In Memoriam
It is with a heavy heart that I report the passing of Gene Gendlin, the founding editor of Psychotherapy.
Gene was also a faculty member at the University of Chicago, a student and colleague of Carl Rogers as well as involved in some of the earliest research into psychotherapy process and outcomes during the 1950s.
A more detailed exploration of his many contributions to both psychology and philosophy are provided onlineopens in new window.
I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to speak with Gene several times on the phone when preparing material for the Psychotherapy 50th anniversary volume in 2013. Gene was very eager to contribute to that special event, despite being in his late 80s!
I thoroughly enjoyed our conversations as he reminisced about the spirit, mood and events around the field of psychotherapy during the early 1960s that eventually led to the creation of our journal. He spoke with great passion, focus and humor when doing so.
An abbreviated version of these conversations is published in the Editorial Retrospectives section of the December 2013 issue (Gendlin, 2013). I would encourage all of you to take a moment to read it. Not only to appreciate just how far we've come but also, like Gene and the many other pioneering men and women in our field did at that time, to imagine where we might be 50 years from now. And ask yourself, like they did, "What can I do to help move us there?
Gendlin, E., (2013). Recollections of how the journal Psychotherapy came to be. Psychotherapy, 50, 469–470