A Message from the President

On the weekend of November 14th and 15th, the Existential-Humanistic Institute (EHI) and the California Institute for Integral Studies (CIIS) held the centennial anniversary of James F. T. Bugental at the Mission Street campus of CIIS in San Francisco. The many students of our dear mentor and friend Jim, as he was lovingly called by many of us, came from different places from across the country, some as far as from Moscow, to celebrate his life. In a moving opening to the two day conference, some twenty of us spoke very briefly about how Jim touched our lives, how his amazing skills and personality made them quickly a devotee, a student of his work. Roger Walsh, a former mainstream bio-psychiatrist, spoke at length in a separate presentation how working with Jim as a therapist and then later as a colleague changed his life to one that included the acknowledgement of the subjective and of the mysterious dimensions of being human. This, perhaps, is one of the most profound legacies Jim has left many of his students and clients: the deep appreciation of the unfathomability of the human being, the awesomeness of who we are in this world. Paraphrasing Jim, a psychology that does not stand in awe of the human being is not worthy of being called a psychology. The breadth of the conference presentation in honor of Jim’s life and work would have made him proud. From Bryan Wittine’s presentation on The Dark Night of the Soul, Bob Edelstein’s The Art of Jim’s Psychotherapy, Louis Hoffman and Michael Moat’s Poetic Expressions in the Shadows, Pat LeClair’s Poetry Readings, Elena Mazur and John Ingle’s Twenty-Five Years of EH Therapy in Russia, Orah Krug’s Existential Meaning Making, John Prendergast’s Subtle Somatic Qualities of Presence, Kirk Schneider’s Presence and the Polarized Mind, Louis Dangles and Chris Armstrong’s Working with Couple’s Core Wounds, Ken Bradford’s Beyond the Search of Authenticity, Bruce McBeath and Paul Bracke’s Increasing Client’s Presence and Commitment in the Living Moment, Tom Greening’s The Poetics of Psychotherapy, Steven Schmitz’s Jim Bugental as Shaman, Suzan Bollich’s Radical Intersubjectivity, Joan Monheit’s Evoking Presence in the Face of Loss, Cheryl Krauter’s Being Present with Life Threatening Illness, William Staudenmaier’s Resilience and Depth in Existential Therapy, to Bruce McBeath’s and yours truly presentation on Re-visioning the Meaning and Purpose of Aging – the range and depth of topics was simply astounding.