstract
BERT HELLINGER'S FAMILY CONSTELLATION METHOD
AND ITS PLACE IN THE PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC TRADITION
Daniel Booth Cohen
Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center
The German psychotherapist Bert Hellinger (b. 1925) is among the most
well-known, influential and controversial practitioners living in Europe
(Stiefel, Harris and Zollman, 2002). A former German army soldier,
Catholic priest, and classically-trained psychoanalyst, Hellinger
distilled European existential phenomenology (Brentano, Husserl,
Binswanger, Heidegger), American family systems theory (Moreno,
Boszormenyi-Nagy, Satir) and the devotion of African Zulus for their
ancestors into a powerful single-session intervention that fits within
the tradition of what Taylor (1999, 2000, 2003) calls an
existential-humanistic and transpersonally-oriented depth psychology.
Despite having published more than 30 books with combined sales of one
million copies in at least ten languages, Hellinger's work is virtually
unknown in the United States. Because his contributions are not
documented in peer-reviewed journals, Americans working in the field of
family therapy are generally unaware of his work.
This paper serves as a broad introduction to Hellinger and his Family
Constellation method. The first section includes a biography, covering
his upbringing in Nazi Germany, renunciation of the secular life, years
as a Roman Catholic priest living and teaching among the South African
Zulus, training as a psychotherapist, and emergence as best-selling
author. The second section outlines major influences and lineages that
fed his development, specifically, philosophic and therapeutic
phenomenology, Zulu ancestor worship, and family systems therapy. A
description of the Family Constellation method itself is presented,
including a single case study. Hellinger's work is then located within
the three streams of American psychology proposed by Taylor's
model--academic, clinical and experiential depth psychology, suggesting
that he fits best within the third stream.
Finally, the paper suggests that because his methods of treatment have
not yet been confirmed according to the criteria set by the
reductionistic, positivist mainstream, they are not sanctioned either by
experimental or clinical psychologists. Thus it is, that a man who has
ignited a revolution in therapeutic practice in Europe, does not exist
within the official borders of American psychology.
