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2: The Origins of AT
Autogenic Therapy, or AT, was developed in the early years of the twentieth century by the psychiatrist and neurologist Dr. Johannes Schultz. Schultz went to Lausanne in Switzerland to study medicine in 1907, and began his specialisation in psychiatry in 1909. In the same year, he wrote a review of Freud's Psychoanalysis. The influence and support which Schultz received from Freud is evident in his account of their first meeting: "Freud looked at me, sizing me up and said: 'Surely you do not believe that you could heal?' whereupon I replied: 'By no means, but I think that, like a gardener, I could remove obstacles hindering a person's true development.' 'Then we will understand each other,' answered Freud, ending our conversation with a charming smile." From Dr Karl Wongstchowski's article 'Schultz the Man', Newsletter June 1987, British Association for Autogenic Training and Therapy In 1912 Otto Binswanger, whom he succeeded as Professor of Psychiatry in 1915, invited Schultz to Jena. Schultz was deeply influenced by the pioneering research of Professor Oscar Vogt (1870-1959), a psychiatrist and neuro-physiologist who had dedicated his life to psychosomatic medicine, or what he called the 'Mind-Body problem'. In his research, Vogt had noted that patients practising simple verbal exercises to induce hypnosis reported a state of well-being. Complaints such as headache, fatigue and anxiety tended to disappear. In addition, many patients reported feelings of heaviness and agreeable sensations of warmth. Schultz had systematically pursued the question of whether patients could achieve a similar state without hypnosis, by simply directing attention to sensations of heaviness and warmth in the limbs. He found that they could, under certain circumstances, by using passive concentration combined with simple verbal formulae that implied heaviness and warmth. Schultz published his early research findings on what he called Autogenic Organ Exercises in 1912. In 1924 Schultz moved to Berlin and was in close contact with Vogt, who was conducting his research at the Neuro-Biological Institute for Brain Research. Schultz continued his research, as well as practising as a psychiatrist and undergoing his own Training Analysis. In 1932, Schultz published the first edition of Autogenic Therapy, which detailed the clinical application of the six Standard Autogenic Formulae, which still form the core of AT today. In the late 1940s Dr. Wolfgang Luthe, became a student of Schultz, studying psychosomatic medicine and Autogenic Therapy. In the 1950s, Luthe emigrated to Montreal, Canada where he continued to develop Autogenic Therapy as Assistant Professor of Psychophysiology at the University of Montreal. Schultz and Luthe collaborated in writing and collated research into all aspects of Autogenic Therapy. In 1969, a year before Schultz's death, they published five further volumes on Autogenic Therapy which constitute the seminal work on the subject. Since then, several editions of these volumes have been published in nine languages. In 1978 Dr. Malcolm Carruthers and psychotherapist Vera Diamond studied Autogenic Therapy with Dr. Luthe in Montreal and brought the method to Britain. The first Autogenic Training courses were held in Queen Anne Street in London in 1979, and The British Association for Autogenic Training and Therapy was founded in 1984. This became the British Autogenic Society (BAS) in 1999. Autogenic Therapy is now practised in several countries around the world, but especially in Europe and Japan. Centres such as the Schultz Institute in Berlin and the Oscar Vogt Institute at Kyushu University, Japan, are pre-eminent in the field of AT research, development and training. The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital has offered AT to patients suffering a wide variety of illnesses for 20 years with very positive results. top of page previous article next article |
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