I have long wanted to understand, solely for my own understanding, such a widespread and controversially assessed phenomenon as “personal growth training” (PGR). The phenomenon arose naturally in the USA. Kurt Lewin (09.09.1890 - 12.02.1947) came up with the idea of ​​conducting group trainings to change certain characteristics of an individual’s behavior. He proposed a model of group change: change in any group of people goes through three stages: “unfreezing” (destruction of the existing system of values ​​and guidelines among group members), “change” (introduction of a new system of values ​​and guidelines) and “new freezing” (fixation of a new state ).This theory was confirmed in practice - during trainings. Dealing with the issue of leadership. The main result of the research he led since 1939 was the identification of three leadership styles: authoritarian, democratic and laissez-faire. In 1946, he began work on an experiment that laid the foundations of group psychotherapy. In early 1947, these experimental studies led to the creation of the government-sponsored National Training Laboratory in Bethel, Maine, a training laboratory designed to retrain government leaders. The form of group training itself appeared in the 1940s in America, and the concept of personal growth appeared 15–20 years later. It was first formulated by the authors of the humanistic trend in psychology (it appeared in the early 1960s) - American psychologists Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. Subsequently, it was picked up by representatives of other psychological trends. The beautiful term “personal growth” means the systematic development of a person’s internal potential. And “personal growth” also has certain criteria. For example, expanding interests and incentives to live; the ability to analyze (better understand yourself and others) and synthesize (see connections between events and phenomena); increasing internal freedom and independence; love for yourself and the world; personal and voluntary responsibility; improving the quality of a person’s relationships with other people (including loved ones) and so on. All this, if desired and using high-quality methods, is quite amenable to scrupulous mathematical calculation. There is an opinion that personal growth trainings (PLT) began with meetings of groups of Alcoholics Anonymous, which also appeared in the middle of the 20th century in the USA. And then analogues of such meetings became popular in other groups of the population. The progenitors of the “classical” TLR turned out to be three American students who, in order to write their thesis in the seventies of the last century, organized and conducted the first training on the materials of their diploma with their own friends. The practice turned out to be positive, and friends asked to repeat the training with their relatives, and they, having completed it, brought more people with a request to repeat it for them. That's how it all began. The names of these students were Alexander Everett, Werner Erhard and John Henley. Later, being practicing specialists, each of them organized their own training school with certain specifics. Mind Dynamics training and subsequently the company of the same name were founded by Alexander Everett in 1968 in Texas, USA. Alexander Everett's training was a harbinger and prototype of trainings for personal growth, awareness of the truths of existence, leadership practice and team effectiveness, which appeared later in the USA. Despite the fact that Mind Dynamics only existed for a few years, it was certainly the generator of the entire training industry around the world.A. Everett completed the work in 1968, which formed the basis of training in sensations aimed at unlocking human potential Mind Dynamics, which later became the prototype for trainings est (est), Lifespring (Lifespring), Actualizations (Actualizations) and some other training organizations unleashing human potential that has blossomed to its full potential since the beginningthe seventies and continued its development into the 1980s. Alexander Everett (died 2005) argued that Mind Dynamics had its roots in the various avenues of spiritual and personal growth that he had been exploring since leaving England. A. Everett named Zen Buddhism, Blavatsky’s Theosophy, Egyptology, Hinduism, Rosicrucians and much more as his primary influence on the philosophy of his training, although he forgot to mention Kurt Lewin. But, let’s return to Alexander Everett. The result of his work was a four-day training, which largely consisted of practical exercises. Oddly enough, the training gained its popularity not in Texas, where it was first presented, but in California, where Alexander Everett was soon invited to present his work. The result of this trip was that the headquarters of Mind Dynamics moved in 1970 to San Francisco. It should be noted that the training enjoyed increased interest and popularity not only in California. Over the next four years of the company's existence, the Dynamics of Mind course was successfully taught throughout the United States, Europe and Australia. Alexander Everett (he turned 80 in 2000) believed that the organization was growing too quickly and had grown much larger than him counted. Soon its management was filled with young, dynamic employees whom he had hired not so long ago. Alexander mentored a galaxy of young trainers who soon became leaders in the human potential movement that began in the mid-1970s and subsequently spread throughout the United States. Mind Dynamics training brought success to its creator and attracted the attention of William Penn Patrick Patrick), the owner of a pyramidal cosmetics sales network called "Holiday Magic". This man was also the owner of the training company Leadership Dynamics. Soon after, in 1970, he purchased Everett's training, intending to use it as an additional training tool for his distributors. While the “Dynamics of the Mind” was a non-confrontational course of self-analysis and auto-training, similar to the Silva Method, the “Dynamics of Leadership” program was distinguished by a rigid confrontational system of interaction with the training group. The influence of both of these trainings subsequently manifested itself in many training programs created later. The training gave people a feeling of starting a new life, because Everett, as follows from Lewin’s theory, freed his clients from the burden of negative experiences - those very unfinished situations. The seminar was a success, and in 1970 it was purchased by William Penn Patrick, who owned the Holiday Magic company, which distributed cosmetics using a network marketing model. It was William Patrick who had the honor of creating the first real psycho-training for managers. Patrick's training was called Leadership Dynamics, and any distributor who expected to take a leadership position at Holiday Magic was required to take it. Since in network marketing it is customary to pay for career advancement, no one was surprised that the Leadership Dynamics course required $1,000. If a student decided to leave the course after transferring the money, the fee was not returned to him. The training took place in a California hotel and the entire course took four days. The training began with each participant signing a document agreeing that their mental health could be harmed during the training and that they would not sue the organization in general, nor on individual instructors. The listeners were led into a hall where there stood an open coffin, a cage in which a person could fit, and a large wooden cross. The instructor announced that if someone thought that his life had failed, he would be placed in a coffin and kept there until he fell in love with life; those who don't have enough freedom will end up in a cage, and those whoIf worries weigh too much, you will end up on the cross. After such an introduction, the instructor listed the rules of behavior, reminiscent of the rules of a fight club: “1. Do not punch anyone in the face, since this is the privilege of instructors. Anyone can punch anyone in the body. Hitting instructors is prohibited, and it is also forbidden to even think about hitting instructors.” After this, watches, keys, cigarettes and other small personal items were taken from the trainees. things. Then a nightmare began for the seminar participants. Each listener in turn was called to the instructor, who mocked his physical disabilities, humiliated him and demanded that others ask him the most uncomfortable questions such as how much he earns, why he is so fat, why his wife has not yet left such a weakling like him, etc. n. The listeners were beaten, although not painfully, locked in a coffin and called nothing other than “a piece of shit.” Впрочем, слова «жид» и «ниггер» также употреблялись. According to Patrick's plan, all this was supposed to erase the previous personality and reforge the weakling and klutz into a tough and strong-willed leader. The main quality that they tried to cultivate at this training, oddly enough, was considered pride. Soon the company was bombarded with lawsuits from ex-listeners, who apparently still remembered their pride, and in the end Holiday Magic was recognized as a pyramid scheme and closed. Shortly after this, Patrick died in a plane crash. So, going beyond the laboratory, Kurt Lewin's theory turned out to be a well-monetized business strategy. Business in personal growth trainings. Really great success in the training business came to one of Alexander Everett’s former instructors, Werner Erhard. The future guru was born near Philadelphia, and his real name is Jack Rosenberg. He had a stable job, a wife and four children when, in the early 1960s, Jack suddenly ran away from his family and went West with a new lover. Apparently, in order to finally break with his past life, Jack Rosenberg changed his name to the German one - Werner Hans Erhard. In 1971, Werner Erhard founded a group training called EST, which stood for “Erhard training seminars” and at the same time was a Latin word that translates as “is” (“exists”, “is”). The first seminar took place in October 1971 at the Jack Tar Hotel in San Francisco. Almost 1000 people were present in the audience - such a number of participants has never been seen at any training. Considering that the four-day training session over two consecutive weekends cost $250 and the overhead was minimal, the training was a very profitable venture from the start. Subsequently, expenses remained small, since Erhard did not conduct advertising campaigns, paid instructors little, and did not pay most of the volunteer assistants from among those who “received THIS” at all. The only advertisers of the seminar (free, of course) were the same EST graduates, who invited more and more new students to the training. At the beginning of the seminar, the instructor announced to the students that they were all “assholes”, that their life was an “asshole”, and their beliefs and life experiences are still the same “goat” ones. The mentor explained to the audience that they were a bunch of despicable losers for whom “life didn’t work”, unlike those who “got IT” and for whom “life worked.” At the same time, students were forbidden to go out, stand up, talk, smoke, take medications, or generally do anything that the instructors did not specifically ask them to do. The biggest problem was the inability to go to the toilet. In total, the seminars lasted from 16 to 20 hours, and there were few breaks. During the lecture, the instructor, as usual, mocked the listeners, but there was no talk of coffins and beatings. Endlessly long and tedious speeches, full of sarcasm, combined with constant sitting in chairs, put people into a state of prostration, which, in fact, was required. After all, when a person is disoriented, he, as you know, grabs the nearest “bell.” Speeches dedicated to the “goatiness” of the listeners’ livesseminar, moved on to simple meditation exercises taken from the Mind Dynamics arsenal. “There is an empty space in your left leg. An empty space forms in your right leg. An empty space is forming in your head,” etc. When people finally relaxed, they were read a “poem” - a set of auto-training statements about their own power. After this, people were taught that they were fully responsible for their destiny and should be happy with what they had. According to the recollections of seminar graduates, over time they began to feel that the whole training was a complete scam. And just with this feeling came enlightenment. People really “got IT”, feeling the absurdity of what was happening, and at the same time the absurdity of their small problems in the face of a huge world full of possibilities. Thus, a person without a university education was able to implement the basic precepts of Kurt Lewin - “unfreezing” was followed by a break with the negative past, and then a new worldview was instilled in people, based on the recognition of their own strengths and personal responsibility for their destiny. The training was a huge success, and Erhard’s income grew year to year. Over the years of the training's existence, about 700 thousand people have passed through EST. The corporation's annual income was about $30 million. But there were also difficulties. Since the late 1970s, EST has been subject to regular criticism in the press. Erhard was accused of authoritarianism, infringement of individual rights, creating a pyramid, selling a “spiritual drug” and simply charlatanism. Finally, in 1990, Erhard's daughter Claire, who worked with her father, accused a Mercury News reporter of offering her $2 million to lie about her father's abuse. Another problem was that in the decade after Since the beginning of the seminars, the country and the people who lived in it have changed. The hippies thirsting for enlightenment were replaced by a generation of yuppies - careerists who were confident in themselves without any training. But Erhard managed to cope with this problem. In 1985, he officially closed EST and founded a new training called Forum. Erhard himself spoke about his new brainchild: “Successful, healthy and accomplished people come to the Forum, who have nothing to complain about, who have no problems, but who are facing new challenges.” This is how a new program was born - a training in which successful people who want to become even more successful participate. We can say that if the Forum itself grew out of a seminar for losers, then from the Forum grew modern training companies that provide services for developing management skills among managers and corporate spirit among employees. In 1991, Erhard retired and sold his training know-how to his senior managers who renamed his brainchild “Landmark Forum”. Here is an interesting article by psychologist T.A. Kudeyarova., https://dzen.ru/media/id/60eac9eae2e85e65ccb41229/laifspring-trening-lichnostnogo-rosta-60f179b3b89e844dc16867fd author of the book “Psychological rehabilitation of maladjusted participants in destructive cults” about Lifespring - “personal growth” training Lifespring (life spring - from English . - source of life) is a private commercial organization, a sect of personal growth, founded in the USA in 1974 by John Henley. Lifespring trainings usually contain a three-level program: The first level is the basic program (main course); The second level is the transformation program (advanced course); The third level is the leadership program. The basic course does not use strict methods, since the main goal is to attract participants to the advanced well. To do this, they need to be mentally prepared for it, influencing the subconscious using psychoprogramming techniques: NLP, hypnosis, states of emotional and physical overload. An advanced course - working with the participant’s consciousness, its transformation. Thus, a person who does not know methods of protection from psychological influence “breaks down” in three days, because... During the training, his psyche is subjected to a powerful influence to introduce constructs and stereotypes into it. Very dense