Dick Price

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For other people named Dick Price, see Dick Price (disambiguation).
Richard Price
Gestalt Practice
Known forCo-founder of Esalen Institute
SpouseChristine Stewart Price+
ChildrenDavid and Jennifer

Richard Price (October 12, 1930 – November 25, 1985) was co-founder of the

Gestalt Practice,[2][3] partly based upon Gestalt therapy and Buddhist practice.[4]
: 35 

Price consciously applied psychological principles to his sense of self, and helped many people work to do the same. His work remains at the core of the Esalen experience.[5]: 320–21 

Early life

Dick Price was born October 12, 1930, to Herman and Audrey Price in Rogers Park.[1]: 134  He died when he was struck by a boulder while hiking near Esalen on November 25, 1985, and is survived by his wife, Christine Stewart Price,[6] and two children, David and Jennifer Price. Price had a twin brother, Bobby, who died in 1933, and a sister Joan who was born in 1929.[1]: 134 

Price's father

Chicago
.

During

B-17 in particular. Although Herman was a charismatic businessman, he was an emotionally withdrawn and distant father for Dick.[citation needed
]

Price's mother,

Dutch, Irish and English heritage. Audrey was a domineering figure in the family, and a problematic and intrusive mother for Dick.[citation needed
]

In 1941, the Price family moved to Kenilworth on the North Shore of Chicago. Dick graduated from New Trier High School in 1948.[1]: 136  He joined New Trier's wrestling team and placed second in his weight class in the state of Illinois.

College education

Price graduated from Stanford University in 1952 with a major in psychology.[1]: 137  While at Stanford, Price studied with both Gregory Bateson and Frederic Spiegelberg. They would later prove to be pivotal influences when he founded and developed programs at Esalen Institute.[5]: 70–72 [2]: 47–53  He did graduate work in the social relations department at Harvard University, although he left before completing his degree because of his frustration with the conservative, research-oriented faculty.[1]: 137–8 

San Francisco

After leaving Harvard in 1955, Price enlisted in the

Beat scene was an emerging social trend. Dick knew most of the primary figures, including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Gary Snyder.[1]: 139–40  Dick married his first wife, Bonnie, in a Zen ceremony.[5]
: 38 

Psychosis

In 1956, Price experienced an episode of manic psychosis in San Francisco[1]: 142  which he later described as simply "a state", what he believed was a mental break that was transitory and which he needed to go through and experience rather than repress or manage.[1]: 143 

On December 7, 1956, his parents involuntarily committed him to the

misdiagnosed with schizophrenia. He was subjected to physical confinement and major tranquilizers, along with numerous electroconvulsive and insulin shock treatments. While committed, his mother had his marriage annulled[1]: 145  He was released almost a year later on Thanksgiving Day 1957.[1]
: 134 

Price wrote about his hospitalization experience:

There was a fundamental mistake being made and that mistake was supposing that the healing process was the disease, rather than the process whereby the disease is healed. The disease, if any, was the state previous to the "psychosis." ... The so-called "psychosis" was an attempt towards spontaneous healing, and it was a movement towards health, not a movement towards disease.... In some categories it would be called mystical, really a re-owning and discovery of parts of myself.[8]

After he was hospitalized, he was discharged from the Air Force, and went to work for his uncle's sign company in Chicago, Price Brothers.[1]: 142  Price never forgave his parents for their actions.[1]: 146  Price did not like working for the sign company.[1]: 146 

Founds Esalen Institute

In May 1960, Price returned to San Francisco and lived in the East-West House with Taoist teacher Gia-Fu Feng. That year he also met fellow Stanford University graduate Michael Murphy at Haridas Chaudhuri's Cultural Integration Fellowship where Murphy was in residence.[1]: 147  Dick moved into the Cultural Integration Fellowship as well. The two men conceived of the idea of a place where individuals could become open to ways of thinking while avoiding the dogma often associated with groups organized around a single idea promoted by a charismatic leader. In 1961, Murphy and Price visited the oceanside property in Big Sur, California owned by Murphy's family.[8] The property included natural hot springs.

In 1962, using the Murphy property and capital that Dick had accumulated,[1]: 148  along with assistance from Alan Watts, Aldous Huxley, Laura Huxley, Gerald Heard, Gregory Bateson and Frederic Spiegelberg (with whom both had studied at Stanford),[1]: 147  Price and Murphy founded the Esalen Institute. Among other objectives, Price saw Esalen as an alternative to then current mental health practice, especially the practices of mental hospitals.[1]: 150–52  Esalen was to be a place where inner process could move forward safely and without interruption.

Previously, the natural hot springs baths on the Murphy property were part of a run-down resort (known as

encounter group" process.[1]: 152  George Leonard, Joseph Campbell and Ida Rolf were among the many people who had an impact upon Esalen's development. In 1974, Price married his second wife, Christine Stewart Price, who became his primary collaborator at Esalen.[2]: 359–60 [5]: 299 [1]
: 156 

Altered state research

Price's interest in the expansion of human potentials led him to investigate many avenues of research, including the exploration of altered states of consciousness with psychotropic substances.

empathogens, such as MDMA
, facilitated self-exploration and were helpful in psychological healing when used in conjunction with therapy.

In 1973, Price was instrumental in bringing

Holotropic Breathwork, which functioned as a substitute for psychedelic drugs.[14]

Gestalt Practice

In 1964, Fritz Perls, the psychiatrist who developed Gestalt therapy, arrived at Esalen.[15] During Perls' time at Esalen, Price became one of his primary students. He was also influenced by the work of Wilhelm Reich, who had been Perls' analyst.[2]: 360  Price worked with Perls for approximately four years, from 1966 to 1970. During this period Price experienced a second brief manic break, arising from the unresolved trauma of his commitment. Perls declared this episode fully resolved and then told Price that it was time for him to start teaching Gestalt on his own.[16]

During the time that Price ran Esalen, he educated himself widely in Western psychology and

Gestalt Practice[1]: 157  [18] that Dick Price developed remains one of his most important achievements.[1]: 157–8  [18]

Hiking practice

Price would frequently hike the trails of the Santa Lucia Range, both for pleasure and for relief from the pressures of running Esalen Institute. This became a part of his process. Hiking was often a solitary practice for him, although he regularly took other people along. Sometimes he worked with them while hiking, doing Gestalt sessions that would turn out to be quite moving.[19]

Steven Harper was one of Price's close friends[2] and hiking partners at Esalen. Harper became a permanent resident of Big Sur and a leader of wilderness process groups at Esalen. After Price's death, Harper was also able to secure the official naming of two geographic features for Price. A very prominent ridge behind Esalen is now called Price Ridge, and a trail is named Price-Gagarin Trail after Price and his friend Andrew Gagarin.[20]

Legacy

In the time since his death, Price's work has remained influential.

Gestalt Practice groups.[notes 3]

In 2013, during a period of management changes,[2]: 389  Christine Stewart Price, the widow of Dick Price, decided to withdraw from teaching at Esalen Institute. She founded an organization named Tribal Ground Circle to continue Dick Price's work.[4]: 65 [21]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Dick's life in the late 1960s was incredibly intense. Murphy had left Big Sur to live in San Francisco in 1967, leaving Dick to run the growing complexity of Esalen's Big Sur operations largely by himself." from The Only Way Out Is In p.152
  2. ^ "Differences in temperament would take the cofounders in very different directions as Esalen developed. Mike was always restless and sometimes a little uncomfortable in Big Sur. ... Dick, on the other hand, felt completely at home in Big Sur." p.149
  3. ^ "Dick's real legacy, however, was his gestalt work. In that work, he was able to help alleviate the suffering of countless others. Through his pain and suffering, Dick learned how to function as a powerful validating other in the lives of many people." from: The Only Way Out Is In: at p.160

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-253-21759-2. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  2. ^
    ISBN 9780226453699
    – via Google Books.
  3. ^ "Foreword" Manual of Gestalt Practice in the tradition of Dick Price - The Gestalt Legacy Project (2009)
  4. ^ a b c d Goldman, Marion S (2012). The American Soul Rush: Esalen and the Rise of Spiritual Privilege. New York University Press.
  5. ^
    ISBN 0-201-11034-2
    .
  6. ^ Price, Christine. "Christine Stewart Price Biography". Tribal Ground. Tribal Ground LLC. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
  7. ^ "Illinois, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records". National Archives at Chicago; Chicago, Illinois; ARC Title: Illinois, Petitions for Naturalization, 1906-1991; NAI Number: 593882; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009. Record Group Number: RG 21. 1856–1991.
  8. ^ a b "Dick Price: An Interview - Esalen".
  9. ^ Kripal, Jeffrey J. (15 April 2007). "Totally on Fire The Experience of Founding Esalen". Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion. University of Chicago Press – via Google Books.
  10. ^ Kripal, Jeffrey and Glenn W. Shuck (editors), On The Edge Of The Future: Esalen And The Evolution Of American Culture, Indiana University Press (2005) p.2
  11. ^ "Julian Silverman - Esalen".
  12. ^ "Grof - Originators And Staff". Archived from the original on 2010-06-09. Retrieved 2010-05-28.
  13. ^ Stanislav Grof, "Realms Of The Human Unconscious: Observations From LSD Research"
  14. ^ Stanislav Grof, "Physical Manifestations of Emotional disorders:Observations from the study of non-ordinary states of consciousness" in Exploring Holotropic breathwork: Selected Articles from a Decade of the Inner Door. Taylor, K [Ed.] Hanford Mead (2003)
  15. ^ Fritz Perls, In and Out the Garbage Pail, Real People Press, Lafayette, CA (1969)
  16. ^ "A History of Gestalt Practice" & "Notes on Gestalt Practice" Manual of Gestalt Practice in the tradition of Dick Price - The Gestalt Legacy Project (2009) Sections 14 & 17
  17. ^ "Notes on Gestalt Practice" Manual of Gestalt Practice in the tradition of Dick Price - The Gestalt Legacy Project (2009) Section 17
  18. ^ a b Manual of Gestalt in the tradition of Dick Price - The Gestalt Legacy Project (2009)
  19. ^ "Hiking, Wilderness Practice and Pilgrimage" Manual of Gestalt Practice in the tradition of Dick Price - The Gestalt Legacy Project (2009) Section 6
  20. ^ Monterey County Place Names, published by Monterey County, California, p. 422.
  21. ^ "Tribal Ground Circle". Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved September 29, 2016.

Further reading

External links
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