The Art of Psychotherapy and the Liberation of the Therapist

By Dr. Len Bergantino Ed.D. Ph.D.

Do you think that some slug who looks very professional who "whispers" an occasional interpretation to you five times a week for 7 years can make one bit of difference in your life or does such a psychotoxic slug called a psychoanalyst merely stick you in an emotional toilet bowl for seven years having the cumulative result of turning you into a hopeless bastard who will never turn the tragic corner in his or her life?

Can your analyst analyze an archaic liquid symbiotic or an osmotic transference, or can they even recognize this phenomena in order to analyze it? If the psychoanalyst cannot analyze these transferences they can't do an analysis!

I used to get "good faith" patients who had the balls to work on the cutting edge at the same time I did because they had had combinations of twenty years of two seven year analyses plus several briefer psychotheraphies, only to be as crazy as the day they walked in! (-$200,000.00)

As Dr. Donald Rinsley, M.D., fellow-American College of Psychoanalysts wrote about me, my work has both a healing effect and affect. Patients used to pay me six months in advance to hold the time open because I was irreplaceable; I was the only one who could analyze the psychotic core of the personality and I was the only who could actually do what Dr. Wilfred R. Bion, MRCS (Medical Royal College of Surgeons) wrote about analyzing the psychotic core of the personality/

As I am seventy-six years old, I have written five books that must be read and digested in their entirety. As these books are the thing-in-itself they will transform the reader into the kinds of analyst, patient and psychotherapist who can make a difference in helping people turn the tragic corner in their lives! In other words, these five books are analysis!

These books were written to be around for a few hundred years and were directly guided by the Almighty!

By: Dr. LEN BERGANTINO, Ed. D.(USC), Ph.D., A.B.P.P.

 

 

The Art of Psychotherapy and the Liberation of the Therapist

This is a book for professional psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, and counselors; students in those areas of specialty; and lay persons who are interested in the essence of effective therapy and how some of the people who do it best practice their art. For professionals, the book presents a personal way of viewing therapy that can add pleasurable options. Each of the therapists with whom I worked, and myself, all had a feeling of enjoyment that we hope will carry over to the office and practices of the readers. For students of therapy, the book offers a search for a professional stature and working posture that may be of value in the development of each student’s unique personal style. For lay persons, the book speaks of therapy that can make an impact and speaks of how some of the most potent therapists practice.

I wrote the book with the intention of having it be both an experience and an explanation. I have presented it according to my developmental needs while maturing personally and professionally. This was done so the book might be informative at the conscious level, entertaining at the child level, and persuasive at the unconscious level.

The existential moment is the thread that ties the book together; it is a moment of therapeutic potency. While all moments are existential by definition, there are certain moments that are more powerful in helping patients live happier and healthier lives. Positive results, whether they be from one session or over the long haul, are partially, if not fully, a result of existential moments.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796024210

Book preview

Copyright © 2019 by Dr. Len Bergantino, Ed.D., Ph.D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 10/23/2023

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

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Contents

A Review

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Prologue

PART ONE

The Foundations of Personal Style: Introduction

1     The Existential Moment

The Existential Moment

Working With Children

Self-Disclosure

2     From Theory to Style: Developing an Existential Point of View with William Ofman, Ph.D.

Resistance And The Facilitation Of Process Awareness

Stretching The Boundaries

Bill and I–An Experience With My Therapist

Alyson

3     The Liberation of the Therapist

A Holistic Approach To Psychotherapy/Hypnosis

Physical Illness And Psychotherapy

Working with Psychological Ramifications of Physical Symptoms

Exercise And Fun

PART TWO

The Impact of Existential Moments

4     Psychoanalysis and the Existential Moment

Was Freud An Existentialist?

My Reaction to Bion: A Clear Mind and a State of Discovery

An Analysand’s Experience with Bion, with Richard Edelman, M.D.

A Practitioner of Dr. Heinz Kohut’s Methods Comments On Bion, with Lars Lofgren, M.D.

Bion’s Legacy: The Language of Achievement, I, with James S. Grotstein, M.D.

Bion’s Legacy: The Language of Achievement, II, with Michael Paul, M.D.

Bion’s Legacy: The Language of Achievement, III, with Stephen E. Salenger, M.D.

Bion: Impact and the Supervision of the Practical Analysis of Being There, with Wilfred R. Bion, M.R.C.S. and Stephen E. Salenger, M.D.

Patient Threatening Suicide

A Tavistock Group Experience, With Lars Lofgren, M.d., And Marion Solomon, Ph.d.

Analytic Group Therapy–An Approach To Narcissism, With Martin Grotjahn, M.d.

5     Transactional Analysis and Existentialism with Bob Goulding, M.D. and Mary Goulding, M.S.W.

Case Of Joan

Ta Marital Therapy With Bob And Mary

6     Gestalt Therapy and the Existential Moment

Stylistic Focus On Thou Vs. I, With Miriam Polster, Ph.d., Erving Polster, Ph.d., And Jim Simkin, Ph.d.

Impact: The Key To Responsible Action With Couples, With Dr. Walter Kempler, M.d.

Walt, My wife at the time, and Me

My Work With a Couple

Creative Expression And Sensory Perception, With Bob Martin, D.s.w.

7     The Somatic Therapy of Stanley Keleman

8     Behavior Modification: Cognitive-Emotive Therapy

The Reinforcement Of Existential Moments, With George Bach, Ph.d.

Structuring Situations to Create Movement

Post-Marathon Experience

Two Group Sessions after the Marathon

Rational-Emotive Therapy With Albert Ellis, Ph.d.

Summary

Direct Decision Therapy And The Rebellious Patient, With Harold Greenwald, Ph.d.

9     Clinical Hypnosis

An Experience Of The Hypnotherapy Of Milton H. Erickson, M.d.

Distracting the Conscious Mind

Changing Belief Systems

Getting to the Heart of the Matter

Touching Their Souls

Therapy Is Just a Part of Life

No Wasted Energy

The Essence of the Work

What Therapists Need to Know and Practice

Commentary On My Work With Dr. Erickson

Milton H. Erickson, M.d.

Existential Moments In Clinical Hypnosis

Clinical Hypnosis, With William S. Kroger, M.d.

The Impact of Automatic Writing: Breakthroughs into Existential Moments

Case of Jerry–Sex, Guilt

Case of Joe–Obsessive, Depressive, No Fun!

10   Direct Confrontation: The Treatment of Schizophrenia, with Jack Rosberg, M.A.

Introduction

Direct Confrontation: The Treatment of Schizophrenia

Session Two

Summary

11   The Godfather of Clinical Psychology

12   The Therapist Is Alive and Well: The Existential-Experiential Therapy Style of Carl Whitaker, M.D.

Mock Family Interview

Actual Interview

Epilogue

BOOKS THAT ARE EITHER PUBLISHED OR WILL BE PUBLISHED AUTHORED BY THE REVEREND DR. LEN BERGANTINO AS THESE BOOKS WERE WRITTEN AS THE THING-IN-ITSELF AND WERE DIVINELY INSPIRED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT TO AT THE VERY LEAST GIVE MEN AND WOMEN AS OPPORTUNITY TO BE MORE FULLY THEMSELVES AND MORE IN TOUCH WITH THEIR OWN NATURE.

IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED THAT THE READERS DEVELOP THEIR LEVEL OF ATTENTION TO READ ALL FOUR BOOKS AND PERMIT THEM TO BECOME PART AND PARCEL OF HOW EACH INDIVIDUAL ANSWERS THE QUESTION TO BE OR NOT TO BE. AS THE REVEREND DR. LEN BERGANTINO IS SEVENTY FIVE YEARS OLD, HE WILL NOT BE AROUND PERSONALLY TO DO PSYCHOANALYSIS OR PSYCHOTHERAPY WITH YOU THEREFORE THESE BOOKS WERE WRITTEN ON THE BASIS OF THEM BEING AROUND FOR AT LEAST TWO HUNDRED YEARS!!!

1. I AM FREUD! PSYCHOANALYSIS IS THE ONLY METHOD OF CURE: IT’S TOO BAD NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO DO ONE, XLIBRIS PUB. CO., 2019. 502 PP.

2. REVERSE ANALYSIS, THE EXISTENTIAL SHIFT, GESTALT FAMILY THERAPY AND THE PREVENTION OF THE HOLOCAUST, XLIBRIS PUB. CO.,

3. THE ART OF PSYCHOTHERAPY AND THE LIBERATION OF THE THERAPIST XLIBRIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.

4. THE ESSENCE OF MUSIC, XLIBRIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.

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FOREWORD TO THE ART OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

AND THE LIBERATION OF THE THERAPIST

The field of psychotherapy had a space that was open during my professional lifetime, whereas psychotherapy was not curative per se, I both observed and experienced many psychotherapeutic interventions at the hands of many world renown psychiatrists and clinical psychologists that had a lifetime impact upon the patient population.

The patients were just as courageous as the psychotherapists. This is no longer the case as Boards of Psychology and other punitive boards have so frightened these gifted treaters that the courageous psychotherapists and patients who worked together on a tightrope without a net no longer exist in 2018. So today we have careful psychotherapists who do not have the courage to take risks to develop the therapeutic use of self to the degree that they can break new ground; we have patients who file complaints to Boards of Psychology over the least little thing; and we have Boards of Psychology racking up their share of professional kills. ALL THIS KEEPS THE FIELD OF PSYCHOTHERAPY FROM ADVANCING TO THE POINT WHERE IT CAN MEET SOME OF THE NEW CHALLENGES OF THE TIMES AND WE HAVE RESULTS SUCH AS 122 VETERANS A DAY COMMITTING SUICIDE WITHOUT A PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC TREATMENT BEING TAILORED TO THEIR INDIVIDUAL NEEDS!

Boards of Psychology and similar Boards must be done away with if this destructive trend is to be reversed and an era of sweetness and light opened up again.

For the small gain of punishing therapists who have sex with patients they have destroyed the entire field as a potentially curative factor. Both psychotherapists and patients have to have an environment provided by psychotherapists where both feel an inner freedom to take risks and maintain courage throughout the work. Both patients and therapists need to maintain A LIFE FORCE THROUGHOUT THE TREATMENT OTHERWISE THANATOS OR DEATH FORCE PERMEATES THE TREATMENT AND WE ARE MORE LIKELY TO TURN OUT ZOMBIES THAN INCREASINGLY ALIVE PERSONS!

THIS BOOK SHOULD HAVE A SHELF LIFE OF AT LEAST A COUPLE OF HUNDRED YEARS IN THAT THE DEVOTION TO THE DEVELOPMENT TO THE THERAPEUTIC USE OF SELF AND THE TRAINING SOUGHT OUT WITH NEARLY ALL THE MASTER THERAPISTS OF THE TIME IS AND IS MOST LIKELY TO REMAIN UNPARRALLELED!

Furthur, graduate school professors need to develop their own therapeutic use of self from wherever they are starting and use this book with their graduate students in psychotherapy and counseling EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE FRIGHTENED THAT THEY CAN’T DO IT! ROME WASN’T BUILT IN A DAY! WHEREVER YOU START IS ALRIGHT, AS LONG AS YOU START! IT IS ONLY IN THIS MANNER THAT BOARDS OF PSYCHOLOGY WILL STOP PRESENTING THE ILLUSION OF SAFETY WHILE IN FACT KILLING THE LIFE FORCE IN BOTH THERAPISTS AND PATIENTS!

While evidenced based psychotherapy sounds good; it sounds as if evidenced based psychotherapy and mental health actually provides results while in fact evidenced based psychotherapy takes the life force out of psychotherapy and patients, and plays to the mediocre.

Of all that was written about my book Psychotherapy, Insight and Style: The Existential Moment’, Allyn & Bacon, Inc., Boston, Dr. Harold Greenwald, Ph.D., Diplomate in Clinical Psychology of The American Board of Professional Psychology, wrote of me in 1981 While much has been written about the science of psychotherapy, It has remained for Dr. Bergantino to write about the art of psychotherapy with such elegant impact."

As the times demand a switch of emphasis IF WE ARE TO ADVANCE THE FIELD AND GET IT OUT OF THE DOLDRUMS OF MEDIOCRITY, THAT WE FOCUS ON THE ART OF PSYCHOTHERAPY AND WHAT CARL WHITAKER, M.D. WROTE ABOUT ME IN THE ORIGINAL FOREWORD TO MY BOOK in 1981 - THE LIBERATION OF THE THERAPIST!!! THIS BOOK FOCUSES ON WHITAKER’S LETTER TO ME IN 1981 WHEREBY HE STATED THE WAY TO TURN OUT COMPETENT THERAPISTS IS TO TRAIN THEM WHEREBY THEY HAVE TO WORK ON THEMSELVES WHICH IS THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE THERAPEUTIC USE OF SELF!!!

written by

The Reverend Dr. Len Bergantino

The Pope - Vatican West

P.S. The chapter on Wilfred Bion and the practice of Psychoanalysis will remain throughout time a tremendous preface to both Bion’s work and my new book "I AM FREUD! PSYCHOANALYSIS IS THE ONLY METHOD OF CURE: IT’S TOO BAD NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO DO ONE!!!

This chapter is of value in that it has the only tape supervision of Bion with a young Analysand so you actually get to experience why Bion was so different. Furthur, it has a list of all the books he has written and the order they should be read. THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ FOR THOSE REASONS ALONE! Then there is the review by Donald B. Rinsley, M.D., Fellow, American College of Psychoanalysts who wrote a review in Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, Vol. 47, No. 5, September, 1983 pinpointing that I had a healing capacity and that this book conveyed healing methodology and the book was to be thought about, mulled over and placed on one’s bedside table if not under one’s pillow. It is a book that the experienced clinician will read with knowledgeable satisfaction and that the nascent therapist will read with excitement. And both will profit from what it has to tell.

WHAT IS DR. LEN BERGANTINO DOING NOW?

I am willing to do gestalt family therapy as I define it; as well as a kind of storytelling with individuals that Margaret Mead told Milton Erickson, M.D. she had only heard in a rare African tribe relatively free of disease.

I am willing to do this work with whatever difficult medical symptomatology is thrown at me, from an experimental point of view agreed upon by both me and the patient. The Board of Psychology and Medical Board came after me about 7 times AND I WHIPPED THEIR ASS EACH TIME! THE PROBLEM IS I WAS NOT FREE TO DO THE WORK! SO I SET UP THREE BOARDS OF PSYCHOLOGY AND GOT RID OF ALL OF THEM AND AS I have them on my turf plan to kick the living shit out of them for as long as I live.! Essentially, they have destroyed a lifetime’s body of work and saw to it that I was not free enough to do what I am willing to do at 75 years old. In other words they are the kind of stupid bastards that would throw away a cure for cancer if it did not already exist within the MEDIOCRE COMMUNITY STANDARDS OF PRACTICE!

Furthur, my last supervisor, Dr. Bruno Bettelheim, who was trained in Freud’s original training group stated that Wilhelm Reich was Freud’s most gifted Training Analyst. Reich said he stopped doing Analysis because he could not cure hatred; that it was a matter best left to philosophers and theologians.

Experientially I found this to be true, and I am a Minister (No. 12, 656). Furthur, I have a direct connection to God and The Pope does not. In other words, as it turns out I am currently able to call more authentic shots than the Pope in matters of faith and morals which is the Pope’s strong suit in that The Pope is stated to be infallible in matters of faith and morals. I do not want to start a Church; only make political interventions where the spirit of The Holy Ghost instructs me to do so and TAKE THE DEGREES OF FREEDOM NECESSARY TO LIBERATE MYSELF FROM ANY MAN MADE CONSTRAINTS THAT WOULD IMPEDE MY DEVELOPMENT OF THERAPEUTIC USE OF SELF THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE COURSE OF MY LIFE WHEREBY I CAN HELP PEOPLE TURN THE TRAGIC CORNER IN THEIR LIVES AND SAVE THEIR SOUL. THERE ARE ONLY ABOUT TWELVE PERSONS THAT SAVE THEIR SOUL OUT OF EVERY 100,000, 000! Twelve out of every 100 million as stated in the Bible. Thus, the purpose of psychotherapy must not only be able to function better temporarily in the world but also to save one’s soul by gaining some tools upon which to approach the matter.

Furthur, I want to experiment doing gestalt family therapy by being a live in for a week at a fee of $2500. The way I have set this up I am free to explore what is possible! I therefore refer to myself a THE POPE-VATICAN WEST, AND I OFFER THE POPE ANY OPPORTUNITY TO SEE IF I CAN BACK UP WHAT I HAVE STATED TO BE TRUE!

THE REVEREND DR. LEN BERGANTINO

TEACHERS UNION PRESIDENTS &

NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHER PERISH!!!

IN EVERY CITY ON A STATE!!! (Circulate!

Circulate!

February 16, 2018

President Trump, Senators, Congresspersons & Romans,

1. DID YOU HEAR THE MOTHER OF ONE OF THE DEAD CHILDREN IN FLORIDA YELLING PRESIDENT TRUMP YOU CAN DO SOMETHING!!! YOUR HEART GOES OUT TO PARENTS OF DECEASED CHILDREN IS INADEQUATE!!!

2. ARE NRA SUPPORTERS AND MEMBERS GOING TO VOLUNTEER TO TEACH ELEMENTARY, MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL WHEN TEACHERS UNIONS STRIKE BECAUSE OF UNSAFE WORKING CONDITIONS? (NATIONAL LEVEL)

3. WHAT ARE PARENTS GOING TO DO WHEN STUDENTS REFUSE TO GO TO SCHOOL UNDER ANY CONDITIONS FOR REASONABLE FEAR OF DEATH?

4. THERE HAVE BEEN EIGHTEEN SCHOOL SHOOTINGS SINCE JANUARY 1, 2018!!! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!! GET THE GUNS OFF THE STREETS!!!

5. DO NOT USE MENTAL HEALTH AS A SCAPEGOAT!!!

EXISTENTIALLY SPEAKING A CRAZY BASTARD IS A CRAZY BASTARD IS A CRAZY BASTARD!!! AND MENTAL HEALTH HAS ALL THEY CAN DO TO DEAL WITH NORMAL NEUROTICS. MURDERERS DON’T CHANGE! THAT IS WHY PRISONS DON’T LET THEM OUT!

SUBMITTED FOR PUBLICATION,

DR. LEN BERGANTINO

PRELIMINARY ADMINISTRATIVE CREDENTIAL

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA -1994

FORMER MEMBER - WTA - WATERBURY TEACHERS ASSOCIATION

CIA-CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION

REFERENCE: THE BALANCE BETWEEN CONCORD AND LIBERTY

ORTEGA Y GASSETT - 1534

At.: Assignment Denk

January 4, 2018

Dear President Trump,

When I tell stories I go to my unconscious mind to see what occurs for the persons involved and the situation.

I remember when Mohammed Ali flunked the Army IQ test around 1966. When they asked him about it he said I just said I WAS the Greatest! I didn’t say I was the brightest!

Around 1977 I read his book THE GREATEST! (Autobiography) Ali used to have orgies before his fights. He made a point to invite Jimmy Brown. Brown said Ali invited the ugliest women on the face of the earth and in Chicago he snuck out as soon as he could. Then Ali invited him in Miami. Same problem. Brown began to sneak out. Ali caught him and said Hey Jimmy Brown, you snuck out of my party in Chicago and here you are sneaking out again! Brown said, Well Champ, seeing you are bringing it up YOU INVITE THE UGLIEST WOMEN IN THE WORLD TO YOUR PARTIES! Ali did not deny it! Instead he stood up on the bed and shouted to Jimmy Brown, I’m SO PRETTY IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE! ALI MENTORED BY GEORGEOUS GEORGE (Professional Wrestler)

In 1972 I went to Madame Taussaud’s Wax Museum in London and they had a life size statue of Ali. At the bottom of the statue they had something written like Ali kicked the shit out of the United States Government and he happened to be heavyweight champ! Needless to say this shocked me!

PERSONALLY I THINK YOU ARE THE GREATEST! HOWEVER I THINK SO IN THE FOLLOWING CONTEXT TAKING THE HIGH ROAD! IN TERMS OF SHAKESPEARE’S QUESTION, TO BE OR NOT TO BE YOU ARE THE GREATEST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! THAT IS THE ONLY IMPORTANT CRITERIA ON WHICH YOU ARE TO BE EVALUATED, EVEN IF YOU AND SARA HUCKABEE SANDERS ARE THE ONLY ONES DOING THE EVALUATING! STAND YOUR GROUND AND DO NOT FOLD UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!

Why should your children be intellectual disconnected elites! You surround yourself with them because they love you and you have a better chance trusting family than the governmentalites that stripped Ali of his title during his prime!

You are doing a great job! Keep up the good work!

Respectfully,

Dr. Len Bergantino

cc: Melania, Sanders, Don Jr., Ivanka

Eric

P.S. Gana Huckabee Sanders is doing a magnificent job!!!

January 12, 2018

DEAR PRESIDENT TRUMP,

HOW REFRESHING THAT YOU STATED WHAT I NOTICED AROUND THE TIME I STOPPED DOING PSYCHOANALYSIS! YOU STATED WHY ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE FROM SHITHOLE COUNTRIES" COMING HERE!

TO DO PSYCHOANALYSIS AN INTELLECTUAL ELITE WITH MENTAL SOPHISTICATION IS REQUIRED. THE NUANCES MAKE THE WORK FASCINATING!

AS I WAS TRAINED IN FAMILY THERAPY BY WORLD RENOWN PIONEERS CARL WHITAKER, M.D. AND WALTER KEMPLER, M.D. I NOTICED THAT THE WORK ITSELF BEGAN TO MOVE IN THE DIRECTION OF FAMILY THERAPY WITH MORE ORDINARY PELPLE DUE TO THE IMMIGRATION POLLCIES THAT LET IN PEOPLE FROM SHITHOLE COUNTRIES ON SOME SAVIOR MISSION THAT HAS DESTROYED NOT ONLY THE PSYCHOANALYTIC POPULATION THAT MIGHT SEND IT’S GRADUATES OFF TO CREATE AN UPWARD SPIRALING SOCIETY BY THE LOWERING OF ABILITIES OF THE COMMUNITY STANDARDS OF PRACTICE OF EVEN OUR MEDICAL SCHOOLS. I FIND THE MOST MEDICAL BRAINS THESE DAYS ARE IN THE HEADS OF THOSE FROM CHINESE HERITAGE WHO CHOOSE TO REMAIN HERE!. THEY ARE FAR SUPERIOR TO PHYSICIANS EDUCATED IN THE UNITED STATES!

YOUR STATEMENT HAS NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH RACIAL PREJUDICE OR RACIAL HATRED. IT HAS TO DO WITH THE BEGINNING OF WHEN A PRESIDENT I LOVED, JFK, MADE A SERIOUS MISTAKE AND CUT BACK THE ENTRANCE OF BRITS, ITALIANS, POLES, GERMANS, et. al and DEVOTED HIS EFFORTS TO SHITHOLE COUNTRIES COMING HERE TURNING THE UNITED STATES INTO A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY!.

THE PROBLEM FOR ME IS THAT I WORKED MY ASS OFF TO DEVELOP A SKILL SET THAT WORKED IN THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF SUPERSTARS! IF I WANTED TO WORK IN A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY I WOULD HAVE MOVED TO BELIZE. I CAN DO BOTH KINDS OF WORK! Norway loves Americans! They were one of two countries that appreciated the contribution of the United States from World War II! You might also try Denmark! They are not a shithole country!

You are refreshing in what you say. Don’t let them twist your words and intentions! YOU ARE JUST CALLING EM LIKE YOU SEE EM!

Respectfully,

Dr. Len Bergantino

P.S. The problem is that THE SLUGS THAT WE LET IN ARE MUCH MORE LIKELY TO DRAG US INTO THIRD WORLD STATUS THAN WE ARE TO LIFT THEM UP INTO BEING A CITIZEN IN THE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND!

P.S. 2 TRUMP UNDERSTANDS WHAT IS REQUIRED TO PLAY IN HIGH ROLLER CIRCUIT!

January 1, 2018

President Trump’s Tweeting Similar to Martin Buber’s I-Thou Encounter

LA Times- JANUARY p,A9)!* BIG protests in Iran, the President tweeted Sunday The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any longer.

Dr. Jim Simkin, Ph.D., ABPP, premier gestalt trainer who was known to be a much better psychotherapist than Frederick Perls, M.D.-the founder of gestalt therapy stated QUESTIONS ARE DESIGNED TO TORTURE PEOPLE! MAKE I" STATEMENTS (as written about by Martin Buber). President Trump does this on a daily basis in that he tells citizens of the world exactly where he is at! I am 74 years old and he is the only President who has ever done that. While this is viewed as unnerving to those WHO CANNOT STAND THE CHAOS AND ANXIETY OF NOT KNOWING TO ME TRUMP IS REFRESHING! YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHERE HE IS AT!

Dr. Simkin said of me OF ALL THE THERAPISTS I HAVE TRAINED OR SEEN WORK, INCLUDING Fritz Perls, BERGANTINO, HE IS A MAN OF DEPTH! HE IS A MAN OF SUBSTANCE! HIM I THINK ABOUT! HIM I CONSIDER!

Think about it! At the deepest levels, Isn’t President Trump tweeting bottom line how most Americans really feel about most everything, including Iran and North Korea!

For example, do we trust China to impose sanctions on N. Korea, a country they sent 450,000 troops to aid in the Korean War? Do we trust Iran to not give the money we gave them to support terrorists? Do we believe they won’t find some way to develop their nuclear capacities and to strike first? as did Japan during WWII?

And think about this; IF THEY RUB PRESIDENT TRUMP THE WRONG WAY ON ANY GIVEN DAY, HE HAS THE NUCLEAR POWER TO WIPE THEM OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH!!! WHOSE SIDE WOULD YOU RATHER BE ON?

RESPECTFULLY,

REV. DR. LEN BERGANTINO

PRIME MINISTER, UNIV. LIFE CHURCH - WLA

ED.D. (USC - 1971) DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

Ph.D. (INT’L COLLEGE - 1977) CLINICAL PSYCH.

P.S. President Trump has provided evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that if any foreign or domestic enemy shits on The United States of America President Trump will be the one TO FLUSH THE TOILET!!!

AHP Perspective

FAMILY THERAPY INTERVENTION

–– Len Bergantino and Robert Rabert

Client’s Description: I have known Dr. Len Bergantino since 1990, having met him when we were both members of the St. Peter’s Italian Catholic Church on Broadway Street in Los Angeles. Over the course of time, we became friends and he asked me to be his son’s Godfather around 1997. I was honored to do so.

He met my wife on one occasion prior to our being married and he has known my children, Mimi and Reemo, since they were about one year old, as he has often stated he has a clear recollection of me changing their diapers on the sidewalk in front of DiVita’s restaurant in West Los Angeles, California. Dr. Bergantino is a fine musician and my children often went to hear him play and to visit with Afex (his son) and him. This sparked an interest in music on the part of my daughter. With the hard times of two recessions, we were forced to move from Los Angeles to Tucson, and I had no funds to purchase an instrument or to pay for music lessons.

Dr. Bergantino came to visit us in May, 2008, and he gave my daughter a guitar. Then he began giving her weekly guitar lessons by telephone from Los Angeles to Tucson from June 2008 to December 2009.

During this time, Mimi showed both diligence and enthusiasm toward the practice of music and general interest in music. Dr. Bergantino took her through Mel Bay I and most of Mel Bay II before she was not able to continue her studies on the guitar as her hands were too small to play chords for which her fingers were either not long enough or strong enough.

During the weeks that followed termination of her lessons, my daughter became withdrawn and began to fail classes at her school where she had been a straight A student.

While Dr. Bergantino made it a point to keep the fact that he was a clinical psychologist separate from our friendship with him and his role as Mimi’s teacher, this was the first time he said to me that he had become clinically alarmed. He wrote a very supportive document to the high school principal, the high school counselor, and the superintendent of schools, requesting that my daughter be provided with a clarinet and music lessons at school, become part of the school band, and more involved in social activities at school. He was insistent that I follow up immediately in Mimi’s behalf. Due to my worries about the difficulty of my financial situation I did not. Further, the principal who called Dr. Bergantino and assured him that she would not let Mimi fall through the cracks, did not get her involved with weekly music lessons or get her a clarinet, and put off getting her involved in school activities until the following year. In the meantime, my daughter became more and more withdrawn and began to fail most of her courses.

Dr. Bergantino was scheduled to come to visit us in Tucson as part of a banjo festival he was going to attend. He was furious at both me and the school principal for not following through on our promises given that from his point of view my daughter’s life and well-being were at stake. He made it clear several times that her well-being took precedence over what might customarily be expected from a friend. He further said that what he was going to do at this point had to cross boundaries that he had never crossed in terms of our personal relationship (he was a licensed psychologist in California, Arizona, and Hawaii).

As soon as I picked him up from the airport he insisted I drive him to the Office of the Superintendent of Schools and he met with the Assistant Superintendent and he made it clear to them that Mimi was not to be sold down the river and if the district did not get her a clarinet and weekly clarinet lessons with such clear warning signs as her going from a straight A to a straight F student, that he as a licensed psychologist in Arizona would serve as an expert witness in helping to construct a lawsuit against the school. By the end of this meeting, he thought both persons intended to be helpful. He made it clear to them he felt totally betrayed by the high school principal. Next, he insisted I drive him to the high school and set up a meeting with the Principal, and the high school counselor. He was told that the Assistant Principal would meet with him on the morning of May 13, 2010, at 8:30 a.m. When he got to the meeting, the Principal and high school counselor were present. At a point in time, the high school principal made it clear she was not going to be helpful and was going to do nothing until the following semester and then only band and an occasional meeting with the school counselor. Dr. Bergantino went into a tirade in the meeting, telling the principal and the counselor in no uncertain terms that either I was giving him permission to direct the course of affairs or I was not, in which case his participation to help my daugher was over; and if he did give me permission, this meeting was over and we were on our way to immediately seek out legal counsel to file a lawsuit against the school, for intentionally jeopardizing the academic and emotional well-being of Mimi Rabert prior to his return to Los Angeles. The Principal looked to me as the father and attempted to get me to back down from Dr. Bergantino’s position, while she was offering nothing. I said He has full authority from me as a parent to do whatever he feels is in my daughter’s best interest. The school counselor acted as if he were going to start a fight with Dr. Bergantino, telling him that he could not idly sit by and watch Dr. Bergantino run roughshod over his principal. As Dr. Bergantino began to stand up and made it clear he was not a man to be bluffed, the principal changed her tune. Assigned school counselor to be involved as the school liaison in weekly counselling sessions with Mimi, the Father, and for one session Reemo [the brother] and the mother when she was in Tucson. It was made clear that all of Dr. Bergantino’s work would be pro bono (as were the guitar lessons.) It was made clear that his methods were unorthodox and not likely to be understood by school personnel.

Dr. Bergantino spent a great deal of time visiting our family at our home on the dates of May 12, 2010, through May 16, 2010. I would have to describe these as clinical visits, the outcome of which was miraculous. For example, Mimi refused to speak with me and hardly ever left her room, while spending hours on the Internet. Dr. Bergantino began shouting loud enough for her to hear, to me: I want you to go to the hardware store, buy a padlock, and lock her room! At least that way you will be in charge of the family madness! So Mimi began to leave her room so she could spy on Dr. Bergantino because he could be dangerous to her from her point of view if left unwatched (she did not want any interference with her successful blackmail of me and her brother). Then, from Mimi’s point of view she had no reason to come out of her room, because I could not discuss the problem without being extremely offensive to Reemo. So when Reemo was late for dinner from football practice, and I wanted to save him the biggest steak, Dr. Bergantino said: That little b– isn’t on time for dinner! Give him leftovers! Give Mimi the big steak! She began to laugh uproariously and came out of the room more and more for lively visits with us. In other words, Dr. Bergantino turned the situation around in about four days of live-in therapy. He sounded off the wall, and I did understand what he did when he did it, but by the time of our visit at school on May 13 or 14, 2010, the results were already positive and I told the principal about his success. On that basis he turned control of the situation over to Dr. Bergantino. Sessions occurred on June 14, 2010, 1 p.m. on Monday, June 21, 2010, and July 6, 2010. They lasted about 30 minutes (by telephone).

During the first session, a school psychologist sat in on the session, which was not part of the arrangement. When Dr. Bergantino assessed who sent for her and for what purpose, he stated that unless she understood he had total control of the way the sessions were conducted and she could remain as a student in that she had no experience doing family therapy, she could get out now! While it sounded as if she had a choice, he actually threw her out, sending a message to the principal.

Dr. Bergantino said several times that he could not have done it without me, in that some of the encounters he had with me on the weekend he stayed in my home were fierce and socially intolerable. I told him I had complete faith that he would never let up on getting help for my daughter, and given those feelings I was glad he crossed the boundaries of our social relationship, which has continued to bring lasting value to not only my daughter’s life (in that her grades are back up and she loves taking clarinet lessons); but in that the interactions among my son and daughter and me are lively, engaging, and more considerate of each other than they had ever been, and therefore the results are likely to carry on into the future.

––Robert Rabert, Tucson 9/6/2010

LEN BERGANTINO, Ed.D., ABPP

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TO XLIBRIS

PUBLISHING COMPANY STAFF

Michelle Postrano is a manager with tenacity. Her greatest asset is in knowing the entire playing field and getting the football across the goal line. Thank you Michelle!

Thank you to Carlos Cortes for being there in ways I needed him to be there when I needed him to be there.

Sarah Perkins has been quite helpful in getting the manuscript ready for the production team.

Sheila Legaspi has been instrumental in putting together the final manuscript for final production and design.

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A REVIEW

By DONALD B. RINSLEY, M.D., F.R.S.H.,

Fellow, American College of Psychoanalysts;

Fellow, American Psychiatric Association

Psychotherapy, Insight and Style.

By Len Bergantino, Ed.D., Ph.D.

Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1981, 288 pp.

Published in Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic,

Vol. 47, No. 5, September 1983.

T HERE IS NO DOUBT THAT SOME PEOPLE POSSESS A HEALING CAPACITY AND THAT OTHERS DO NOT; NOR IS THERE ANY DOUBT THAT A ZULU WITCH DOCTOR, A PUERTO RICAN CURANDERO, A NAVAHO MEDICINE MAN OR A VOODOO SPIRITIST MAY REMIT SYMPTOMS MORE EFFECTIVELY THAN THE BEST TRAINED PSYCHOTHERAPIST OR PSYCHOANALYST. The differences between healing and therapy are not inconspicuous even as both may readily dissolve into quackery in the hands of the exploitive and the unscrupulous. A wise Freud once commented that the function of psychoanalysis is to convert neurotic misery into ordinary human suffering, a point of view to be dismissed only at one’s peril even though it doubtless reflected the essence of Freud’s depressive personality. From such few considerations as these emerge questions concerning the differences separating healing and therapy, the features that unite them and the goals and objectives they may be noted to share. And whatever answers to these questions may satisfy those who propound them will reflect whether one’s Weltanschauung considers the world to be a vale of tears or, after the fashion of the Gallic optimist, Coué, a place where everything keeps getting better and better.

Dr. Bergantino’s book in scholarly and even entertaining fashion sets out to address issues such as these. The blurb on its bookjacket states that it integrates 17 prominent therapists’ styles and problem solving techniques . . . Its more accurate subtitle, The Existential Moment reflects the author’s searching awareness that effective psychological healing, or psychotherapy, or whatever one chooses to call such interpersonal transactional processes ultimately expands one’s awareness, hence one’s knowledge of one’s self, one’s surround and the relationship between them; and further, that such awareness and knowledge develops in saltatory fashion, deriving from unheralded and even momentary experiences of insight, illumination (aha!) or unconscious internal change. So far so good, but there is after all nothing new in that, so why read yet another book devoted to arresting human experiences that many believe to be inexplicable and unteachable?

There are at least two answers to that question. To begin with, the book reflects the personal odyssey of a trained, disciplined yet openminded professional psychologist who has drunk deeply at the wells of an number of acknowledged healer-therapists whose work he has carefully studied and evaluated, among them, Viktor Frankl, Wilfred Bion, the Gouldings, Frederick Perls, Milton Erickson and Carl Whitaker. A unique feature of Dr. Bergantino’s presentation is his detailed accounts of these therapists’ hour-to-hour work, drawn from his own personal experience and from verbatim descriptions provided by their students and analysands, offering fascinating and instructive insights into the therapeutic labors of admittedly gifted treaters. The book is thus replete with clinical material, excerpts from therapeutic encounters and direct reports of those precious aha-type moments, conveyed within a disciplined epistemic context that presents each example in terms of ethical professionalism rather than exemplary amateurishness.

Again, the book reflects its author’s ongoing growth and development as both thinker and therapist. Dr. Bergantino has gone to great length to converse and consult with both primary and secondary sources, delving into the what and the how, ferreting out illustrative clinical situations and indicating how he has proceeded to synthesize and integrate what he has learned from them and from his own therapeutic work. His book is indeed a literate statement of how one clinician has made of himself a therapist and his statement is both informative and poignant.

As I read this book my thoughts returned to a little-known 1962 Psychiatric Quarterly paper by Ernst Federn, the son of the psychoanalyst Paul Federn, entitled The Therapeutic Personality. As Illustrated by Paul Federn and August Aichorn. It described in some detail the uniquely intuitive therapeutic work of these two outstanding clinicians, drawn from the author’s own experience of knowing them both; Federn and Aichorn brought disciplined artistry to their respective therapeutic tasks in working psychoanalytically with difficult cases, Federn with psychotics, Aichorn with disturbed adolescents; both readily sensed suffering and never flinched from addressing it; both could occupy honored places in Dr. Bergantino’s book. I learned much from that paper and I have learned much from Dr. Bergantino’s book as well.

Psychotherapy, Insight and Style is an absorbing work, to be returned to time and again after one has read it through, to be thought about, MULLED OVER AND PLACED ON ONE’S BEDSIDE TABLE IF NOT UNDER ONE’S PILLOW. It is a book that the EXPERIENCED CLINICIAN will read with knowledgeable satisfaction and that the NASCENT THERAPIST will read with excitement. And both will profit from what it has to tell.

Donald Rinsley, M.D., F.R.S.H.

Senior Faculty Member in Adult and

Child Psychiatry, Karl Menninger

School of Psychiatry

Associate Chief for Education, Psychiatry Service, Colmery-O’Neil

Veterans Administration Medical Center

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Rinsley was on the circuit with Harold Searles MD (the best American Psychoanalyst), and Otto Kernberg MD. If you read between the lines, he said I was the best alive then!

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Dear Publisher:

I have an idea that will make us a small fortune. Enclosed is a book to which I own the copyright that was a master classic in the field as a professional book. IT WAS NEVER MARKETED TO THE STUDENT POPULATIONS WHO STUDY PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSELING!!!!!

THE BOOK INTEGRATES AND GIVES CLINICAL EXAMPLES OF ALL THE MOST EFFECTIVE PSYCHIATRISTS AND PSYCHOLOGISTS OF AN ERA BETWEEN 1970 and 1985, AND MANY WILL AGREE ARE THE BEST THAT EVER LIVED.

IN THAT CONTEXT THE BOOK NEEDS A NEW TITLE ALONG THE LINES OF THE HISTORY OF EXCELLENCE IN PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSELING: A TRANSMISSION OF THE CULTURE.

HISTORY OF THE BOOK

The book was originally published by a Boston House named Allyn & Bacon, Inc. in 1981. It was their intention to break into THE PSYCHOLOGY MARKET with my book. My editor, Eugene McCann -did a marvelous job and the book far exceeded expectations, getting reviews from not only world renown psychologists but also world renown psychiatrists and the book cut across all theoretical models of doing psychotherapy in that the reviews came from all places! I even had reviews by both Carl Whitaker, M.D. and Tom Malone, M.D. both of whom who wrote THE ROOTS OF PSYCHOTHEAPY in 1956. Furthur, Whitaker was the premiere family therapist in the world at the time he reviewed my work and wrote the forward to the book.

Other markets include

1. I am a clinical member of The International Transactional Analysis Association and I have detailed clinical examples of Bob Goulding, M.D. and Mary Goulding, M.S.W. who were the two most prominent clinicians ever with ITAA.

2. I have a section on Wilfred Bion, the great British psychoanalyst, perhaps following only Freud and Melanie Klein with twelve tape recorded interviews that one of his supervisees -an MD from a psychoanalytic institute permitted to be published.

3. I have a section on my training with Milton Erickson, MD the kernels of which permit one to actually do some of what this genius pioneer did in brief psychotherapy and clinical hypnosis.

4. I have clinical examples of three world renown gestalt therapists named Jim Simkin and Erv and Miriam Polster. They are three of the best that ever lived.

5. I have clinical examples of Walter Kempler, M.D., perhaps more effective than Carl Whitaker, M.D. doing family therapy but not as famous.

6. Donald Rinsley, M.D. wrote a review for the Bulletin of The Menninger Clinic by 1983 which made the book a hot property.

A. Allyn & Bacon decided not to go into the psychology market after all and did not republish the book.

B. In 1986 Jason Aronson, M.D. republished the book under its original title Psychotherapy Insight & Style: The Existential Moment and twice made it Book of the Month for Psychotherapy And Social Science Review Book Club, which was the hottest book club for professionals in 1986 and 1987.

C. In 1992 Humanistiche Psychologie of Cologne (Koln) Germany translated the book into German and published it in Germany.

D. In 1994 Jason Aronson, M.D. republished the book under a new title in keeping with the times entitled MAKING AN IMPACT IN THERAPY: HOW MASTER CLINICIANS INTERVENE.

E. In 1999 the book went out of print and Jason Aronson Publishers returned the copyright to me. There was a Professor of Counseling at one of the branches of the University of Wisconsin in the Dept. of Education that bought several hundred for about five years that I had made up much as what I have enclosed for your review. (Dr. Marty Sapp)

F. ALL IN ALL THE BOOK SOLD ROUGHLY 6000 COPIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

G. At the time the book was too scary for college professors in that they could not do what was in the book or anything close to it so the book would only expose their inadequacies - so it became part of Jason Aronson’s MASTER CLASSIC SERIES FOR PROFESSIONALS FROM 1994-1999.

H. TODAY THE BOOK IS A TRANSMISSION OF THE CULTURE ON WHAT THE GREATS DID TO GET RESULTS DOING PSYCHOTHERAPY.

I. THE BOOK IS TIMELY FOR THE COLLEGE GRADUATE SCHOOL MARKET AND WILL PREVENT THE FIELD FROM HAVING TO REINVENT THE WHEEL BY PROVDING A TRANSMISSION OF THE CULTURE OF WHAT WAS ONCE GREATNESS IN THE FIELD OF PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSELING!

I LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU!

SINCERELY,

Len Bergantino, Ed.D., Ph.D., ABPP

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FOREWORD

Making an Impact in Therapy:

How Master Clinicians Intervene

JASON ARONSON INC.

Northvale, New Jersey

London

T HE PLETHORA OF how-to books is increasing. This is not one of those. My wife at the time Betz stated that the dynamics of psychotherapy is in the person of the therapist. Abraham Maslow stated that the peak experience lasts two weeks. Winicott insisted that if you haven’t been hated by your psychotherapist you have been cheated. Erenwald has stated that psychotherapy is the effort to evolve an existential shift.

Len Bergantino is trying to expand this operational territory by stretching the psychotherapeutic geology. He succeeds. Describing the therapist as a person of liberated wisdom, he dares to the chaos and anxiety of not knowing; he opens a gate to see and make the impact of psychotherapy more clearly. His description of beingness as a process is reminiscent of Paul Tillich. His grasp of responsible involvement with the patient as a discipline of self shows his own search for creative options. He makes no pretense of camouflaging the psychotherapist as a wounded healer. Furthermore, Len makes crucial the pattern of the therapist’s search for his own healing and successfully validates the authentic trickery of the psychotherapist as a liberated spirit. The approach to his own craziness, the freedom from the culture bind, and the discipline of self each emerged as obtainable goals of that professional parent we call the psychotherapist.

Further evidence of his own search is illustrated by his impersonalized impressionistic response to the other searchers he uses as models.

Simply reading his book leaves me feeling it would be meaningful to join in his search for his beingness. Though he would be enjoying himself and enjoying me as a patient, he would not be doing things to keep from being himself and thus I could be more fully myself.

Carl A. Whitaker, M.D.

Professor of Psychiatry

School of Medicine

University of Wisconsin

PREFACE

T HIS IS A book for professional psychotherapists, psychoanalysts and counselors; students in those areas of specialty; and lay persons who are interested in the essence of effective therapy, and how some of the people who do it best practice their art. For professionals the book presents a personal way of viewing therapy that can add pleasurable options. Each of the therapists with whom I worked, and myself, all had a feeling of enjoyment that we hope will carry over to the office and practices of the readers. For students of therapy the book offers a search for a professional stature and working posture that may be of value in the development of each student’s unique personal style. For lay persons the book speaks of therapy that can make an impact and how some of the most potent therapists practiced.

I wrote the book with the intention of having it be both an experience and an explanation. I have presented it according to my developmental needs while maturing personally and professionally. This was done so the book might be informative at the conscious level, entertaining at the child level, and persuasive at the unconscious level.

The existential moment is the thread that ties the book together; it is a moment of therapeutic potency. While all moments are existential by definition, there are certain moments that are more powerful in helping patients live happier and healthier lives. Positive results, whether they be from one session, or over the long haul, are partially, if not fully, a result of existential moments.

Basically, I think of existential moments as those moments of contact that powerfully flow from the uniqueness of a therapist to cause a therapeutic response to affect change in patients. These existential moments may take place at either the conscious or unconscious levels and usually include accentuated contact (1) between patient and therapist (usually but not necessarily of an authentic nature), (2) between alienated parts of a patient suffering from inner conflict, (3) between patient and environment. It can also occur as a result of a particular therapeutic method that leaves a patient feeling freer to choose to live differently, and may enhance the quality of the patient’s being in terms of answering the question To Be or Not to Be? In practice, these existential moments may appear to at times be contradictory, but they are not in that each therapist and each style presents a unique way of making impact.

Through these moments can be seen one way of integrating a variety of therapy methods. But even more important than the theories it can be seen why the particular people I write about stand out above their theories. I try to capture them as vital, responsive people who practice their art, which flows from their nature in most creative ways.

Each school of therapy has its potent therapists who affect patients in ways that are conducive to change. These therapists not only help patients to facilitate change, but they do so with efficiency. The book attempts to capture the nature and method of that efficiency. That is not meant to imply that personal growth doesn’t take time. But the therapist’s ability will affect the outcome of the therapy.

The therapists I experienced as leaving the kind of impression that lasts and facilitates change are those I have written about. They have read what I have written about them and have been generous with their time and commentary in helping to