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Getting It

Book cover, 1976 ed.
Author	Sheridan Fenwick, Ph.D.
Cover artist	Robert Anthony (Jacket design)
Language	English
Subject	Erhard Seminars Training, Werner Erhard, Psychology
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	J. B. Lippincott Company
Publication date	September 16, 1976
Publication place	United States
Media type	Hardback
Pages	191
ISBN	ISBN 0397011709 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character
OCLC	2345701

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, an intensive 60-hour personal development course in the self-help genre. Large groups of up to 250 people took the est training at one time.

In the first section of Fenwick's book, she recounts the est training process and the methods used during the course. Fenwick details the rules or "agreements" laid out by the trainers to the attendees, which include not talking to others or leaving the session to go to the bathroom unless during an announced break period. The second section is analytic: Fenwick analyzes the methods used by the est trainers, evaluates the course's potential effects, and discusses 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.

Writing in Library Journal, psychiatrist James Charney describes the book as "the only useful critical look" at the training. Zane Berzins of The New York Times Book Review characterizes the book as a "calm and professionally informed view". 1979 hearings before the United States House of Representatives on a juvenile delinquents program depicted in Scared Straight! cited the book for background on the est training, as did psychologist Gidi Rubinstein in a 2005 study of the Landmark Forum published in the academic journal Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice.

Background

Werner Erhard, a California-based former Encyclopedia salesman born John Paul Rosenberg, created the Erhard Seminars Training (est) course in 1971. est was a form of Large Group Awareness Training, and was part of the Human Potential Movement. est was a four-day, 60-hour self-help program given to groups of 250 people at a time. The program was very intensive: each day would contain 15–20 hours of instruction. During the training, est personnel utilized jargon to convey key concepts, and participants had to agree to certain rules which remained in effect for the duration of the course. Participants were taught that they were responsible for their life outcomes, and were promised a dramatic change in their self-perception.

est was controversial: critics characterized the training methods as brainwashing, and suggested that the program had fascistic and narcissistic tendencies. Proponents asserted that it had a profoundly positive impact on people's lives. A year after Getting It was published, over 100,000 people completed the est training, including public figures and mental health professionals. In 1985, Werner Erhard and Associates repackaged the course as "The Forum", a seminar focused on "goal-oriented breakthroughs". By 1988, approximately one million people had taken some form of the trainings. In the early 1990s Erhard faced tax and family problems. A group of his associates formed the company Landmark Education in 1991, purchasing The Forum's course "technology" from Erhard.

Author

Sheridan Fenwick, in her early thirties when Getting It was published, had graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Goucher College and received a doctorate in psychopathology and social psychology from Cornell University. Her Ph.D. dissertation was published in 1975. Fenwick 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.

Fenwick writes that although she had been trained as a clinical psychologist, she avoided "consciousness" movements and never participated in transactional analysis or similar therapies, including transcendental meditation, Esalen, Arica, Gestalt therapy and Mind Dynamics. When she met with graduates of the est training and heard their testimonials and observed their level of self-confidence, she considered taking the training.

After some preliminary research, Fenwick decided to take the training as a participant rather than as a professional observer. She paid the $250.00 course fee and enrolled in a four-day est program to examine its methods and its appeal. 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. The book was first published September 16, 1976, by J. B. Lippincott Company. A second edition was published by Penguin Books in 1977. Fenwick went on to work as director of the Behavioral Medicine Clinic at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, before retiring in 1993 to set up Psybar, an online service to provide psychological experts for court cases.

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. 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, and analyzes jargon used by course instructors.

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

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

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 useful critical look at this essential issue", referring to the est training. He notes in particular that Fenwick's "analysis of the function of the group, the restrictive rules, and the enforced discomfort is convincing". In a 1977 review in Library Journal Edith Crockett and Ellis Mount 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." 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." Zane Berzins, writing for The New York Times Book Review in 1977, describes Fenwick's work as a "calm and professionally informed view". 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."

William McGurk reviewed the book in Contemporary Psychology. Although McGurk praises the book's description of the est seminars, noting that it "present 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. 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." 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)". Even so, the review notes that Fenwick "scores heavily" in the section where she questions the nature of the est training and Erhard's background; it recommends that Getting It be read alongside Luke Rhinehart's The Book of est.

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". Other works that cite the book for background on est 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 Erhard's successor company to est, Werner Erhard and Associates.

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!. 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." 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.

Notes

1. Pressman 1993, p. 5-7
2. ^ Hukill 1998
3. Fisher 1990, p. 142 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFisher1990 (help)
4. Denison 1995
5. ^ McGurk 1977, p. 460
6. ^ Berzins 1977, p. 25
7. ^ Bader 1976, p. 821
8. Born in 1942, according to the book's Library of Congress record (LC Control Number: 76020617; LC Call Number: RC489.E7 F46)
9. ^ McGurk 1977, p. 459
10. S. Sheridan Fenwick Naditch, "Effect of Experimental Artifact on Sex Differences in Field Dependence," (Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University, 1975).
11. Fenwick 1976, p. 14
12. Fenwick 1976, p. 15
13. ^ Fenwick 1976, p. 16
14. ^ Crockett 1977, p. 552 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCrockett1977 (help)
15. The New York Times staff 1976
16. Chamberlin 1998
17. ^ Publishers Weekly staff 1976, p. 76
18. ^ Charney 1976, p. 2071 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCharney1976 (help)
19. ^ United States Congress 1979, p. 356
20. Lewis 1992, p. 318 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFLewis1992 (help)
21. Conway 1995, p. 349 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFConway1995 (help)
22. Fisher 1990, p. 82 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFisher1990 (help)
23. Rubinstein 2005, p. 490

References

• Bader, Barbara (Editor) (July 15, 1976), "Getting It", Kirkus Reviews, 44 (Part II, Section No. 14): p. 821 {{citation}}: |first= has generic name (help); |pages= has extra text (help)
• Berzins, Zane (February 6, 1977), "Getting It", The New York Times Book Review, 82, The New York Times Company: 25
• Chamberlin, Jamie (June 1998), "For these psychologists, retirement has been no time for slowing down: Five APA members embark on new careers when others might be more inclined to relax", APA Monitor, 29 (6), American Psychological Association, retrieved 2008-04-11
• Charney, M.D., James (Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine) (October 1, 1976), "Review of Getting It alongside Hargrove, Robert est: Making Life Work, and Rhinehart, Luke The Book of est", Library Journal, 101 (17): p. 2071 {{citation}}: |pages= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Conway, Flo; Siegelman, Jim (1995), Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change, Stillpoint, p. 349, ISBN 0964765004
• Crockett, Edith S.; Mount, Ellis (March 1, 1977), "Sci-Tech Books of 1976", Library Journal, 102 (5): pp. 543–552 {{citation}}: |pages= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Denison, Charles Wayne (June 1995), "The children of EST: A study of the experience and perceived effects of a large group awareness training", Dissertation Abstracts International, 55 (12-B), Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International: 5564, ISSN 0419-4217
• Fenwick, Sheridan (1976), Getting It: The psychology of est, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J.B. Lippincott, ISBN 0397011709
• Fenwick, Sheridan (1977), Getting It: The psychology of est, Harmondsworth: Penguin, ISBN 0140044671
• Fisher, Jeffrey D.; Cohen Silver, Roxane; Chinsky, Jack M.; Goff, Barry; Klar, Yechiel (1990), Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training, New York: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 0387973206{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Hukill, Tracy (July 9, 1998), "The est of Friends: Werner Erhard's protégés and siblings carry the torch for a '90s incarnation of the '70s 'training' that some of us just didn't get", Metro Silicon Valley, Metro Newspapers, retrieved 2008-04-11 {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
• Lewis, James R.; Melton, J. Gordon (1992), Perspectives on the New Age, SUNY Press, p. 318, ISBN 079141213X
• McGurk, William S. (June 1977), "Was Ist est?", Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 22 (6): pp. 459–460 {{citation}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
• The New York Times staff (September 16, 1976), "New Books Today", The New York Times, The New York Times Company, p. 37
• Pressman, Steven (1993), Outrageous Betrayal: The Dark Journey of Werner Erhard from est to Exile, New York: St. Martin's, ISBN 0-312-09296-2
• Publishers Weekly staff (July 26, 1976), "Getting It: The Psychology of est", Publishers Weekly, 210: p. 76 {{citation}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
• Rubinstein, Gidi (December 2005), "Characteristics of participants in the Forum, psychotherapy clients, and control participants: A comparative study", Psychology and Psychotherapy, 78 (4), British Psychological Society: pp. 481–492, doi:10.1348/147608305X42721 {{citation}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
• United States Congress, House Committee on Education and Labor. Subcommittee on Human Resources (June 4, 1979), Oversight on Scared Straight - Hearings Before the House Subcommittee on Human Resources, 96th Congress, 1st Session, June 4th, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, p. 356

External links

• Farr, Robert (December 1980). "Mellow Out Or You Will Pay: A Magical Mystery Tour Of The Psyche With Werner Erhard And est". Argus Magazine. (Fenwick is quoted in the work.)

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