Daniel Harold Casriel
Encyclopedia
Daniel Harold Casriel was an American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and author. He was born in New York City on 1 Mar, 1924 and died at his home in Manhattan on 7 June 1983 age 59 from a form of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS
). He is survived by his wife, the former Olivia Cohen; two sons, Seth and Lyle, both of Manhattan, and a brother, Carl Casriel, of Deal, New Jersey.
. Dr. Casriel was also a past president of the American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians.
therapeutic community on the US East coast. So impressed with what he saw there, he moved into the community for a “closer look” and wrote a book about the experience ( "So Fair A House: The story of Synanon"). In February 1963, Casriel gave $2000 to seven members of Synanon to start a community on the West Coast. The result was a house on Greens Farm Road, Westport, Connecticut directed by Jack Hurst, former president of Synanon in Santa Monica
project on Staten Island, a kind of half-way house for the rehabilitation of convicted felons who were addicts. Later, he became cofounder, psychiatric director and medical superintendent of Daytop Village, now one of the world’s largest therapeutic communities
, a group psychotherapy that uses screaming, hugging and affirmations of basic needs.
on the top four floors of his office building. This program he called AREBA, short for Accelerated Re-education of The Emotions, Behavior and Attitudes. It consisted of about a dozen beds for young addicts who came to live, "work" and participate in the "New Identity Process". When Casriel died in 1983, former patient Steven Yohay
expanded the program and became president of AREBA Casriel, Inc., today the oldest surviving private addiction treatment centre in the United States.
In the late 1970s, Casriel began teaching his method in several European centers. The German psychiatrist, Dr. Walther H. Lechler, became one of his students and later employed the ideas extensively in the development of the Herrenalb Model http://www.klinik-bad-herrenalb.com/en/content.php?Cont=therapie_konzept&Navi=therapie of psychotherapy used at the hospital of the same name in South Germany. Another trainee was the Danish psychoanalyst, Osho
sanyassin and mystic, Shanti Kristian Dahl-Madsen. http://www.uniomystica.se/meetShanti.html. He incorporated the new identity process into a life-affirmative approach to spirituality he called 'Spiritual Hedonism',
Dan Casriel's method of group psychotherapy
is continued today through the efforts of the International Society of Bonding Psychotherapy http://www.bondingpsychotherapy.com which has members in 8 European cities as well as North and South America.
ALS
ALS refers to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's diseaseIt may also refer to:-Medicine:* Advanced life support, a level of medical training* Anterolateral system, part of the nervous system...
). He is survived by his wife, the former Olivia Cohen; two sons, Seth and Lyle, both of Manhattan, and a brother, Carl Casriel, of Deal, New Jersey.
Education
Casriel graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in 1949 at age twenty-five. In 1950, he began his residency at the Kingsbridge Veterans' Administration Hospital in the Bronx. Eight months into his residency he was drafted by the military and sent to Okinawa where he served as an Army psychiatrist for a year and a half.Professional training
Casriel was a trainee at the Columbia Psychoanalytic Institute for Training and Research between 1949 and 1953 and spent 7½ years in analysis Dr. Abram Kardiner, the founder of the first psychoanalytic institute in the United States and a former analysand of Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
. Dr. Casriel was also a past president of the American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians.
Private practice
In the winter of 1953 Casriel began private practice as a psychiatrist in New York City. Shortly thereafter he was appointed as a psychiatric consultant to the Metropolitan Hospital in East Harlem and the Court of Special Sessions in Manhattan where he became active in the treatment drug addicts.Author
In July 1962 Casriel visited the famous SynanonSynanon
The Synanon organization, initially a drug rehabilitation program, was founded by Charles E. "Chuck" Dederich, Sr., in 1958, in Santa Monica, California, United States...
therapeutic community on the US East coast. So impressed with what he saw there, he moved into the community for a “closer look” and wrote a book about the experience ( "So Fair A House: The story of Synanon"). In February 1963, Casriel gave $2000 to seven members of Synanon to start a community on the West Coast. The result was a house on Greens Farm Road, Westport, Connecticut directed by Jack Hurst, former president of Synanon in Santa Monica
Consultancy
In the summer of the same year, Casriel became the psychiatric consultant for the Daytop LodgeDaytop
Daytop, or Daytop Village, is a drug addiction treatment organization with facilities in New York and New Jersey. It was founded in 1963 by Dr. Daniel Casriel M.D along with Monsignor William B. O'Brien a Roman Catholic priest and founder and the president of the World Federation of Therapeutic...
project on Staten Island, a kind of half-way house for the rehabilitation of convicted felons who were addicts. Later, he became cofounder, psychiatric director and medical superintendent of Daytop Village, now one of the world’s largest therapeutic communities
Experiments
In the fall of 1963, Casriel, now age 39, began experimenting with group therapy in his private practice in New York. He began leading groups alone and with peer group leaders like David A. Deitch, the Synanon director at Westport. In 1972 he released his findings to the public in a book titled "A Scream Away From Happiness" where he describes The New Identity ProcessBonding psychotherapy
Bonding Psychotherapy is a process of group therapy originally developed by New York psychiatrist Daniel Casriel between 1965 and 1983. The method was called "The New Identity Process" but was officially changed in 2001 by the organization which continues his work....
, a group psychotherapy that uses screaming, hugging and affirmations of basic needs.
Methods
By the late 1960s, Dr Casriel had extended his private practice to include a small therapeutic communityTherapeutic community
Therapeutic community is a term applied to a participative, group-based approach to long-term mental illness, personality disorders and drug addiction...
on the top four floors of his office building. This program he called AREBA, short for Accelerated Re-education of The Emotions, Behavior and Attitudes. It consisted of about a dozen beds for young addicts who came to live, "work" and participate in the "New Identity Process". When Casriel died in 1983, former patient Steven Yohay
Steven Yohay
Steven J Yohay is principal shareholder and chief executive officer of the ACI healthcare group, comprising AREBA Casriel, Inc. Steven Yohay is involved in musical theater, having invested in such Broadway hits as The Producers, Hairspray, Sweeney Todd, and Little Shop of Horrors-Background:Steven...
expanded the program and became president of AREBA Casriel, Inc., today the oldest surviving private addiction treatment centre in the United States.
In the late 1970s, Casriel began teaching his method in several European centers. The German psychiatrist, Dr. Walther H. Lechler, became one of his students and later employed the ideas extensively in the development of the Herrenalb Model http://www.klinik-bad-herrenalb.com/en/content.php?Cont=therapie_konzept&Navi=therapie of psychotherapy used at the hospital of the same name in South Germany. Another trainee was the Danish psychoanalyst, Osho
Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)
Osho , born Chandra Mohan Jain , and also known as Acharya Rajneesh from the 1960s onwards, as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh during the 1970s and 1980s and as Osho from 1989, was an Indian mystic, guru, and spiritual teacher who garnered an international following.A professor of philosophy, he travelled...
sanyassin and mystic, Shanti Kristian Dahl-Madsen. http://www.uniomystica.se/meetShanti.html. He incorporated the new identity process into a life-affirmative approach to spirituality he called 'Spiritual Hedonism',
Dan Casriel's method of group psychotherapy
Group psychotherapy
Group psychotherapy or group therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group...
is continued today through the efforts of the International Society of Bonding Psychotherapy http://www.bondingpsychotherapy.com which has members in 8 European cities as well as North and South America.
Quotes
"Screaming is an emotional exercise that frees the individual from symptomatic pain and leads to the deeper feelings he has disguised"Books
- "So Fair A House: The story of Synanon" New York: Prentice-Hall. 1963
- "Daytop: Three Addicts and Their Cure". New York: Hill & Wang. 1971
- "A Scream Away From Happiness". New York: Grosset & Dunlap. 1972