Ralph Hefferline

Ralph Franklin Hefferline (15 February 1910 in Muncie, Indiana – 16 March 1974) was a psychology professor at Columbia University.[1]

Hefferline became a patient of Fritz Perls around 1946.[2] He joined a small training group led by Perls in 1948 in New York, and went on to contribute a chapter to the book which defined Gestalt Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality, co-authored by Perls, Paul Goodman and Hefferline, published in 1951. He was the third and junior author and provided the section containing practical exercises.

He went on to join the Behaviourist school of psychology.[3]

  1. ^ Knapp, Terry J (December 2009). "The Hefferline Notes: B. F. Skinner's First Public Exposition of His Analysis of Verbal Behavior". The Analysis of Verbal Behavior. 25 (1): 99–107. doi:10.1007/bf03393074. ISSN 0889-9401. PMC 2779073. PMID 22477433.
  2. ^ Knapp, Terry I. (1986-01-01). "Ralph Franklin Hefferline: The Gestalt Therapist among the Skinnerians or the Skinnerian among the Gestalt Therapists?". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 22 (1): 49–60. doi:10.1002/1520-6696(198601)22:1<49::AID-JHBS2300220106>3.0.CO;2-K. ISSN 1520-6696. PMID 11608774.
  3. ^ Perls, Frederick S.; Hefferline, Ralph Franklin; Goodman, Paul (February 1994). Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality. Souvenir. ISBN 9780285626652.