Getting It: The psychology of est
Encyclopedia
Getting It: The Psychology of est is a non-fiction
book by American psychologist
Sheridan Fenwick, first published in 1976, analyzing Werner Erhard
's Erhard Seminars Training
or est. It is based on Fenwick's own experience of attending a four-day session of the est training, an intensive 60-hour personal development
course in the self-help
genre. Large groups of up to 250 people took the est training at one time.
In the first section of Fenwick's book, she recounts the est training process and the methods used during the course. Fenwick details the rules or "agreements" laid out by the trainers to the attendees, which include not talking to others or leaving the session to go to the bathroom unless during an announced break period. The second section is analytic: Fenwick analyzes the methods used by the est trainers, evaluates the course's potential effects, and discusses Erhard's background. Fenwick concludes that the program's long-term effects are unknown, and that the est training could harm certain groups of people.
Writing in Library Journal
, psychiatrist
James Charney describes the book as "the only useful critical look" at the training. Zane Berzins of The New York Times Book Review
characterizes the book as a "calm and professionally informed view". Hearings held in 1979 before the United States House of Representatives
on a juvenile delinquents
program depicted in Scared Straight!
cited the book for background on the est training, as did psychologist Gidi Rubinstein in a 2005 study of the Landmark Forum
published in the academic journal
Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice.
(born John Paul Rosenberg), a California-based former salesman, training manager and executive in the encyclopedia business, created the Erhard Seminars Training
(est) course in 1971. est was a form of Large Group Awareness Training
, and was part of the Human Potential Movement
. est was a four-day, 60-hour self-help program given to groups of 250 people at a time. The program was very intensive: each day would contain 15–20 hours of instruction. During the training, est personnel utilized jargon to convey key concepts, and participants had to agree to certain rules which remained in effect for the duration of the course. Participants were taught that they were responsible for their life outcomes, and were promised a dramatic change in their self-perception.
Est was controversial: critics characterized the training methods as brainwashing, and suggested that the program had fascistic
and narcissistic
tendencies. Proponents asserted that it had a profoundly positive impact on people's lives. A year after Getting It was published, over 100,000 people completed the est training, including public figures and mental health professionals. In 1985, Werner Erhard and Associates
repackaged the course as "The Forum", a seminar focused on "goal-oriented breakthroughs". By 1988, approximately one million people had taken some form of the trainings. In the early 1990s Erhard faced family problems, as well as tax problems that were eventually resolved in his favor. A group of his associates formed the company Landmark Education
in 1991, purchasing The Forum's course "technology" from Erhard.
degree from Goucher College
and received a doctorate in psychopathology
and social psychology
from Cornell University
. Her Ph.D.
dissertation was published in 1975. Fenwick served as the director of social policy in the Department of City Planning of Chicago, Illinois, as assistant attending psychologist at Montefiore Medical Center
, and as a faculty member of Columbia University
's department of psychology.
Fenwick writes that although she had been trained as a clinical psychologist
, she avoided "consciousness" movements and never participated in transactional analysis
or similar therapies, including Transcendental Meditation
, Esalen, Arica
, gestalt therapy
and Mind Dynamics
. When she met with graduates of the est training and heard their testimonials and observed their level of self-confidence, she considered taking the training.
After some preliminary research, Fenwick decided to take the training as a participant rather than as a professional observer. She paid the $
250.00 course fee and enrolled in a four-day est program to examine its methods and its appeal. She reports that the training was an "extraordinary experience", but that she had "serious concerns about the implications of the est phenomenon", and that people should know more about it. The book was first published September 16, 1976, by J. B. Lippincott Company
. A second edition was published by Penguin Books
in 1977. Fenwick went on to work as director of the Behavioral Medicine Clinic at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, before retiring in 1993 to set up Psybar, an online service to provide psychological experts for court cases.
In the latter portion of the book Fenwick discusses comparisons of the est training to brainwashing and psychotherapy
, potential harmful effects of the course, and the extent that positive benefit from the course may be attributed to a self-fulfilling prophecy
. Fenwick sees est as a form of psychotherapy that utilizes "in" therapies, and questions its suitability for certain individuals. Fenwick writes that the est training draws influences from Synanon
, gestalt therapy
, encounter groups, and Scientology
. She discusses the potential positive and negative psychological effects that can occur subsequent to taking the est training. She analyzes the rules of the training, and the behavioral tools used by the trainers, and points out that the est personnel are not qualified to assess psychopathology
. Fenwick asserts that tactics including sensory deprivation
and the large group setting of 250 people at a time help to make the training "work". She describes this as a "compression chamber effect", and asserts that it leads to the "hysterical confessions and the euphoric testimonials" she observed in the course.
Fenwick also questions Erhard's background, including his previous history as Jack Rosenberg and Jack Frost. Fenwick cites the secrecy of the est organization as an impediment to meaningful study, and states that the studies cited by est itself are inadequate and inconclusive. Although Fenwick falls short of characterizing the training as "brainwashing", she writes that she is disturbed by the lack of "sophisticated research designs" that could properly determine long-term benefit or harm caused by the course, and notes: "est uses techniques indiscriminately which, in a certain proportion of the population, are known to be harmful and potentially quite dangerous". She concludes that it is difficult to determine whether est "produces any more than a superficial catharsis, or whether it might be harmful to certain people", and states that the long-range effects of the training are unknown.
James Charney, in a 1976 review for Library Journal
. Charney calls the book "the only useful critical look at this essential issue", referring to the est training. He notes in particular that Fenwick's "analysis of the function of the group, the restrictive rules, and the enforced discomfort is convincing". In a 1977 review in Library Journal Edith Crockett and Ellis Mount highly recommended the book, commenting that "A plethora of newspaper and magazine reports, along with books written by graduates ... have attempted to explain the phenomenon of this self-help program, but none has done it as well or as objectively as this writer." Kirkus Reviews
noted the precedent set by the analytical nature of the book, writing "Finally. Here's someone who is willing to disclose the details of Erhard Seminars Training, and then go on to analyze them from a psychological point of view." Zane Berzins, writing for The New York Times Book Review
in 1977, describes Fenwick's work as a "calm and professionally informed view". Berzins describes the book as a "brave attempt" at an analysis of est's appeal, and concludes that "It's hardly an incendiary exposé, but Fenwick's open-minded scrutiny should deglamourize the est movement."
William McGurk reviewed the book in Contemporary Psychology. Although McGurk praises the book's description of the est seminars, noting that it "present[s] a clear picture of the process", he also criticizes Fenwick's subsequent analysis, saying she "sounds like a different person" than in the first section. McGurk writes that "It's as though she put on her psychoanalytically oriented, professional hat and ran a tape that was far from being effective." A review in Publishers Weekly
states that Fenwick's "inbred detachment may have kept her from the full impact of the 'experience' the training was meant to be (and is for many)". Even so, the review notes that Fenwick "scores heavily" in the section where she questions the nature of the est training and Erhard's background; it recommends that Getting It be read alongside Luke Rhinehart's The Book of est
.
The book is recommended by James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton
's 1992 book Perspectives on the New Age, where they describe it as "a thorough discussion of est training methods and the psychology behind them". Other works that cite the book for background on est include Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change
, by Flo Conway
and Jim Siegelman
; and Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training
, a study commissioned by Erhard's successor company to est, Werner Erhard and Associates
.
Fenwick's work was cited in 1979 hearings before the United States House of Representatives
on a controversial program for juvenile delinquents
, which was depicted in the Academy Award-winning
documentary film
Scared Straight!
. Getting It is cited in background discussion of the est training: "Fenwick has pointed out that sophisticated assessment of individual psychopathology is beyond the competence and training of the est personnel; it is also outside the est value system, since the training is held to be almost universally beneficial." Psychologist Gidi Rubinstein cites the book as a reference in a 2005 study of the Landmark Forum
, a course descended from the est training, which he presented in the academic journal
Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice.
Non-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
book by American psychologist
Psychologist
Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
Sheridan Fenwick, first published in 1976, analyzing Werner Erhard
Werner Erhard
Werner Hans Erhard is an author of transformational models and applications for individuals, groups, and organizations...
's Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training, an organization founded by Werner H. Erhard, offered a two-weekend course known officially as "The est Standard Training"...
or est. It is based on Fenwick's own experience of attending a four-day session of the est training, an intensive 60-hour personal development
Personal development
Personal development includes activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitates employability, enhance quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations...
course in the self-help
Self-help
Self-help, or self-improvement, is a self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. There are many different self-help movements and each has its own focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases, leaders...
genre. Large groups of up to 250 people took the est training at one time.
In the first section of Fenwick's book, she recounts the est training process and the methods used during the course. Fenwick details the rules or "agreements" laid out by the trainers to the attendees, which include not talking to others or leaving the session to go to the bathroom unless during an announced break period. The second section is analytic: Fenwick analyzes the methods used by the est trainers, evaluates the course's potential effects, and discusses Erhard's background. Fenwick concludes that the program's long-term effects are unknown, and that the est training could harm certain groups of people.
Writing in Library Journal
Library Journal
Library Journal is a trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey . It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional practice...
, psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
James Charney describes the book as "the only useful critical look" at the training. Zane Berzins of The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
characterizes the book as a "calm and professionally informed view". Hearings held in 1979 before the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
on a juvenile delinquents
Juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency is participation in illegal behavior by minors who fall under a statutory age limit. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not...
program depicted in Scared Straight!
Scared Straight!
Scared Straight! is a 1978 documentary directed by Arnold Shapiro. Narrated by Peter Falk, the subject of the documentary is a group of juvenile delinquents and their three-hour session with actual convicts...
cited the book for background on the est training, as did psychologist Gidi Rubinstein in a 2005 study of the Landmark Forum
Landmark Education
Landmark Education LLC is a personal training and development company which offers educational programs in approximately 115 locations in more than 20 countries worldwide....
published in the academic journal
Academic journal
An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice.
Background
Werner ErhardWerner Erhard
Werner Hans Erhard is an author of transformational models and applications for individuals, groups, and organizations...
(born John Paul Rosenberg), a California-based former salesman, training manager and executive in the encyclopedia business, created the Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training, an organization founded by Werner H. Erhard, offered a two-weekend course known officially as "The est Standard Training"...
(est) course in 1971. est was a form of Large Group Awareness Training
Large Group Awareness Training
Large-group awareness training refers to activities usually offered by groups linked with the human potential movement which claim to increase self-awareness and bring about desirable transformations in individuals' personal lives...
, and was part of the Human Potential Movement
Human Potential Movement
The Human Potential Movement arose out of the social and intellectual milieu of the 1960s and formed around the concept of cultivating extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people...
. est was a four-day, 60-hour self-help program given to groups of 250 people at a time. The program was very intensive: each day would contain 15–20 hours of instruction. During the training, est personnel utilized jargon to convey key concepts, and participants had to agree to certain rules which remained in effect for the duration of the course. Participants were taught that they were responsible for their life outcomes, and were promised a dramatic change in their self-perception.
Est was controversial: critics characterized the training methods as brainwashing, and suggested that the program had fascistic
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and narcissistic
Narcissism
Narcissism is a term with a wide range of meanings, depending on whether it is used to describe a central concept of psychoanalytic theory, a mental illness, a social or cultural problem, or simply a personality trait...
tendencies. Proponents asserted that it had a profoundly positive impact on people's lives. A year after Getting It was published, over 100,000 people completed the est training, including public figures and mental health professionals. In 1985, Werner Erhard and Associates
Werner Erhard and Associates
Werner Erhard and Associates, also known as WE&A or as WEA, operated as a commercial entity from February 1981 until early 1991. It replaced Erhard Seminars Training, Inc. as the vehicle for marketing, selling and imparting the content of the est training, and offered what some people refer to as...
repackaged the course as "The Forum", a seminar focused on "goal-oriented breakthroughs". By 1988, approximately one million people had taken some form of the trainings. In the early 1990s Erhard faced family problems, as well as tax problems that were eventually resolved in his favor. A group of his associates formed the company Landmark Education
Landmark Education
Landmark Education LLC is a personal training and development company which offers educational programs in approximately 115 locations in more than 20 countries worldwide....
in 1991, purchasing The Forum's course "technology" from Erhard.
Author
Sheridan Fenwick, in her early thirties when Getting It was published, had graduated with a Bachelor of ArtsBachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree from Goucher College
Goucher College
Goucher College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts college located in the northern Baltimore suburb of Towson in unincorporated Baltimore County, Maryland, on a 287 acre campus. The school has approximately 1,475 undergraduate students studying in 31 majors and six interdisciplinary...
and received a doctorate in psychopathology
Psychopathology
Psychopathology is the study of mental illness, mental distress, and abnormal/maladaptive behavior. The term is most commonly used within psychiatry where pathology refers to disease processes...
and social psychology
Social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all...
from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
. Her Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
dissertation was published in 1975. Fenwick served as the director of social policy in the Department of City Planning of Chicago, Illinois, as assistant attending psychologist at Montefiore Medical Center
Montefiore Medical Center
Montefiore Medical Center, in the Bronx, New York, is the University Hospital for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. The hospital, named for Moses Montefiore, is one of the 50 largest employers in New York State . In 2011, Montefiore Medical Center was ranked as #6 of the 180 New York City...
, and as a faculty member of Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
's department of psychology.
Fenwick writes that although she had been trained as a clinical psychologist
Clinical psychology
Clinical psychology is an integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development...
, she avoided "consciousness" movements and never participated in transactional analysis
Transactional analysis
Transactional analysis, commonly known as TA to its adherents, is an integrative approach to the theory of psychology and psychotherapy. It is described as integrative because it has elements of psychoanalytic, humanist and cognitive approaches...
or similar therapies, including Transcendental Meditation
Transcendental Meditation
Transcendental Meditation refers to the Transcendental Meditation technique, a specific form of mantra meditation, and to the Transcendental Meditation movement, a spiritual movement...
, Esalen, Arica
Arica School
The Arica School, also known as the Arica Institute or simply as Arica, is a human potential movement group founded in 1968 by Bolivian-born philosopher Oscar Ichazo ....
, gestalt therapy
Gestalt therapy
Gestalt therapy is an existential/experiential form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility, and that focuses upon the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist-client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, and the self-regulating...
and Mind Dynamics
Mind Dynamics
Mind Dynamics was a seminar company, founded by Alexander Everett in Texas in 1968. Mind Dynamics later led to two other companies, est and Lifespring....
. When she met with graduates of the est training and heard their testimonials and observed their level of self-confidence, she considered taking the training.
After some preliminary research, Fenwick decided to take the training as a participant rather than as a professional observer. She paid the $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
250.00 course fee and enrolled in a four-day est program to examine its methods and its appeal. She reports that the training was an "extraordinary experience", but that she had "serious concerns about the implications of the est phenomenon", and that people should know more about it. The book was first published September 16, 1976, by J. B. Lippincott Company
J. B. Lippincott Company
J. B. Lippincott & Co. was an American publishing house founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1836 by Joshua Ballinger Lippincott.Formed by descendants of the Religious Society of Friends, Joshua Lippincott's company began selling a line of Bibles, prayer books and other religious works before...
. A second edition was published by Penguin Books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
in 1977. Fenwick went on to work as director of the Behavioral Medicine Clinic at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, before retiring in 1993 to set up Psybar, an online service to provide psychological experts for court cases.
Contents
The book is divided into two sections. The first section describes Fenwick's own experiences of the training; the second analyzes the est program's methodology and effects. In her description of the course, Fenwick highlights the program rules, referred to by the trainers as "agreements", which include not going to the bathroom, eating, smoking, or talking during the sessions, and analyzes jargon used by course instructors.In the latter portion of the book Fenwick discusses comparisons of the est training to brainwashing and psychotherapy
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...
, potential harmful effects of the course, and the extent that positive benefit from the course may be attributed to a self-fulfilling prophecy
Self-fulfilling prophecy
A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior. Although examples of such prophecies can be found in literature as far back as ancient Greece and...
. Fenwick sees est as a form of psychotherapy that utilizes "in" therapies, and questions its suitability for certain individuals. Fenwick writes that the est training draws influences from Synanon
Synanon
The Synanon organization, initially a drug rehabilitation program, was founded by Charles E. "Chuck" Dederich, Sr., in 1958, in Santa Monica, California, United States...
, gestalt therapy
Gestalt therapy
Gestalt therapy is an existential/experiential form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility, and that focuses upon the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist-client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, and the self-regulating...
, encounter groups, and Scientology
Scientology
Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...
. She discusses the potential positive and negative psychological effects that can occur subsequent to taking the est training. She analyzes the rules of the training, and the behavioral tools used by the trainers, and points out that the est personnel are not qualified to assess psychopathology
Psychopathology
Psychopathology is the study of mental illness, mental distress, and abnormal/maladaptive behavior. The term is most commonly used within psychiatry where pathology refers to disease processes...
. Fenwick asserts that tactics including sensory deprivation
Sensory deprivation
Sensory deprivation or perceptual isolation is the deliberate reduction or removal of stimuli from one or more of the senses. Simple devices such as blindfolds or hoods and earmuffs can cut off sight and hearing respectively, while more complex devices can also cut off the sense of smell, touch,...
and the large group setting of 250 people at a time help to make the training "work". She describes this as a "compression chamber effect", and asserts that it leads to the "hysterical confessions and the euphoric testimonials" she observed in the course.
Fenwick also questions Erhard's background, including his previous history as Jack Rosenberg and Jack Frost. Fenwick cites the secrecy of the est organization as an impediment to meaningful study, and states that the studies cited by est itself are inadequate and inconclusive. Although Fenwick falls short of characterizing the training as "brainwashing", she writes that she is disturbed by the lack of "sophisticated research designs" that could properly determine long-term benefit or harm caused by the course, and notes: "est uses techniques indiscriminately which, in a certain proportion of the population, are known to be harmful and potentially quite dangerous". She concludes that it is difficult to determine whether est "produces any more than a superficial catharsis, or whether it might be harmful to certain people", and states that the long-range effects of the training are unknown.
Reception
Getting It received mixed, but generally positive, reviews. One positive evaluation came from psychiatristPsychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
James Charney, in a 1976 review for Library Journal
Library Journal
Library Journal is a trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey . It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional practice...
. Charney calls the book "the only useful critical look at this essential issue", referring to the est training. He notes in particular that Fenwick's "analysis of the function of the group, the restrictive rules, and the enforced discomfort is convincing". In a 1977 review in Library Journal Edith Crockett and Ellis Mount highly recommended the book, commenting that "A plethora of newspaper and magazine reports, along with books written by graduates ... have attempted to explain the phenomenon of this self-help program, but none has done it as well or as objectively as this writer." Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus . Kirkus serves the book and literary trade sector, including libraries, publishers, literary and film agents, film and TV producers and booksellers. Kirkus Reviews is published on the first and 15th of each month...
noted the precedent set by the analytical nature of the book, writing "Finally. Here's someone who is willing to disclose the details of Erhard Seminars Training, and then go on to analyze them from a psychological point of view." Zane Berzins, writing for The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
in 1977, describes Fenwick's work as a "calm and professionally informed view". Berzins describes the book as a "brave attempt" at an analysis of est's appeal, and concludes that "It's hardly an incendiary exposé, but Fenwick's open-minded scrutiny should deglamourize the est movement."
William McGurk reviewed the book in Contemporary Psychology. Although McGurk praises the book's description of the est seminars, noting that it "present[s] a clear picture of the process", he also criticizes Fenwick's subsequent analysis, saying she "sounds like a different person" than in the first section. McGurk writes that "It's as though she put on her psychoanalytically oriented, professional hat and ran a tape that was far from being effective." A review in Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
states that Fenwick's "inbred detachment may have kept her from the full impact of the 'experience' the training was meant to be (and is for many)". Even so, the review notes that Fenwick "scores heavily" in the section where she questions the nature of the est training and Erhard's background; it recommends that Getting It be read alongside Luke Rhinehart's The Book of est
The Book of est
The Book of est is a fictional book about Werner Erhard's Erhard Seminars Training , first published in 1976 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. The book was written by est graduate Luke Rhinehart. Rhinehart is the pen name of writer George Cockroft. The book was endorsed by Erhard, and includes a...
.
The book is recommended by James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton
J. Gordon Melton
John Gordon Melton is an American religious scholar who was the founding director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion and is currently a research specialist in religion and New Religious Movements with the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara...
's 1992 book Perspectives on the New Age, where they describe it as "a thorough discussion of est training methods and the psychology behind them". Other works that cite the book for background on est include Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change
Snapping
Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change is a 1978 anti-cult book which describes the authors' theory of religious conversion, called snapping in terms of mind control, is a mental process through which, the authors argue, a person is recruited by a cult or other religious...
, by Flo Conway
Flo Conway
Florence D. Conway is a social activist and former journalist for the Saturday Evening Post.Following the Jonestown deaths of 1978, Dr. Conway testified on February 5, 1979 regarding "The Cult Phenomenon in the United States" along with Jim Siegelman at joint House-U.S. Senate hearings on cult...
and Jim Siegelman
Jim Siegelman
Jim Siegelman is the author of several books about the rise of what he terms cults in America.Along with Flo Conway, he testified at joint House-U.S. Senate hearings on "cult practices" and also received the Leo J...
; and Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training
Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training
Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training: A Longitudinal Study of Psychosocial Effects is a non-fiction psychology book on Large Group Awareness Training, published in 1990 by Springer-Verlag. The book was co-authored by psychologists Jeffrey D. Fisher, Roxane Cohen Silver, Jack M. Chinsky,...
, a study commissioned by Erhard's successor company to est, Werner Erhard and Associates
Werner Erhard and Associates
Werner Erhard and Associates, also known as WE&A or as WEA, operated as a commercial entity from February 1981 until early 1991. It replaced Erhard Seminars Training, Inc. as the vehicle for marketing, selling and imparting the content of the est training, and offered what some people refer to as...
.
Fenwick's work was cited in 1979 hearings before the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
on a controversial program for juvenile delinquents
Juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency is participation in illegal behavior by minors who fall under a statutory age limit. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not...
, which was depicted in the Academy Award-winning
Academy Award for Documentary Feature
The Academy Award for Documentary Feature is among the most prestigious awards for documentary films.- Winners and nominees:Following the Academy's practice, films are listed below by the award year...
documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
Scared Straight!
Scared Straight!
Scared Straight! is a 1978 documentary directed by Arnold Shapiro. Narrated by Peter Falk, the subject of the documentary is a group of juvenile delinquents and their three-hour session with actual convicts...
. Getting It is cited in background discussion of the est training: "Fenwick has pointed out that sophisticated assessment of individual psychopathology is beyond the competence and training of the est personnel; it is also outside the est value system, since the training is held to be almost universally beneficial." Psychologist Gidi Rubinstein cites the book as a reference in a 2005 study of the Landmark Forum
Landmark Education
Landmark Education LLC is a personal training and development company which offers educational programs in approximately 115 locations in more than 20 countries worldwide....
, a course descended from the est training, which he presented in the academic journal
Academic journal
An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice.