Joseph Chaim Zinker is a therapist who has contributed to the growth and development of Gestalt theory and also Gestalt methodology. He co-founded the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland.

Early life

Joseph Zinker was born in Central Europe ( Łuck) in 1934 in a Jewish family. He was raised in Poland. He lost part of his family during Second World War and lived with his parents in refugee camps in Austria and Germany. In 1949, they came to New York. When Joseph Zinker was young, he spoke Russian, Polish, English, Yiddish, some German and a little Hebrew.

Education and work

Joseph Zinker started his studies in Russian Literature, Psychology, Philosophy and Art at

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

and New York University. Then he earned a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

in Cleveland (in 1963). His doctoral dissertation, ''Rosa Lee: Motivation and the Crisis of Dying'' (1966) became his first publication. In the 1960s, he trained with Fritz Perls, a German-born who was one of the founders of Gestalt therapy, and other psychiatrists and psychotherapists. He became a Gestalt therapist and was a co-founder of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland, where he spent many years as a member of the teaching faculty, the head of the postgraduate faculty, and as a member of the Center for the Study of Intimate Systems. Together with Sonia Nevis, he headed this center which has taken a role in the application of the Gestalt model to work with families and couples. In the 1970s,

Miriam Polster Miriam Polster (July 7, 1924–December 19, 2001) was a clinical psychologist who was raised in Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America. Polster had an interest in music, which happened to be her undergraduate major and a subject she integr ...

, Bill Warner and Joseph Zinker developed Gestalt theory with the formulation of the contact cycle and also the awareness-excitement-contact cycle. Joseph Zinker is known for refining the clinical concepts of complementarity and middle ground in couple work and for the application of Gestalt therapy. He helped grow the principles of Gestalt group process and the place of the Gestalt experiment in therapeutic work. In 1980, Zinker continued to develop the cycle of experience: he applied it to groups and group development. With his wife, Gestalt therapist Sandra Cardosa-Zinker, he published several articles about couples therapy. As a Gestalt therapist, he has a private practice since 1962. He's also a teacher of therapists, a painter and a sculptor.

Books

Joseph Zinker is the author of several books like ''Creative Process in Gestalt Therapy'', ''In Search of Good Form'', ''Motivation and the Crisis of Dying, Sketches''... He has also published numerous articles in journals (about psychotherapy, arts, the phenomenology of love...) and has served on the editorial board of different journals. ''Creative Process in Gestalt Therapy'' was judged "Book of the year" by the magazine ''Psychology Today'' in 1977. It is now a classic, and a best-seller. It has been translated into several languages.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zinker, Joseph Living people Gestalt therapists People from Lutsk Queens College, City University of New York alumni 1934 births Case Western Reserve University alumni Jewish American scientists Polish emigrants to the United States 21st-century American Jews