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Sheridan Fenwick, thirty years old when the book was published,<ref>Chamberlin 1998</ref> graduated with a [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree from [[Goucher College]] and received a doctorate in [[psychopathology]] and [[social psychology]] from [[Cornell University]].<ref name="mcgurk459">McGurk 1977, p. 459</ref>
Sheridan Fenwick, thirty years old when the book was published,<ref>Chamberlin 1998</ref> graduated with a [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree from [[Goucher College]] and received a doctorate in [[psychopathology]] and [[social psychology]] from [[Cornell University]].<ref name="mcgurk459">McGurk 1977, p. 459</ref>


Fenwick writes that though she had been trained as a [[Clinical psychology|clinical psychologist]], she had avoided "consciousness" movements, and had never participated in [[transactional analysis]] or similar therapies.<ref name="fenwick14">Fenwick 1976, p. 14</ref> But when she met graduates of the ''est'' training and heard their testimonials and observed their level of self-confidence, she considered taking the training.<ref name="fenwick15">Fenwick 1976, p.15</ref> After some preliminary research, Fenwick decided to take the training as a participant, rather than a professional observer.<ref name="fenwick16">Fenwick 1976, p. 16</ref> She therefore paid the [[United States dollar|US$]]250.00 course fee and enrolled in a four-day ''est'' program in order to examine its methods and its appeal.<ref name="bader">Bader 1976, p. 821</ref><ref name="libraryjournal552">''[[Library Journal]]'' 1977, p. 552</ref> She reports that the training was an "extraordinary experience", but that she had "serious concerns about the implications of the est phenomenon", and that people should know more about it.<ref name="fenwick16" />
Fenwick writes that though she had been trained as a [[Clinical psychology|clinical psychologist]], she avoided "consciousness" movements and never participated in [[transactional analysis]] or similar therapies.<ref name="fenwick14">Fenwick 1976, p. 14</ref> But when she met graduates of the ''est'' training and heard their testimonials and observed their level of self-confidence, she considered taking the training.<ref name="fenwick15">Fenwick 1976, p.15</ref> After some preliminary research, Fenwick decided to take the training as a participant rather than as a professional observer.<ref name="fenwick16">Fenwick 1976, p. 16</ref> Therefore, she paid the [[United States dollar|US$]]250.00 course fee and enrolled in a four-day ''est'' program in order to examine its methods and its appeal.<ref name="bader">Bader 1976, p. 821</ref><ref name="libraryjournal552">''[[Library Journal]]'' 1977, p. 552</ref> 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.<ref name="fenwick16" />


Since the publication of ''Getting It'', Fenwick has 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.<ref name="mcgurk459" />
Since the publication of ''Getting It'', Fenwick has 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.<ref name="mcgurk459" />

Revision as of 01:01, 12 April 2008

For the novel of the same name, see Getting It (novel).
Getting It
Hardcover
Book cover, 1976 ed.
AuthorSheridan Fenwick, Ph.D.
Cover artistRobert Anthony (Jacket design)
LanguageEnglish
SubjectErhard Seminars Training, Werner Erhard, Psychology
GenreNon-fiction
PublisherJ. B. Lippincott Company
Publication date
1976
Publication place United States
Media typeHardback
Pages191
ISBNISBN 0397011709 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character
OCLC2345701

Getting It: The Psychology of est is a non-fiction book by 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 course. The book was published by J. B. Lippincott Company in 1976.[1] A second edition was published by Penguin Books in 1977.[2]

The book's first section is descriptive: Fenwick recounts the est training process, and the methods used, and rules or "agreements" given by the trainers to the attendees. The second section is analytic: it analyzes the behavioral tactics used by the est trainers, evaluates the course's potential effects, and discusses Werner 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.

The book received mostly positive reviews, and has been cited both by subsequent psychological studies and in hearings before the United States House of Representatives.

About the author

Sheridan Fenwick, thirty years old when the book was published,[3] graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Goucher College and received a doctorate in psychopathology and social psychology from Cornell University.[4]

Fenwick writes that though she had been trained as a clinical psychologist, she avoided "consciousness" movements and never participated in transactional analysis or similar therapies.[5] But when she met graduates of the est training and heard their testimonials and observed their level of self-confidence, she considered taking the training.[6] After some preliminary research, Fenwick decided to take the training as a participant rather than as a professional observer.[7] Therefore, she paid the US$250.00 course fee and enrolled in a four-day est program in order to examine its methods and its appeal.[8][9] 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.[7]

Since the publication of Getting It, Fenwick has 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.[4]

Background

Werner Erhard, born Jack Rosenberg, created the Erhard Seminars Training (est) course in 1971.[10] est was a four-day, 60-hour self-help program given to groups of 250 people at a time.[11] It was very intensive: each day would contain 15-20 hours of instruction.[12] During the training, est personnel utilized jargon developed by Erhard to convey key concepts, and participants had to agree to certain rules which were in effect for the duration of the course.[8] Participants were taught that they were responsible for their life outcomes, and were promised a "dramatic awakening".[12]

est was controversial: critics characterized the training methods as brainwashing, and suggested that the program had fascistic and narcissistic tendencies.[12] Proponents, on the other hand, asserted that it had a profoundly positive impact on people's lives.[12] A year after the book was published, over 100,000 people had taken the est training, including public figures and mental health professionals.[12] By 1988, around one million people had taken some form of Erhard's trainings.[10]

In 1985, Erhard's company Werner Erhard and Associates repackaged the course as "The Forum", a seminar focused on "goal-oriented breakthroughs".[10] In the early 1990s Erhard faced tax and family problems.[10] A group of Werner Erhard's associates formed the company Landmark Education in 1991, purchasing The Forum's course "technology" from Erhard.[10]

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.[12]

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.[8] She also mentions the role of program jargon, such as "I get that I want an ice cream cone, and I'm too fat to eat it."[8]

Questions raised by Fenwick in the latter portion of the book include comparisons to brainwashing and/or psychotherapy, potential harmful effects of the course, and the extent that positive benefit from the course could be attributed to a self-fulfilling prophecy.[8] Fenwick sees est as a form of psychotherapy which utilizes "in" therapies, and questions its suitability for certain individuals.[13] Fenwick writes that the est training draws influences from Synanon, gestalt therapy, encounter groups, and Scientology.[11] She discusses the potential positive and negative psychological effects that can occur subsequent to taking the est training.[9] She analyzes the rules of the training, and the behavioral tools used by the trainers,[14] and points out that the est personnel are not qualified to assess psychopathology.[15] Fenwick asserts that tactics including sensory deprivation and the large group setting of 250 people at a time help to make the training "work".[11] She ascribes this "compression chamber effect" as the cause of the "hysterical confessions and the euphoric testimonials" she observed in the course.[11]

Fenwick also questions Werner Erhard's background, commercialism, authoritarianism and totalitarianism, including his previous history as Jack Rosenberg and Jack Frost.[11][13] 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.[14] Though Fenwick falls short of characterizing the training as "brainwashing", she writes that she is disturbed by the lack of "sophisticated research designs" which could properly determine long-term benefit or harm caused by the course,[11] and notes: "est uses techniques indiscriminately which, in a certain proportion of the population, are known to be harmful and potentially quite dangerous".[15] 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.[14]

Reception

Getting It received mixed, but generally positive, reviews. One positive evaluation came from psychiatrist James Charney, in a 1976 review for Library Journal. Charney calls the book "the only critical look at this essential issue".[14] He notes in particular that Fenwick's "analysis of the function of the group, the restrictive rules, and the enforced discomfort is convincing."[14] Another review for Library Journal, in 1977, also 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."[9] 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."[8] And Zane Berzins, writing for The New York Times Book Review in 1977, describes Fenwick's work as a "calm and professionally informed view".[11] 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."[11]

More critical reviews include William McGurk's for Contemporary Psychology. Though 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.[12] 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."[12] 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)".[13] Even so, the review notes that Fenwick "scores heavily" in the section where she questions the nature of the est training and Werner Erhard's background; it recommends that Getting It be read alongside Luke Rhinehart's The Book of est.[13]

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".[16] Other works that cite the book for background on est and other New Age movements 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 Werner Erhard's successor company to Erhard Seminars Training, Werner Erhard and Associates.[17][18]

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!.[15] 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."[15] 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.[19]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Fenwick 1976
  2. ^ Fenwick 1977
  3. ^ Chamberlin 1998
  4. ^ a b McGurk 1977, p. 459
  5. ^ Fenwick 1976, p. 14
  6. ^ Fenwick 1976, p.15
  7. ^ a b Fenwick 1976, p. 16
  8. ^ a b c d e f Bader 1976, p. 821
  9. ^ a b c Library Journal 1977, p. 552
  10. ^ a b c d e Hukill 1998
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Berzins 1977, p. 25
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h McGurk 1977, p. 460
  13. ^ a b c d Publishers Weekly 1976, p. 76
  14. ^ a b c d e Charney 1976, p. 2071
  15. ^ a b c d United States Congress 1979, p. 356
  16. ^ Lewis 1992, p. 318
  17. ^ Conway 1995, p. 349
  18. ^ Fisher 1990, p. 82
  19. ^ Rubinstein 2005, p. 490

References

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