John Weakland
Encyclopedia
John H. Weakland was one of the founders of brief
and family psychotherapy. At the time of his death, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Mental Research Institute
(MRI) in Palo Alto, California
, Co-Director of the famous Brief Therapy Center at MRI, and a Clinical Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine .
He was a brilliant student who entered Cornell University
at the age of 16 and received a degree in chemical engineering
. He worked as a chemical engineer with the DuPont
Company before a chance encounter with Gregory Bateson
led him to pursue anthropology
at Columbia University
while working on the Cultures at a Distance Project with Margaret Mead
and Ruth Benedict
. John never obtained his doctorate from Columbia; rejecting his adviser's criticisms of his thesis, he refused to rewrite it.
At Bateson's invitation, John moved to California with his wife, Anna Wu Weakland to participate in research. John was the first person Bateson asked to join a research project that would become known as the Bateson Project
that helped to give birth to family therapy and co-authored the seminal paper, "Towards a Theory of Schizophrenia" John was also an early student and researcher of Milton Erickson.
Joining the Mental Research Institute
in the early 1960s, John was a founding member and Co-Director of MRI's Brief Therapy Center (along with Paul Watzlawick
and Dick Fisch). This center helped to inspire many of the more influential psychotherapy approaches in brief and family therapy. John mentored and befriended many therapists who would go on to make major contributions to the field.
. He wrote in a letter to the Family Therapy Networker that:
Brief therapy
Brief psychotherapy or Brief therapy is an umbrella term for a variety of approaches to psychotherapy. It differs from other schools of therapy in that it emphasises a focus on a specific problem and direct intervention...
and family psychotherapy. At the time of his death, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Mental Research Institute
Mental Research Institute
The Palo Alto Mental Research Institute is one of the founding institutions of brief and family therapy. Founded by Don D. Jackson and colleagues in 1959, MRI has been one of the leading sources of ideas in the area of interactional/systemic studies, psychotherapy, and family...
(MRI) in Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
, Co-Director of the famous Brief Therapy Center at MRI, and a Clinical Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine .
A brief biography
John was a native of Charleston, W.Va.Charleston, West Virginia
Charleston is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers in Kanawha County. As of the 2010 census, it has a population of 51,400, and its metropolitan area 304,214. It is the county seat of Kanawha County.Early...
He was a brilliant student who entered 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...
at the age of 16 and received a degree in chemical engineering
Chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with physical science , and life sciences with mathematics and economics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms...
. He worked as a chemical engineer with the DuPont
DuPont
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009...
Company before a chance encounter with Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. He had a natural ability to recognize order and pattern in the universe...
led him to pursue anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
at 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...
while working on the Cultures at a Distance Project with Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....
and Ruth Benedict
Ruth Benedict
Ruth Benedict was an American anthropologist, cultural relativist, and folklorist....
. John never obtained his doctorate from Columbia; rejecting his adviser's criticisms of his thesis, he refused to rewrite it.
At Bateson's invitation, John moved to California with his wife, Anna Wu Weakland to participate in research. John was the first person Bateson asked to join a research project that would become known as the Bateson Project
Bateson Project
The Bateson Project was the name given to a ground-breaking collaboration organized by Gregory Bateson beginning in 1953 which was responsible for some of the most important papers and innovations in communication and psychotherapy in the 1950s and early 1960s. Its members were Gregory Bateson,...
that helped to give birth to family therapy and co-authored the seminal paper, "Towards a Theory of Schizophrenia" John was also an early student and researcher of Milton Erickson.
Joining the Mental Research Institute
Mental Research Institute
The Palo Alto Mental Research Institute is one of the founding institutions of brief and family therapy. Founded by Don D. Jackson and colleagues in 1959, MRI has been one of the leading sources of ideas in the area of interactional/systemic studies, psychotherapy, and family...
in the early 1960s, John was a founding member and Co-Director of MRI's Brief Therapy Center (along with Paul Watzlawick
Paul Watzlawick
Paul Watzlawick was an Austrian-American psychologist and philosopher. A theoretician in communication theory and radical constructivism, he has commented in the fields of family therapy and general psychotherapy...
and Dick Fisch). This center helped to inspire many of the more influential psychotherapy approaches in brief and family therapy. John mentored and befriended many therapists who would go on to make major contributions to the field.
Quotations
John's final appeal to the field was published weeks before his death from ALSAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , also referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a form of motor neuron disease caused by the degeneration of upper and lower neurons, located in the ventral horn of the spinal cord and the cortical neurons that provide their efferent input...
. He wrote in a letter to the Family Therapy Networker that:
While not always easy, one of the strengths of the field from its earliest days has been constructive reflection and discussion of its diversity. The emphasis on having things "my way" and needing something new each year has distracted us from serious and useful dialogue about what aids people in distress and facilitates change.
When you have a problem, life is the same damn thing over and over. When you no longer have a problem, life is one damn thing after another.
Books
- Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution, with Paul Watzlawick and Richard Fisch (WW Norton, NY, 1974)
- The Tactics of Change: Doing Therapy Briefly, with Richard Fisch and Lynn Segal (Jossey Bass, SF, 1982)
- The Interactional View: Studies at the Mental Research Institute, Palo Alto, 1965-1974, edited with Paul Watzlawick (WW Norton, NY, 1979)
- Rigor and Imagination, Essays from the Legacy of Gregory Bateson, edited with Carol Wilder-Mott (Praeger, NY, 1981)
- Propagations: Thirty Years of Influence From the Mental Research Institute,edited with Wendel Ray (The Haworth Press, Inc., 1995)
External links
- http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE5D6143BF935A25754C0A963958260&scp=1&sq=john+f.+weakland&st=nyt New York Times Obituary
- http://www.mri.org The Official Website of the Mental Research Institute
- http://www.mri.org/dondjackson/toward.htm The front page of the historic article, Towards a Theory of Schizophrenia