This year, CPN celebrated the research of Larry M. Leitner, Ph.D. by presenting him with the George A. Kelly Award for Scholarly Contribution to Constructivist Psychology.  Larry accepted the award at the banquet of the CPN conference held at the University of Victoria this June.

Reflecting upon Larry’s work for this article, I inevitably recalled my first interaction with him.  I was researching clinical graduate programs and had grown disheartened by the lack of variety in theoretical orientations reflected in training programs.  However, I came across Larry’s work and decided to telephone him to discuss the possibility of applying to work with him.  I dialed his number and asked for Dr. Leitner.  “Larry Leitner is dead.  May I help you?” said the voice on the other end of the telephone.  I scrambled for a response and mumbled something about extending my condolences and my desire to discuss the graduate program.  It took me another few moments to realize that I was in fact speaking with Larry.  It took me less time to realize that I should apply to the program to work with him.    

Larry’s scholarship has focused on the very question of what it means to be alive.  His articulation of Personal Construct Psychology, Experiential Personal Construct Psychology (EPCP), explores the relational and existential aspects of ROLE relating.  EPCP holds that deep, intimate relationships bring richness, meaning and vitality to our lives.  Our negotiation of the choice “between the richness yet potential terror of engaging in versus the safety yet emptiness of avoiding ROLE relationships” (Leitner & Faidley, 1995, p. 293) serves as the basis for EPCP’s understanding of persons and human pain.  Larry’s research has used this framework to describe the therapeutic process, offering a powerful conceptualization of the power of the psychotherapeutic relationship.  Larry has also extended this framework to include both a conceptual and therapeutic framework for those so injured that they have been labeled with the most damaging diagnoses.  EPCP has also articulated one of the few alternatives to the DSM.  This brief survey is a mere sampling of the ways EPCP has made an impact on constructivist research and scholarship.  I can safely say that I am not the only one to be thankful that Larry Leitner and EPCP are very much alive!

References

Leitner, L.M. & Faidley, A.J. (1995).  The awful, aweful nature of ROLE relationships.  In R.A. Neimeyer & G.J. Neimeyer (Eds.), Advances in personal construct psychology (Vol. III), pp. 291-314.  Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.