Blog Posts

Franz Epting to Receive Presidential Medal of Freedom

4/1/2021

Dr. Franz Epting, University of Florida professor emeritus

Franz Epting has been chosen to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his seminal contributions to the profession of psychology, according to a White House press release.

“We are proud to award this high honor to Dr. Epting,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced prior to President Joe Biden’s recent press conference. “Dr. Epting’s seminal work on personal construct theory makes him the ideal recipient for this award.”

“And it doesn’t hurt that he’s even older than I am,” quipped President Biden, with a chuckle, before adding “C’mon man! Medals are fun!”

Epting seemed unaware of the award when reached by phone at his home in Gainesville, Florida.

“Oh my!” he exclaimed. “But I haven't even finished my biography of George Kelly yet!"

Following a brief pause, he asked "Does the invitation include travel expenses? I’m retired and on a fixed income, you know.” He then accidentally hung up the phone.

When reached again, he quickly handed the phone receiver to his spouse, Mark Paris.

“Franz tells me he would be honored to attend the ceremony,” Mark reported, “as long as I handle purchasing our airfare to DC and personally chaperone the trip. It should work out pretty well. He gets the highest civilian honor a citizen can receive from the President of the United States. I get frequent flyer miles.”

Word of Epting’s award spread quickly throughout the personal construct community.

“It’s wonderful, even if these silly American awards make no sense to me,” remarked longtime personal construct psychologist Jörn Scheer from his home in Germany. “They give him a blue ribbon with a cheap looking medal attached. So what? Besides, the Americans haven’t hosted a personal construct psychology conference since 2014. Franz really ought to do something about that.”

Psychologists David Winter and Harry Procter, reached by email in the UK, congratulated Franz and then promptly invited him to an online Zoom lecture about their new book on personal and relational construct therapy.

“Do you have to be an American to get this award?” asked Procter. “If not, perhaps David and I might be in the running next year?”

“I’m retired. Leave me alone!” shouted Larry Leitner when contacted at his home in Iowa and asked to comment on his friend being given the highest honor a US president can bestow. “Why is the press hounding me now, instead of when I was at the height of my career and it actually mattered? Had the media paid more attention years ago when I was starting up my TV talk show, it might not have been canceled after just two weeks on the air. I haven’t had a single ROLE relationship with a reporter since!”

Leitner paused, then added “Oh, and congratulations Franz. I owe you a gourmet meal at the four star Nobu Los Angeles. Fixed income be damned!”

Social media lit up with enthusiasm about the award, most of it under the hashtag #FreedomAwardFREPTING. But Epting was not interested.

“I prefer sociality to social media,” he joked.

President Biden will present the award at a yet-to-be-announced ceremony later this year.

Presidential Medal of Freedom

Journal of Constructivist Psychology, Volume 34, Issue 1 (2021)

1/7/2021

Special Issue: Constructing Processes of Involuntary Global Migration
Table of Contents

Rue L. Cromwell, 1928-2020

12/12/2020

We are very sad to announce the passing of Rue L. Cromwell on December 9, 2020. Rue was 92 years old.

An InMemori page has been established to allow those who knew and loved Rue to offer messages to his family, share important memories of Rue, and post special photos.

If you would like to contribute to, or peruse the shared memories, click here or copy and paste https://www.inmemori.com/rcromwell-u81hp/ in your browser. Please make sure your name appears at the top of any post you provide. If someone else's name auto-populates, click on it and replace it with your own.

Feel free to share this page to others who knew Rue.

Rue L. Cromwell, 1928-2020

links for remembering Rue:

Journal of Constructivist Psychology (2020), Vol. 33, Issues 3 & 4

9/13/2020

Issues 3 and 4 of the 2020 volume of the Journal of Constructivist Psychology are now available.

Constructivist meet-up series

9/13/2020

To enable communication now that conferences had to be cancelled to due to the Corona events, some colleagues have set up an online Constructivist Meet-up Series.

Harry Procter (UK) writes:

The latest Programme in the Meetup Series can be found in this link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I6peFTlj8VmbtPbA8LediD66Npw74neK/view?usp=sharing

If anyone is interested in joining our Constructivist Meetup Series of presentations coming up, email me and I will put you on the mailing list. We're not making it totally public as we may get overwhelmed

Please email me at harryprocter20@gmail.com with your name and email address with a note about your affiliation and knowledge of personal construct psychology and I will put you on the mailing list to obtain a link before each of the presentations.

Call for associate editor for book reviews

5/24/2020

CALL FOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF BOOK REVIEWS: JOURNAL OF CONSTRUCTIVIST PSYCHOLOGY

The Journal of Constructivist Psychology (JCP) is searching for a new Associate Editor for Book Reviews.

Preference will be given to individuals who meet the following criteria:

a doctorate in psychology or a related area
a record of publication, preferably in areas related to the journal’s scope
good organizational skills
efficient and responsive
ability to communicate effectively with publishers, prospective reviewers, and readers of the journal via email, phone, and social media
ability to learn and utilize the journal’s ScholarOne manuscript submission portal

The responsibilities of the Associate Editor for Book Reviews include selecting books that warrant review in JCP, carefully soliciting and inviting authors to write reviews of the books selected, working with publishers to have complimentary copies of books to be reviewed sent to authors writing reviews, providing timely feedback on the contents and readability of reviews requiring revision, overseeing the submission of reviews via the journal’s ScholarOne submission portal, working with the co-editors to render decisions on reviews, and collaborating as part of the JCP editorial team.

Associate Editors receive a $500 annual stipend and appear on the journal masthead. The period of appointment is 3 years, with opportunities for renewal and extension of the appointment.

To Apply:
Please submit a CV and a brief cover letter describing your interest in serving as JCP Associate Editor for Book Reviews, as well as your relevant editorial experience, to Dr. Jonathan Raskin (co-editor) at jonathan.d.raskin@gmail.com.

Review of applications will begin June 15 and continue until the position is filled.
UPDATE Aug 1, 2020: THE POSITION HAS BEEN FILLED.