Jan Ehrenwald (13 March 1900 – 15 June 1988) was a Czech-American psychiatrist and psychotherapist, most known for his work in the field of parapsychology."Jan Ehrenwald, Psychoanalyst, 88". New York Times. His work largely focused on extrasensory perception and its supposed implications for psychoanalysis.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 (1927–1931), University Hospital of Brooklyn at Long Island College Hospital (1948–1950) and State University of New York (1950–1953). He was a member of the Society for Psychical Research and was a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine."Jan Ehrenwald". Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology with Directory and Glossary.
Reception
Ehrenwald's belief that telepathy had been successfully demonstrated was not accepted by the scientific community. Critics state that Ehrenwald's statements were based on conjecture, not solid facts.Anonymous (1948). Telepathy and Medical Psychology. The New England Journal of Medicine 239: 799-800.P. L. Heath. (1948). Telepathy and Medical Psychology. Mind 57: 392."New Dimensions of Deep Analysis. Jan Ehrenwald". The Spectator.
His research was well received by parapsychologists. Arthur Deikman, J. B. Rhine and Ian Stevenson have positively reviewed Ehrenwald's books.J. B. Rhine. "Telepathy and Medical Psychology by Jan Ehrenwald". The Scientific Monthly. Vol. 66, No. 6 (Jun., 1948), p. 525.Arthur Deikman. (1979). The ESP Experience: A Psychiatric Validation. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 167: 769Ian Stevenson. (1980). The ESP Experience: A Psychiatric Validation. American Journal of Psychiatry 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, 1976 The ESP Experience: A Psychiatric Validation, 1978
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