Center For Feeling Therapy - Development of Ideas

Development of Ideas

Over time, the Center for Feeling Therapy went through numerous drastic changes in its basic ideas. The Center started with primal therapy as its main therapeutic approach, then abandoned primal therapy in favor of an emphasis on "present-life" feelings, then abandoned that in favor of other ideas. These drastic shifts of theoretical approach were common throughout the life of the Center.

After abandoning primal therapy, the therapists developed a dream hypothesis, which formed the basis of their second book, The Dream Makers. According to the dream hypothesis, one of the major goals of therapy was to have lucid, clear dreams which were devoid of fictitious elements and which could guide a person through his life. It was claimed that the senior therapists all had such dreams, and that the patients could learn to have them too. To that end, the patients were given exercises to improve their dreams; they were also given charts, graphs, workbooks, and so on, to track the progress of their dreams.

Thereafter, the therapists abandoned the dream hypothesis and replaced it with yet another concept, called "Psychological Fitness." The concept of Psychological Fitness was claimed to help the patients succeed in life and make a lot of money. The patients were encouraged to wear very expensive clothing, to appear professional, to start business ventures, and to work very long hours. The patients were told that they would "teach the world to excel."