Jan Ehrenwald (13 March 1900 – 15 June 1988) was a Czech-American

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

and

psychotherapist Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome pro ...

, most known for his work in the field of

parapsychology Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near ...

. His work largely focused on

extrasensory perception Extrasensory perception or ESP, also called sixth sense, is a claimed paranormal ability pertaining to reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses, but sensed with the mind. The term was adopted by Duke Universi ...

and its supposed implications for

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...

.Frank W. Finger. (1948). ''Telepathy and Medical Psychology''. Jan Ehrenwald. The Quarterly Review of Biology 23, no. 4: 398-399.

Career

Ehrenwald studied medicine at the University of Prague. He taught psychiatry at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

(1927-1931),

University Hospital of Brooklyn at Long Island College Hospital University Hospital of Brooklyn at Long Island College Hospital (or LICH) was a 506-bed teaching hospital located in the Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York. The hospital was founded in 1858 as Long Island Col ...

(1948-1950) and

State University of New York The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by c ...

(1950-1953). He was a member of the

Society for Psychical Research The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to condu ...

and was a fellow of the

New York Academy of Medicine The New York Academy of Medicine (the Academy) is a health policy and advocacy organization founded in 1847 by a group of leading New York metropolitan area physicians as a voice for the medical profession in medical practice and public health ...

Reception

Ehrenwald's belief that

telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W ...

had been successfully demonstrated was not accepted by the scientific community. Critics state that Ehrenwald's statements were based on conjecture, not solid facts. His research was well received by parapsychologists. Arthur Deikman,

J. B. Rhine Joseph Banks Rhine (September 29, 1895 – February 20, 1980), usually known as J. B. Rhine, was an American botanist who founded parapsychology as a branch of psychology, founding the parapsychology lab at Duke University, the ''Journ ...

and

Ian Stevenson Ian Pretyman Stevenson (October 31, 1918 – February 8, 2007) was a Canadian-born American psychiatrist, the founder and director of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He was a professor at th ...

have positively reviewed Ehrenwald's books.

. (1980). ''The ESP Experience: A Psychiatric Validation''. ''

American Journal of Psychiatry ''The American Journal of Psychiatry'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering all aspects of psychiatry, and is the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association. The first volume was issued in 1844, at which time it was k ...

'' 137: 271-272.

Works

* ''Telepathy and Medical Psychology'', W. W. Norton, 1948 * ''From Medicine Man to Freud'', 1956 * ''Psychotherapy: Myth and Method'', 1966 * ''New Dimensions of Deep Analysis'', 1975 * ''History of Psychotherapy: From Magic Healing to Encounter'',

Jason Aronson Jason Aronson was an American publisher of books in the field of psychotherapy. Topics dealt with in these books include child therapy, family therapy, couple therapy, object relations therapy, play therapy, depression, eating disorders, persona ...

, 1976 * ''The ESP Experience: A Psychiatric Validation'', 1978

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ehrenwald, Jan 1900 births 1988 deaths American people of Czech descent American psychiatrists Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States American parapsychologists 20th-century American psychologists 20th-century American physicians